![]() In Santa Cruz and Watsonville, the same Chinese who had built many of the railroads in California shifted to agricultural work. Tourism, too, began to grow, since people from San Francisco and the region could more easily enjoy Santa Cruz's beaches.ĭemographics, too, changed. In Santa Cruz, industries that were there grew further: lumber, fishing, tanning, lime production. Railroad cars refrigerated with ice could carry strawberries as far as Chicago and, later, occasionally as far as New York and Washington, DC. Then farmers changed successfully to perishables, such as strawberries. View object recordĪs marketing opportunities were opened up by the rail network, various crops expanded: apple production grew rapidly, since apples could go safely by rail throughout the West and across the country. By the 20th century, refrigerated ice plants produced ice locally in towns in the fruit-growing regions. Packed in straw in a large room at each ice house, the ice lasted well into summer. (The small hatches at the roof corners opened into the ice bunkers.) Ice was cut from lakes in the high Sierra Mountains during winter and carried by rail to "ice houses" (icing stations on rail sidings) located in agricultural towns that shipped perishables. Large model of refrigerator car, with doors open Ice to cool the car's interior was loaded into bunkers at either end. This output was sent for refining to San Francisco - on the Southern Pacific Railroad, which had connected to Watsonville several years before the little Santa Cruz Railroad was born in 1876. The expanding market for sugar led to the building of a big Spreckles Mill in Watsonville, which processed beets into raw sugar. Watsonville growers (in the Pajaro Valley, a dozen miles inland from Santa Cruz) found that sugar beets grew well there. What was grown and what was transported then changed in response. And between 18, Watsonville became part of an agricultural revolution that eventually spread throughout California’s coastal regions and vast central valley.The key for both towns was the rail network, which not only brought more industry and tourists to Santa Cruz, but allowed the agricultural produce of the surrounding area to reach new markets. By 1900, though, tourism was the thing, as more and more vacationers from San Francisco and elsewhere in central California enjoyed the town’s beaches and nearby redwoods. Santa Cruz and Watsonville both prospered - but in ways unexpected by the Santa Cruz Railroad’s managers and investors. In 1976, it came to the Smithsonian as a part of the United States bicentennial exhibition. Jupiter was sold to a company in Guatemala, where it hauled bananas for more than 60 years. Built for narrow-gauge track (36 inches between rails), Jupiter became obsolete in 1883 when the line switched to standard gauge (56 ½ inches). Jupiter was the Santa Cruz Railroad’s third locomotive. ![]() There were, however, many big adjustments along the way. By 1970, rail freight began setting all-time yearly records. Railroads in the 20th century continued to develop. As historian John Hankey has noted, citizens spoke more often of a singular, "this United States" instead of a plural, "these United States." And the old sectionalism of our pre-Civil War politics eroded. Physical mobility became essential for social mobility. The economy began a huge expansion, growing almost ten-fold in the last quarter of the 19th Century. ![]() Personal mobility radically expanded one could travel across the country in a week in the 1870s instead of taking several months just a decade before. The results were soon profound: economically, culturally, and politically. By that time, railroads had already spanned the continent and united the country in an unprecedented transportation network. The timeline of America on the Move begins in 1876, the nation's Centennial. Society has always depended on its systems of transport. ![]() America on the Move - by means of its exhibition in Washington (the largest at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History), its education kits circulated to school districts throughout the U.S., and its extensive website - counters that attitude. Most of us take transportation for granted.
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