Argonauts poured into the Sacramento Valley in the early 1850s, mining hillsides and creek beds for gold. Rancher John Wolfskill was living in the area at the time and had a lot in common with those miners. He was a pioneer raised in the wilds of Missouri who had survived the long, hard journey to California in search of a better life. But he had no interest in joining the rush for gold.
"Wolfskill was a horticulturist at heart," says author and historian Joann Leach Larkey. "He was living and working on lush, fertile land along Putah Creek - that was his goldmine."
John Reid Wolfskill believed agriculture could become California's true treasure, a conviction he cultivated and a legacy he left to Yolo and Solano counties, UC Davis and the entire agricultural industry. This is the story of how one man with a satchel of seeds made a difference.
Read the full article, "History Lessons," (pdf) from The Leaflet, UC Davis Plant Sciences, by Diane Nelson.
More Wolfskill history:
- John Reid Wolfskill, the area’s earliest American settler, 1842 - Historic Winters
- John Wolfskill and his olives, 1804-2006 (pdf) - UC Davis Olive Oil Center
- A Pioneer of Sacramento Valley - Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, Volume 4
- Inventory of the Wolfskill Family Collection (pdf) - UC Davis Shields Library Special Collections
