Jack London State Historic Park sees return of fruit orchard once tended by state patients

At 8:30 a.m. Saturday, about 15 people huddled cheerily around coffee and doughnuts in a parking lot of the Sonoma Developmental Center just south of Glen Ellen.

Members of the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley were gathering to caravan into nearby Jack London State Historic Park to cap off a yearlong volunteer project to help restore the park’s historic fruit orchard.

“It’s a reward getting to spend time up here, and then you start to see the impacts,” said Charles Goodwin of the local chapter.

On this particular morning, volunteers were planting peach trees, reintroducing the once-prevalent fruit to Sonoma Mountain.

In the early 1900s, apple, plum, cherry, apricot and peach trees were planted on the grounds of the Sonoma Developmental Center — then called Sonoma State Hospital — which was designed to be a self-sufficient facility.

Patients primarily tended the orchard until the 1950s, when the burgeoning patient rights’ movement raised ethical issues around free labor to the forefront. By the 1980s, the trees had been abandoned.

Two decades later, the adjacent Jack London State Historic Park, now managed by the nonprofit Jack London Park Partners, acquired 600 acres of the SDC land, including the 110-acre orchard, which was determined to be a historic cultural site.

Along with California State Parks, Jack London Park Partners has worked to stabilize the still-living fruit trees and replant new ones using historic tree cuttings.

In 2017, the organization planted the orchard’s first tree in over 50 years, a seedling grown from the site’s last surviving quince tree. To date, they’ve planted about 55 trees with plans to plant an equal number in the next couple of years.

“We're replanting on that historic grid with the historic trees so that future generations can also experience what that pre-World War II orchard looked like,” said Eric Metz, deputy director of operations for Jack London State Historic Park.

Last spring, the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley, along volunteers from other nearby rotary clubs, stepped into get their hands dirty, dedicating more than 800 hours to weeding and removing thick brush, debris and felled trees from 35 acres.

"We were looking for a major project that would have an impact on our community,” said Garry Hare, chair of the Rotary Club’s environmental committee, which formed about a year into the pandemic lockdown.

It was the committee’s first big initiative and a rare long-term project for the club. The undertaking checked a lot of boxes.

Clearing out the area supports fire suppression, and the fruit groves serve as a great water capture site.

On the neighborly side of things, the club is able to help out the park, a cherished community resource whose small staff could use the support.

Moreover, the trees provide produce to a nonprofit, Farm to Pantry, which sources locally grown food for people experiencing food insecurity in Sonoma County.

In 2021, 2,500 pounds of fruit was harvested for the organization. Last year, the yield was 3,600 pounds, thanks to extra harvesting help from the Rotary Club.

“It's invaluable for sure,” Metz said.

The peach planting, funded by the club with help from a matching environmental grant from their Rotary district, was the culmination of hard work — weed whacking by hand to protect the delicate trees, weathering winter storms and even a snow day.

Smaller than the nearby apple or pear groves, the 18 peach trees put in the ground Saturday are a nod to the importance the fruit played here historically.

At one point, more than 40,000 gallons of fruit, much of it peaches, was being canned yearly from the orchard.

Metz researched to find period appropriate species and worked with Noah Stewart, State Parks’ historian for the Bay Area district, to source them. They went with Elberta, a widespread variety at the time the orchard was established, and Muir, the most common canning peach in California then.

“There’s not a lot of historic orchards being actively managed,” Stewart said. “The transformation has been pretty amazing,” he added, noting much of the now-cleared groves had been completely hidden by overgrowth.

The small but dedicated team was rewarded Saturday with clear blue skies and bright sun, and the morning’s 40-degree chill soon wore off. Volunteers laughed and chatted as they dug holes and planted the saplings, encircling them with protective metal wire fencing.

Within a couple hours, the task was done.

Lori Rukes joined the Rotary club in 2020 as a way to find community after moving to Sonoma full-time from San Francisco. Now a member of the environmental committee, she said working the land and picking the fruit has been a great experience and learning process.

“To see a tiny sprig of an ancient tree still bear fruit however many years later is remarkable,” she said.

“In Your Corner” is a column that puts watchdog reporting to work for the community. If you have a concern, a tip, or a hunch, you can reach “In Your Corner” Columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @InYourCornerTPD and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.