CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — Tanya Carr may have been born in Ireland, but she grew up in Chula Vista and has spent much of her life helping others learn about its past as one of Chula Vista's librarians.
“I think once you are immersed in it, there's no way you can't love it," Carr, who is now retired, says. "It's been the grassroots of what we are today."
And one legacy she treasures is the city’s rich lemon history which started in the late 1800s.
For the next 100 years, lemons drove Chula Vista’s economy. Railways allowed the city to ship citrus across the country, and the industry even survived the 1916 San Diego flood.
"It was such a thriving business here that we were known as the lemon capital of the world," Carr says.
South Bay Historical Society Secretary Treasurer, Mitchel Beauchamp, tells me the boom was made possible by water projects like the Sweetwater Dam and the railroads, both of with Beauchamp says, Frank Kimball helped fight to bring to the region.
"If it hadn't been for Frank Kimball, this wouldn't have all happened,” says Beauchamp.
By 1911, growers earned about $2000 per acre, and lemon sales topped $400000 a year. But everything changed during World War II.
"People were being sent off to war, or going to work at Rohr industries," Carr says.
As the workforce shifted, farmland was sold, and Chula Vista transformed from agricultural groves to the urban landscape we know today. The history is still here, some of it at the Chula Vista Library.
It’s a story that just needs to be told. That’s why the Lemon Festival works to bring it back, paying tribute to the city’s zesty past.
There’s food and music like any other festival, but Beauchamp will be at his booth, sharing the deeper history with anyone who wants to listen.
