Photos: Riverside’s citrus legacy

Photo Gallery: Riverside’s Citrus Legacy

Two weeks back, we featured an item on the recent unveiling of a downtown statue honoring Riverside citrus pioneer Eliza L. Tibbets.
In the early 1870s, Eliza secured two small navel orange trees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for test planting in Riverside. Originating as a mutation in Bahia, Brazil, these navel trees took well to Riverside’s semi-arid climate, producing a sweet, succulent and seedless navel orange. California — and in particular, Inland Southern California — would never be the same.
The unveiling of the statue prompted us to dig through our image bank for photos associated with Riverside’s citrus legacy. Of course, it also forced us to go out and take some new photos for items we didn’t already have (and update some we did).
Though certainly not a complete collection of images related to Riverside’s citrus past (nor does it include images from other local citrus-rich communities, namely Redlands, Corona and Upland), we feel the gallery still manages to show the wide-reaching importance the navel orange played in shaping both Riverside’s landscape and its history — a history that was dramatically changed with the arrival of two seemingly inconspicuous navel orange trees in 1873.
Photo Gallery: Riverside’s Citrus Legacy
Related

• RaincrossSquare.com – Downtown statue honors Riverside citrus pioneer (Aug. 12)

Sources: “A Colony For California” (Tom Patterson), “Pursuing Eden – Matthew Gage: His Challenges, Conquests and Calamities” (Joan H. Hall), “A Citrus Legacy” (Joan H. Hall), “Adobes, Bungalows, and Mansions of Riverside, California Revisited” (Esther H. Klotz, Joan H. Hall), City of Riverside, The Press-Enterprise, Riverside Public Library