Special Publications

Wispy pale green featherlike leaves on branches once used to offer peace, now pepper the Tehama County landscape. The olive tree inspired artists, including the impressionists Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne and Van Gogh who were perpetually enamored with the olive tree and its bounties. References to the trees and the olives can also be found in works by Shakespeare, Milton, Byron and Bates. In art and literature, olive branches symbolized peace, longevity, fertility, maturity, wealth, luck, and prosperity. Olives have been cultivated in areas around the Mediterranean Sea for at least 5,000 years. Crete and Syria were the first countries to cultivate Olea europaea — the olive tree. The United States produces less than 1-percent of the world's olives. California is the only important olive growing state in the United States, producing 95% of the country's olive harvest. Tehama County is one of only five counties with a significant olive acreage, and most of Tehama County's olive orchards are around Corning. Olives were first planted in California in the mid-18th century by Franciscan monks. They became the most popular tree in Corning about 150 years later, thanks in part to an aggressive marketing campaign to sell real estate. The campaign 4 TEHAMA - THE MAGAZINE, October 2019 was so successful that Warren Woodson once called Corning the city of advertising. He was the man that came up with the slogan, "Corning, the Olive City" in 1923. In the late 1800s, Woodson, Charles Foster, and C.E. Moore purchased 3,107 acres surrounding Corning from George Haog, one of the original pioneers in the area. The partners subdivided the property, which they named Maywood Colony, and sold lots up to forty acres at $50 an acre, with terms up to 3 years. They contracted with the buyers to plant the lots with fruit and nut trees for $35 an acre, which covered the cost to plant and care for 90 trees for the first year. Advertisements promoting Corning and the Maywood Colony attracted hundreds of people to the area with the promise of "fruit land as good as anywhere in California." More than a million fruit trees were planted, but it was the olives that thrived. Olive trees do not require as much care as most trees. They are drought, disease and fire resistant, and grow well in poor, rocky soil. For this reason, olives quickly became the tree of choice for the Maywood Colony. The Maywood Colony grew to become one of the largest real estate speculations of its time, with over 40,000 acres of subdivisions. The town of Corning was only 161 acres at the time. The Colony included a cooperative olive cannery and packing house, which eventually employed hundreds of men and women. It also featured a large public park shaded by olive trees, which is now designated as Woodson Park. How Corning became 'Olive City' by Mandy Feder-Sawyer Wispy pale green featherlike leaves on branches once used to offer peace, now pepper the Tehama County landscape. The olive tree inspired artists, including the impressionists Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne and Van Gogh who were perpetually enamored with the olive tree and its bounties. References to the trees and the olives can also be found in works by Shakespeare, Milton, Byron and Bates. In art and literature, olive branches symbolized peace, longevity, fertility, maturity, wealth, luck, and prosperity. Olives have been cultivated in areas around the Mediterranean Sea for at least 5,000 years. Crete and Syria were the first countries to cultivate Olea europaea — the olive tree. The United States produces less than 1-percent of the world's olives. California is the only important olive growing state in the United States, producing 95% of the country's olive harvest. Tehama County is one of only five counties with a significant olive acreage, and most of Tehama County's olive orchards are around Corning. Olives were first planted in California in the mid-18th century by Franciscan monks. They became the most popular tree in Corning about 150 years later, thanks in part to an aggressive marketing campaign to sell real estate. The campaign 4 TEHAMA - THE MAGAZINE, October 2019 was so successful that Warren Woodson once called Corning the city of advertising. He was the man that came up with the slogan, "Corning, the Olive City" in 1923. In the late 1800s, Woodson, Charles Foster, and C.E. Moore purchased 3,107 acres surrounding Corning from George Haog, one of the original pioneers in the area. The partners subdivided the property, which they named Maywood Colony, and sold lots up to forty acres at $50 an acre, with terms up to 3 years. They contracted with the buyers to plant the lots with fruit and nut trees for $35 an acre, which covered the cost to plant and care for 90 trees for the first year. Advertisements promoting Corning and the Maywood Colony attracted hundreds of people to the area with the promise of "fruit land as good as anywhere in California." More than a million fruit trees were planted, but it was the olives that thrived. Olive trees do not require as much care as most trees. They are drought, disease and fire resistant, and grow well in poor, rocky soil. For this reason, olives quickly became the tree of choice for the Maywood Colony. The Maywood Colony grew to become one of the largest real estate speculations of its time, with over 40,000 acres of subdivisions. The town of Corning was only 161 acres at the time. The Colony included a cooperative olive cannery and packing house, which eventually employed hundreds of men and women. It also featured a large public park shaded by olive trees, which is now designated as Woodson Park. How Corning became 'Olive City' by Mandy Feder-Sawyer

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