Talk:Kaweah Colony

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"It began the local tradition of naming notable trees..."[edit]

This appears to be incorrect. The colony didn't get its start until 1886, but the General Grant tree was named in 1867[1], and the General Sherman tree itself was named (for Sherman) in 1879[2], 6 years before the colonists arrived. --Dcfleck 15:52, 25 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Extensively discussed in "Factories in the Field"[edit]

In Carey McWilliams' book Factories in the Field (Peregrine Publishers, Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City, 1971 [1935], pp. 39-47), there is a section on the topic in the chapter "Empires and Utopias," which covers the topic much more thoroughly than found here. It doesn't describe the end of the experiment as simply a result of the establishment of the Sequoia park but portrayed the park as means of powerful land interests in California to destroy this experiment: "the Kaweah experiment was consistently opposed and, finally, stabbed in the back by the State. Today the holdings of the Miller and Lux empire [which it was juxtaposed in opposition to] constitute the basis for most of the large ranches, or farm factories, in the San Joaquin Valley, while the Kaweah is only a name, the name of an experiment that remains unchronicled and forgotten" (Ibid., p. 39). The Los Angeles Times, itself owned by one of the great California land speculators, and the Fresno Bee presented the experiment following its demise as proof "of the follies of socialism." (Ibid., p.47)

"The first hostile act against Kaweah dates, in fact, from the time when it began to be rumored that the colony intended to build a railroad from the settlement to Visalia. ... In the last days of the 1890 session of Congress, a bill was introduced and hurriedly passed creating the Sequoia National Park out of the lands embraced within the filings of the original Kaweah colonists. The act was based on the assumption that there had been some technical deficiencies in the filings. In response to the outcry of the colonists, United States Commissioner Lewis A Groff was sent West to investigate. His report vindicated the colonists in every respect....

"... I have pointed out the manner in which outrageous thefts of the public domain were quickly sanctioned by the courts and the Government, the 'vested rights' of the occupants seldom being disturbed. But despite the Government's vindication of the Kaweah settlers, the act of Congress stood, and the settlers were evicted.... Nor only did the heavy irony of the whole affair cease at this point. On the contrary, the leaders of the colony were tried in the courts and convicted of cutting timber on Government property, later they were arrested and charged with using the mails to defraud. When they came on for trail, on the latter charges, in Los Angeles, on May 6, 1892, United States District Judge Erkine Ross ordered their acquittal.... For many years afterward, the colonists petitioned Congress again and again for redress, asking for an appropriation to cover the cost of the improvements which they had built and which had been taken over by the Government....After investigating this high-handed action, the anonymous correspondent for All-the-Year-Round wrote that 'the truth seems to be that as a presumed "Socialist" experiment the the colony was not in good odour with the powers that be, while it was decidedly obnoxious to the private adventure lumbering or timber-felling companies which were its neighbors and competitors.' In like manner, William Carey Jones wrote, '... When it is notorious that thousands of acres of the most valuable timber and agricultural land in California has been illegally absorbed by individual corporations and by corporations with almost the connivance of the government, it seems unpardonably harsh and cruel that these men, most of whom are indubitably honest, who have given their energy and life to this undertaking, should be made the victims of even the government's repentance.'" (Ibid., 44-46). Singing Coyote (talk) 23:37, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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