The Coachella Valley is sometimes called the Date Capital of the United States, for good reason: More than 90 percent of the United States’ commercial date-farming acreage is in California, and of that, 95 percent is in the Coachella Valley.
The date palm has been cultivated by man for thousands of years. Domesticated date palms probably originated in West Asia during the fourth millennium BCE, and later expanded throughout North Africa.
The date palm thrives in regions with high heat, low humidity and a constant supply of groundwater, which is why it is primarily found in desert areas.
Dates are prominent in the Coachella Valley, where visitors are often introduced to their first date shake. The fruit is often displayed in local stores and shops, at farmers’ markets, and at local events like Palm Springs VillageFest. The date is the “featured guest” at the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival, and numerous streets in Indio are named for varietals of the date.
Walter Tennyson Swingle
Date palms were initially introduced to the Coachella Valley by Walter Tennyson Swingle (1871-1952), a prominent American agricultural botanist and plant explorer who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA decided in the 1890s to send explorers around the world to find crops that could be introduced to the United States, especially hoping to acquire crops for the California and Arizona deserts. Swingle thus brought Egyptian cotton to Arizona, and Acala cotton to California.
However, his most significant contribution was the date palm, which he found in Algeria in 1900. He brought back 405 samples of Deglet Noor and other date palms. He and a couple of other USDA explorers, Silas Mason and Paul Popenoe, also brought offshoots of different varieties from elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, including Oman and Morocco, for experimentation.
Swingle was optimistic about the date palm’s chances in California. He wrote: “No heat is too great and no air too dry for this remarkable plant, which is actually favored by a rainless climate and by hot desert winds. The date palm can withstand great alkali quantities in the soil—more than any other useful plant. … It is probably the only profitable crop that can succeed permanently.”
Swingle also traveled to Asia, bringing back 100,000 Chinese volumes on botany to the Library of Congress. Much of his research is published in the five-volume book The Citrus Industry, to which he was a major contributor.
Bernard G. Johnson
While Swingle brought the date palm to California, it was Bernard G. Johnson who inaugurated the Coachella Valley’s commercial date industry.
Johnson was from Germany and arrived in Indio via a Southern Pacific boxcar in 1901. In the valley, he began working on well-drilling rigs, learning as much about the valley’s water potential as possible. He had developed theories about growing dates outside of North Africa and the Middle East and wanted to test and implement them.
He made a desert claim about three miles southwest of Mecca, and then donated 10 acres to help establish the USDA experimental station, where he helped Walter Swingle tend the government offshoots.
He also worked his way to North Africa, where he studied the growth of date palms in the desert climate. In Algeria, he negotiated for 129 young Deglet Noor palms and, in 1903, planted them on his land near Mecca. Johnson lived alone in a shack next to his infant orchard and kept accurate records for each palm. He cultivated six varieties from offshoots.
After the Salton Sea flooded in 1905, Johnson was forced to relocate the experimental garden to an area west of Indio.
Johnson’s success in cultivating these date palms demonstrated the potential of the Coachella Valley as a date-growing region, earning him the title of “father” of California’s date industry. His shoots became the basis for date gardens throughout the Southwest and led to the first commercial date garden in the Coachella Valley.
His success brought thousands of people intrigued by the date-growing industry to the desert areas around Mecca and Indio.
‘Feet in Water, Head in Fire’
Date palms are said to thrive with their “feet in water (and) head in fire,” because they need plenty of ground water to drink, but also high heat and arid weather to produce fruit.
Date palms are dioecious, with male and female trees. Females bear the fruit, while males produce pollen. Commercial date gardens typically have one male tree and 50 female trees planted per acre. Natural pollination by the wind is not efficient nor effective, so hand pollination is necessary.
Dates ripen in six to seven months and are harvested from September through December. Date harvesters, or palmeros, climb up ladders or are raised by mechanical lifts to either hand-pick the fruit or cut the ripened clusters.
The Deglet Noor cultivar would become known as the “queen of dates” because of its ease of growth and dry texture, which facilitates pitting for baking; they’re also easy to carry in backpacks and pockets. Later, Swingle brought back what would become known as the “king of dates”: 11 offshoots of the Medjool, a soft, jammy Moroccan variety.
Much of California’s date history has been recorded by the family that owned the Oasis Date Gardens in Thermal. This research shaped the Coachella Valley Date Museum, which is part of the Coachella Valley History Museum in Indio. The museum includes informative displays about the history and cultivation of the date.
Today, the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas are home to several date farms, including:
• Shields Date Garden in Indio, founded in 1924 by Floyd and Bess Shields. They breed a number of hybrids and varieties including the “Blonde” and “Brunette” varieties, grown exclusively at Shields to this day. Shields also offers tours of its 17-acre date grove and garden, and a short informational film called Romance and Sex Life of the Date.
• Hadley Fruit Orchards in Cabazon was founded by Paul and Peggy Hadley in 1931. For decades, the familiar yellow and green clapboard building was a notable roadside attraction alongside Interstate 10. Today, a newer Hadley’s is behind the old location.
• Sam Cobb Farms in Desert Hot Springs was established in 2002. It grows and sells fresh Medjool dates and its own Black Gold variety. Guided tours are available.
• Golden Dates Farm in Calipatria specializes in Medjool and Barhi dates.
Sources for this article include The Date Palm and Its Utilization in the Southwestern States by Walter Tennyson Swingle (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1904); Desert Lore of Southern California by Choral Pepper (Sunbelt Publications, 1999); California: Romantic and Beautiful by George Wharton James (Page Company, 1914); Guideposts to History, San Bernardino Valley Edition (Santa Fe Savings and Loan, 1977); “Walter Tennyson Swingle: Botanist and Exponent of Chinese Civilization” by Asa Gray; and A Brief History of the Origin of Domesticated Date Palms by Muriel Gros-Balthazard and Jonathan M. Flowers.
Your segment on Dates is fascinating, who would have ever released the beginning of this nutritious fruit would be apart of this dessert valley. And now generations later the rightful owners the ( Johnny Keck Family) a Date Family for many years and still.
Thanks, very informative!