January 1995 Blazer

Dixie fruit finds a market

THE HISTORY BLAZER I SEI\' SOF L~ TAHSPASTFROJTI~ H E I Utah State Historical Societ!. 300 Rio Grade Salt Lake City. I'T 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533-, 3503 C Dixie Fruit Finds a Market SOUTHEURTNA H'SE ARLY SETTLERS FACED a variety of challenges. In addition to the harsh desert climate, poor roads made it difficult for farmers to reach northern markets with their cash crops. In one small town Frank Barber, an enterprising fruit grower, confidently tackled this impediment. Although his aspirations were not realized to their fullest, he succeeded in creating a statewide reputation for Dixie fruit. Barber moved to Hurricane, Utah, in 1907, shortly after the town's founding, and was soon chosen as vice- president of the Commercial Club. He immediately became interested in attracting a railroad to Hurricane in order to reach northern fruit markets. To accomplish this he first had to create a demand for Dixie fruit. At a meeting of the Commercial Club in 1912 Barber announced his intention to ship 1,000 cases of peaches to Salt Lake City. The biggest obstacle to the venture was the sixty- mile wagon trip to the nearest railroad at Lund, Utah. Some were skeptical that the fruit would arrive at market in good enough condition to sell, but Barber was ready to try. His first shipment consisted of twenty- three cases of peaches and seven cases of apples. He wrapped each fruit individually and placed it in a crate. He then arranged the precious cargo in a dead- x wagon filled with straw about eighteen inches deep. Barber recalied his feelings when he finally made it to the Salt Lake marketplace: ' It would just fill your heart with joy when I took the lids off from those boxes; those great big red peaches just shone there and they started to grab them and grab them and grab them." " My peaches arrived in better condition than most of the California fruit shipped . . . in refrigerator cars," Barber added. News of the Hurricane fruit even made the Salt Lake City papers. The Tribune and Deserel News both noted that the entire shipment was sold before noon at $ 2.00 and $ 2.50 per box ($ 1 to $ 1.25 higher than boxes from California). The newspapers interviewed Barber who used this opportunity to campaign for the extension of steel rails to Hurricane. He stated, ' All we want in the Dixie country is a railroad to eliminate the sixty- mile haul by wagon. . . . Give us an even break with the fruit growers of California and we will run them out of the Salt Lake market in one season. " Steel rails never did stretch to Hurricane, and Dixie fruit failed to run its California competition out of Utah. Nonetheless, Barber did create a significant reputation for Dixie fruit and by the 1915 coming of the ' auto truck" was able to ship larger quantities throughout the state more effectively. In 1918 the Commercial Club, in cooperation with other southern Utah clubs and produce companies, signed an agreement with William Rust who ran a wholesale fruit house in Cedar City. That year Rust reported handled nearly 80 tons of Dixie fruit. THEH ISTORYB MER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a gmt from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone].