Chemists to Cowboys: Labour Identity in Corporate Agriculture in the San Emigdio Hills, California

Summary

In California at the turn of the 20th Century, large companies formed through lands speculation as a result of the land grant system and the dissolution of mission properties. The Kern County Land Company, based in Kern County California, had over 1.1 million acres across the American West, utilizing a varied labour force with the primary agriculture product of cattle. The varied properties were interlinked and employed a plethora of workers from chemists to cowboys. This paper aims to understand how the labourers created their identity within the corporate structure and how it was rooted in the landscape they worked at one particular Kern County Land Company ranch, Rancho San Emigdio (93,000 acres today). Although this paper focuses on the Kern County Land Company period circa 1890 to 1967, the Ranch was continually worked by corporations until 1995 when it was made into a nature preserve by the Wildlands Conservancy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Work, Workers, and Workplaces in the Anthropocene: Insights on the Modern World from Industrial, Historical, and Contemporary Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 835