Fresno writer Mark Arax authored this op/ed piece on the legacy of J.G. Boswell, who turned his Kings County farming operation into the nation's largest cotton producer. Boswell died 13 days ago.
Arax and co-author Rick Wartzman wrote "The King of California," a book about the Boswell empire. Arax's latest book, "West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State," has just been published.
Here is part of Arax's op/ed piece on Boswell:
He died April 3 at the age of 86, still clutching the notion that he could take a $10 million cotton subsidy check from Uncle Sam and remain a rugged individualist, that he could amass a 200,000-acre farm in the middle of California and "own" 15% of the Kings River, and still righteously bristle at the suggestion that he had built an "empire."
"What are you, a tax collector? I abhor the word 'empire.' It's a word for nations, for civilizations."Boswell had built the most industrialized cotton operation in the world and grew more irrigated wheat, safflower and seed alfalfa than any single farmer in the country. Now he was aiming to do the same with onions and tomatoes. Though he would deny it, he dictated California water politics in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
I was drawn to his story because he had created the quintessential "factory in the field," from laser-leveled earth to gleaming gins to labs that minted new varieties of seeds -- all of it rising out of the bottom of what was once the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi.
"For two years, he wanted no part of our book. Then during one phone conversation, I let it slip that the old-timers of Corcoran were portraying his father as the town drunk. "My dad had a problem, that's true, but you'd be wrong to reduce him to some stumbling drunk.""
I guess that Mr. Arax has acquired enough knowledge about the culture of alcohol early enough to adroitly exploit such a hook. The notion that Mr. Boswell finally spoke to Mr. Arax out of a sense of history, or that the book itself should be viewed as a "serious" historical opus on the life of Mr. Boswll is the sort of overstatement only serious journalism provides.
We are proud of Mark Arax.
Another shining example of what Fresno offers to our literate segment of society.
Mr. Arax is a top notch writer, and The King of California will remain as a valuable historical reference for many years to come. We owe him a debt of gratitude.
If a person really wants to get an historical sense of the water/agricultural problems the San Joaquin Valley and the rest of California now faces, I recommend the following three books:
1) Mark Arax's book "The King of California",
2) William Brewer's Up and Down California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H. Brewer, Fourth Edition, with Maps by William H. Brewer and William Bright, and
3) Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water".
No number of marches or pleas to Sacramento or Washington politicians is going to change to reality that there is not enough water in California to support business as usual. Growing low-value crops such as cotton in a desert is not wise use of water.
" all of it rising out of the bottom of what was once the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi." I am too curious to stay silent. Can anyone just empty a natural lake and start growing things?