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February 1, 1951     Indian Valley Record
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February 1, 1951
 
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California Arabian Knights Roam at Date Fiesta By JACK FLEMING If a handful of desert dare- devils had lost their vision and courage more than 30 • years ago, the Riverside Coun- ty Fair would not be the colorful Bagdad it is today. Now, because of that perse- verance and a few miraculous breaks that are horn of neces- sity, the seven-day celebration borrows a page from the Arabian Nights for its theme. It's not just a fair, either, for, American like, the celebration also pays tribute to those brave men who brought, through sweat and toil, an industry all of its own to tile desert. Dates! Yes. dates, that were associated with Arabia and for- elgn. lands not too many years ago, are grown on California's Coachella Valley desert, and they are considered as good, if not better, than any date grown anywhere else in the world. Date Festival So the celebration is now Called the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival, and 'because of the Arabian Night theme which was also born from the date industry, it is consid- ered one of the most colorful ents in the state. When the California Arabs Swarm into Indio, Feb. 16, for the celebration, they will be treated to what the show pro- aoters call the "biggest festival of all.7 Like the date industry itself, rision was required to plan the festival. The setting is pic- turesque with sky-scaling mina- rets and Moorish domes. Date Palms dot the landscape--you JUst can'tescape them in Indio. Expansion on the Riverside (ounty fairgrounds at Indio be- gan after Vv'orld War II and nearly $400,000 was spent on im- Provements to make the site Arabic and unique. Dominant Feature The Arabian Night theme will be the dominant feature of the 1951 festival, but the fair itself Will include, as all fairs, a live- stock exhibition--but with Brah- •aan cattle on display. It goes almost without saying that the Coachella Valley and Riverside County folk will don BRAHMA BULL WILL FEATURE DATE FESTIVAL PARADE-- Pretty riders, like this miss, will probably adorn beasts. Arabian costumes during the seven days the festival is under- way. And most likely the celeb- rities from fabulous P a 1 m Springs, nearby, will be in at- tendance, too, decked out in duds that would even make an an- cient sultan turn green with envy. There will be hundreds of fas- cinating exhibits of California dates, desert citrus and etcher agricultural crops--but the dates will no doubt dominate the dis- plays. Date Indnst,T It can easily be said the date At first, the date men grew cash crops, like winter onions, carrots and sweet potatoes, as well as cotton, to keep them go- ing. They would start with date- palm shoots which were so small they would be completely hidden in the other crops. These original shcfots, as they grew into a palm, would bear six to 10 other offspring shoots, the only way to increase the variety. Finally, in the fourth year after planting, the shooLs would be- gin to bear about 500 pounds of dates to the acre. And it took nine years, for 49 palms, say, to industry made Coachella Valley. increase to 7500 pounds per acre. famous as a desert agricultural testing ground that turned into a successful and lucrative enter- prise. But it wasn't easy. The grow- ers had to lick the desert first. They had to sweat out the right combination, and it took sturdy, American pioneers, with guts and stamina, to do it. They per- sisted, and they won. A long haul, dates. Source Cut Off At the first, too, there was a big battle for palms--the origi- nal sources in North Africa and Iraq had cut off supplies because of the obvious threats of com- petition. That didn't stop the growers, though. One of them, Lee An- derson, who was financially PRETTY JANET JACKSON IS A FORMER QUEEN SCHEHERAZADI--She and other festival riders will mount the camel, traditional desert beast. ARABIAN STAGE--The exotlc Arabian Nights pageant, a nightly feature of the seven- day Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival, will be held on this $25,000 outdoor Arabian stage at the fairgrounds at Indio. The pageant will be free to fair- ground visitors. short and brave enough to take a chance, accidently came up with the solution. Because the sources had been cut off, greenhouses were being used, at a tremendous cost to the grower, to keep the crop going. The method was to remove the shoots from the older palms and root them under glass in nurs- eries. About one-fifth of the shoots survived and grew into bearing palms. In his desperation, though, Anderson gambled on the desert. He planted his shoots in the open ground. At first, he thought he had failed as the fronds from the 66 seedlings turned gray and looked dead. By June, the shoots had shriveled. His curiosity persisted, how- ever, and he dug up one of the shoots to see if it was dead. Much to his surprise, it was any- thing but dead, and so Anderson poured water on the ground. Eventually, all 66 of the shoots sprouted out new fronds and be- gan to grow. Revolutionized System This accidental discovery, of course, revolutionized the entire system, and, as the greenhouses were shut down, all of the grow- er followed Anderson's suit and turned to the desert to save their crops, The battle against moisture and birds came next. It was an almost impossible situation, be- cause burlap, the obvious an- swer, spoiled the taste of the dates and couldn't be used. Then came the answer, cred- ited again to Anderson, with the use of parafined-paper bags. An- derson had seen them used by the Army in World War I and, though scoffed at by the rest of the growers at first, they proved just the thing to fight off the enemies. Dates took a lot of water, the Coachella growers found. At first, they pumped water that had seeped into the valley from Mt. San Jacinto, but the level kept dropping and dropping without any replenishment---and more and more growers came onto the desert to pump the water. Water Supply Through the Bureau of Recla- mation, the desert growers-- Coachella Land and Water Dis- trict--finally got the All.Ameri- can Canal which brings water to irrigate 133,000 acres of desert from the Parker Dam on the lower Colorado River. These are some of the high- lights of the date men's struggle• Today, their industry is stable and it is growing and their years of struggle have paid off. No wonder the February festi- val is in reality a tribute to these farsighted men who had the courage to whip the desert--to make the desert a useful place to live and exist. This salute to the courageous desert dare- devils is really quite a show. Camel Races Along with a six-day afternoon horse show, the festival features sensational camel races, the Ara- bian Nights pageant, a "slave market" and Bagdad bazaar, a carnival gayway and circus acts. The pageant itself, a free eve- ning show, is given on a $25,000 Arabian stage. In the beginning, the festival takes on a customary tradition, a beauty contest. This year, 11 Riverside County high school girls are competing for the honor of being--as you might guess Queen Scheherazade, an Arabian Nights heroine. There will be an Arabian pa- rade, too. But it is to fall on " the last day of the celebration, Feb. 22. Everything Arabian, from Aladdin and his magic lamp to the wandering nomad with camel, will be seen in the procession, a suitable climax for the California Arabs. A lot of fun will be had at the festival, but it is well to remem- ber the brave pioneers whose far- sighted vision made the River- side County rendition of the kra- bian Nights a reality. READ THE CLASSIFIED ADS IN "The Market Place" on 7 Page Issue You may find a bargain there, or you may be reminded of something you have to sell. Put The Market Place te work fnr you. Try a classified ad ha M.QA- ZINE CALIIrOIt N|A. "