Live from the Frontline
8 Neighborhoods Linked by the Long History of Logistics in the Inland Empire
Citrus State Historic Park
This site in Riverside's Arlington Heights draws attention to the colonial roots of environmental racism in the I.E. The Park occupies the ancestral and current homelands of the Iviatem (Cahuilla), Tóngva (Gabrielino), Payómkawichum (Luiseño), and Maara'yam (Serrano) peoples. Settlers in the 18th and 19th century displaced Indigenous people. Single-crop agriculture transformed the landscape. By looking closely at this area, we can identify impacts of our many centuries of exploiting people and land, or the "slow violence" of the supply chain.
Cahuilla people established settlements in proximity to wage labor in the 1880s as they fought to retain their land against settlers. This Cahuilla village at Spring Rancheria was near Riverside's Fairmont Park and the Santa Ana River.
Eastside Riverside
Most Californians know that our area was renowned as the Citrus Empire. But how do we memorialize its history of labor and community building? All that remains of the once-booming citrus industrial corridor along Pachappa Ave. (Commerce Ave. now) are dilapidated 19th-century warehouses, a loading dock, and abandoned railroad tracks. What lessons can we learn from these predecessors to today’s logistics?
Pachappa Ave (now Commerce) with Southern Pacific and Santa Fe rail lines, packinghouses, and the Santa Fe Station in view, 1968. Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress.
South Colton
1904 Panorama of Colton with Mt. Slover in distance. Courtesy USGS & Frank Acosta.
San Bernardino Sun, November 11, 1915
Fontana
1944 promotional image for Kaiser Steel asserting that blast furnaces and mill operations would integrate into the agricultural landscape.
Mira Loma
Mira Loma was first in the region to convert agricultural land to large-scale logistics, beginning with WWII efforts to supply troops and the newly opened Manzanar concentration camp. Amazon now occupies the site of the 1942 U.S. Army Supply Depot, marking the continued expansion of logistics to the present day.
1960 aerial showing 9 huge U.S. Army Quartermaster Supply Depot warehouses built in 1942. The Depot included a mini-city with its own clinic, barber shop, and rec center. In 1956, the 101-house Mira Loma Village was built next door. Remaining vineyards are adjacent. UCSB Library Air Photos Collection.
Westside San Bernardino
1959 aerial view of Westside San Bernardino after construction of 215 Freeway (Santa Fe Railyard at bottom) Flight AXL_1959, Frame 16W-21 Courtesy of UCSB Library Geospatial Collection
Valley Truck Farms, San Bernardino
George Saville (standing in hat, center image) visiting new home of Vera White (left and right images) on Central Ave, Valley Truck Farms 1934.
Bloomington
The unincorporated community of Bloomington was a haven for many Latino families seeking to escape urban cities for rural and equestrian tranquility. Now hundreds of acres of residential and rural land is transforming into concrete slabs of warehousing.
