- Author: Erich Warkentine
The Manzanar Guayule project is well underway.
Guayule is a type of USA native rubber plant which was grown at Manzanar during the war years. UC Master Gardener volunteers for this project have been assisting in the reconstruction and maintenance of a guayule patch situated in front of the Manzanar Visitors' Center. In addition, they are researching cultivation requirements and developing expertise in the care of guayule.
On September 3 Manzanar Park Superintendent Bernadette Johnson and Arborist Dave Goto invited Master Gardener Guayule Project group members to meet a visiting French guayule expert, Professor Serge Palu. The group from Master Gardeners included Joanne Parsons, Harold MacDonald and Erich Warkentine. Dr. Colleen McMahan also joined us bringing some additional guayule specimens from her USDA lab in Albany, California for planting in the garden. The group discussed some of the details of guayule cultivation and listened to a history of rubber plant cultivation (guayule and other plant types) by the late Mark Finlay, presented by his colleague, Professor Palu.
While interest in guayule has been persistent over the last century, many factors have hampered its development – including lack of patent protection, political factors, and growing area regional instabilities. Thomas Edison even experimented with the cultivation of guayule in Fort Myers during the late 1920's. Major D.D. Eisenhower signed orders to survey guayule in the 1930's. The connection of guayule to Manzanar is the establishment of a rubber research effort during World War II. After the park was established, one of the researchers, Akira Frank Kageyama, donated some plant specimens taken from the internment camp, which Manzanar staff used to establish a guayule demonstration garden in front of the administration building.
This demonstration garden is a reminder that interest in biological sources of rubber has been around a long time, and that scientists who were interned at Manzanar had an interest in contributing to the war effort.
Guayule still has a lot of potential. There are currently more varieties of guayule than ever before — greater than 50 —and there is more interest in producing rubber from non-petrochemical sources. Research is continuing (at USDA), including new ways of bioengineering the plants.
The guayule in the Manzanar patch is your grandfather's rubber plant. Expect to see more commercial cultivation in the coming years.
We hope to see you at the Guayule patch!
- Author: Edith Warkenine
On Saturday, April 27, 2019, fifteen Inyo-Mono County Master Gardeners served as volunteers for the 50th annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. Each year since 1969, the Manzanar Committee has sponsored the Pilgrimage. It is estimated that more than 2,000 people attended this year to honor and remember Japanese who were incarcerated in this remote spot during World War II, and to learn from what happened at Manzanar so that we may apply those lessons to the present day.
Many of those held at the camp worked hard to create a little beauty in their surroundings by creating gardens and tending the orchards. These are now in the process of being restored. Inyo and Mono county UC Master Gardener volunteers assisted the National Park Service, which hosts the annual event, by greeting visitors at specific gardens and sharing stories and information about the gardens. Master Gardeners were stationed at Arai Pond, a representative barracks garden, Merritt Park—the largest community garden—and the mess hall gardens at Blocks 9, 15 and 22. Volunteers spent a considerable amount of time before the Pilgrimage studying the Manzanar gardens and orchards and the Manzanar Garden Management Plan.
This event was the first stage of the Master Gardener's Manzanar Project. Over the summer, Master Gardeners will be working with NPS staff to begin docent tours of the gardens and orchards, to conduct research on other barrack gardens, and on the Manzanar guayule project. (Guayule was grown at Manzanar during the war as a potential source of natural rubber.)
- Author: Edith Warkentine
The Inyo-Mono County Master Gardener Executive Board is excited to announce a new project, which will hopefully become an annual part of Member activities. We are going to partner with the Manzanar Historic Site to work on specific areas identified by Manzanar, leading to educational material, and ultimately a roster of Master Gardener docents on Manzanar's schedule, leading orchard and garden tours.
Manzanar was once the site of a town in Inyo County, where citizens started large pear and apple orchards. During World War II, the US Army turned the town site into an internment camp that confined over 10,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants. Among the internees were many talented gardeners, who set to work to build beautiful gardens for the enjoyment of internees. In addition, the internees worked on the historic orchards to grow fresh food for the internees.
The camp was closed on November 21, 1945, but through the efforts of activists who wanted to be sure that this episode of American history would not be forgotten, in 1992 the Manzanar National Historic Site was created. Since that time, site archeologists and arborists have worked to reconstruct some of the gardens built by internees during the war, and orchards that dated back to the days before Manzanar became an internment camp. This work is ongoing.
The Inyo-Mono Master Gardeners will initially do work in four areas. They will do research, prepare docent materials, and lead and train others to lead guided tours and become part of a pool of docents for garden and orchard tours.
(1) Guayule: These volunteers will research and develop expertise in the care and cultivation of guayule (a native type of rubber-producing plant) and become familiar with the existing guayule at Manzanar, and its role in the history of Manzanar.
(2) The Manzanar Orchards: These volunteers will study the Manzanar Orchard Management Plan and become familiar with the existing orchards and plans for future developments.
(3) Japanese Rock Gardens: These volunteers will study the available literature on Japanese Rock Gardens and, in particular, the rock gardens at Manzanar and become familiar with the existing gardens and plans for future developments.
(4) The Manzanar Barracks Gardens: These volunteers will study photographs and oral histories, and conduct research into the Manzanar barracks gardens. They will propose and develop plans for the creation of historically accurate replicas of some of the barracks gardens.
For more information, contact: Edie Warkentine, ediewark@gmail.com