Talk:Mecca, California

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Someone left the following on my user page:

It looks like you have done some contributing to the page on Mecca, Ca. An interesting fact I haven't seen mentioned(and can't find reference material about) is that Mecca, Ca. was the site of the first Date orchard planted in the U.S. The roughly 40 acres at the southeast corner of Johnson St. and National Ave. is the location. There are still some of the very first trees planted in this country there producing fruit. The groves have been through cycles of cultivation and neglect. There was a good variety of trees planted. I don't know the full story but in the early 1970's I lived on the ranch for a time and worked for the owner. He hired a hand with date production experience and nursed the abandoned groves back into production. The story was that in the early 1900's the person who established the ranch had brought the young date trees from the middle east and it was the first know cultivation of dates in the country. An interesting side story I heard many times was that the gnat that was/is such a pest in the Coachella Valley was actually imported by the burgeoning date industry as it was thought by some that the insect was an important part of the date fertilization cycle. In the summer time the gnats are a constant pest causing people outdoors to constantly wave their hand in front of their faces. The popular term for this activity is the "Mecca Salute". The owner's grandmother owned the mostly abandoned "resort" type structure on the southern portion of the ranch. It is still visable in aerial images. He told an anecdote about her first visit to the area many years ago. Apparently she remarked "what a friendly town this must be, everyone is waving" not aware that they were just trying to shoo the pesky insects away from their faces. I am not familiar with how Wikipedia works at the point and don't know if any of this information is useable/submittable. It would be a shame to have it disappear. I'm sure there must be someone in the area that could add to or verify this data. Don't know if at this point I can be of much more help. M. Deacon Hemet, Ca., Christmas 2006

pulled from user page User:David Jordan 3/31/2007

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