This led to the brothers meeting up in California to work as fruit peddlers. “They started going to farmers markets, mostly in the Imperial Valley, then took the two-day drive up to Los Angeles to sell the fruit,” said Alex. After doing that for upwards of a year, the brothers started to farm themselves. “Earl was receiving some money for serving in the war, and they used those funds to buy their first ranch, northwest of Holtville, marking the official start to Jack Bros.,” Alex said. During the period when the Jacks arrived and years following, the Imperial Valley was undergoing a profound transformation. Irrigation systems carrying Colorado River water across the basin allowed productive farmland to replace what had long been barren desert. With the Valley over 200 miles away from major cities, railways had given farmers like Jack Bros. a lifeline to sell to distant markets. Without this service, produce shippers would be forced to make the grueling trip by wagon, or be cut off from the market altogether. Because crops grown in the desert heat were highly perishable, farmers depended on iced refrigerator railcars to transport produce to distant markets. That meant the railcar needed to be packed with large bunkers of ice to keep produce shipments cool, as it could take a day or two to arrive. Railroads charged shippers fees for icing, re-icing (if needed) and the labor to load the ice, among other fees. With limited alternatives—and railroads holding significant leverage over the everyday farmer—they were stuck with no choice but to pay the exorbitant fees. Individually, they appealed to the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), an agency created in 1887 to regulate railroad carriers and the rates they charged, but saw little success. “Earl, Alvin and other Western shippers decided it would be far more beneficial to team up together, to unify under one voice to fight back against these unfair regulations,” said Alex. On March 9, 1926, shippers across Southern California and Arizona rallied in the Imperial Valley to form the Western Growers Protective Association (WGPA), a fortified effort to fight for fair transportation rates for the agricultural industry. Through this collective clout,
37 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com April – June 2026
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