Raisin Industry Pride: Fresno’s 1917 Raisin Day Parade
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
May 6, 1917
Dearest readers,
On this day, the Fresno Morning Republican dedicated a full page to an enchanting story of perseverance and pride in the raisin industry—a tale told with spectacle and spirit during the Raisin Day parade held just a week prior.
This grand procession featured a series of five floats, each unfolding a chapter in the forty-year saga of raisin growing in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley:
The first float carried the pioneer family, fresh from their journey eastward, as they stepped into the settled promise of the valley. Ahead of them floated the vision—the dream of fruitful land. The next float brought that vision to life: a modest home nestled among burgeoning raisin grapevines.
But farming was no simple tale: no organization or cooperative marketing existed; growers sold their crops alone, and hardship soon struck. The third float bore the poignant mark of poverty, showing vineyards mortgaged and lost to the sheriff’s hand.
Yet from despair bloomed unity—the fourth float depicted prosperity born from cooperation among businessmen, growers, and laborers, striving for better conditions and shared success.
The final float celebrated the fruits of that union and wealth, carrying none other than the original Sun-Maid Raisin Girl, Miss Lorraine Collett, herself a living symbol of the industry’s flourishing future.
Together, these floats wove a moving testament to resilience, community, and the sweet rewards of labor—a story as rich as the raisins themselves.
