J.G. Boswell: The King of California and the Rise of His Secret American Empire

Maire: Wonderful book and history, highly recommend it.

United States on Oct 17, 2023

StS: This is a fascinating book about an area of the U.S. that few people think about unless they live here, and yet is so important to the country's agriculture and food supply. This book obviously required years of research and writing. At the same time, there were a lot of characters, stories, and details that were tangential and took away from the core characters and stories. I found myself skimming and skipping paragraphs. Since I was reading on kindle, I also was not expecting the ending and found it abrupt and unsatisfying. I would like to read a subsequent book from the authors on the Boswell's since-publication adaptation to the long-term drought, water wars, continuing subsidence around Corcoran, and building of the California high speed train.

United States on Aug 17, 2021

MicroCapClub: I've written about JG Boswell (BWEL) a couple of times here on MicroCapClub, but I finally finished reading the only book that gives a detailed history of the company and man behind it. JG Boswell is known as the country's largest farm (150,000 acres), which is located in California. The intrigue with the company isn't in the size of the farm, but how it got so large in the first place.

The farm itself is on an old lake bottom, what used to be Tulare Lake. 100 years ago this lake was the largest lake (600 sq miles) west of the Mississippi River, and it was drained dry by farming. The farm to this day continues to tap 15% of the river system/aquifer as irrigation. The true value of the farm even today isn't really the abundance of crops that are produced but in these water rights that are thought to be worth $10's of billions.

The company was started in 1921 by J.G. Boswell, and later run by J.G. Boswell II who is credited for the company's growth from 1952-1984 (died 2009). JG Boswell II was a very intelligent and influential businessman who even served on the board at General Electric (GE) when Jack Welch was CEO. Welch said of Boswell, "A very independent outside...

United States on Apr 10, 2013

Philip Carl: This particular chapter details the rise of a farming empire in California's Central Valley. Coming from Greene County Georgia, the Boswell family built this empire largely on the backs of migrant labor and water--lots and lots of water. One other point: on the way to becoming one of the largest landowners in California, the Boswell's forever reshaped the landscape and drained Tulare Lake.

Prior to settlement, the Central Valley's river floodplain system nourished some 1.4 million acres of tule marshes and wooded wetlands. The draining of vast sweeps of wetlands along with the damming and channeling of four major rivers has altered the landscape in both a manner and at a scale that is, quite literally, unprecedented. If you wanted to focus on a single family/farming empire that played the biggest role in this alternation, then you could do no better than The King of California.

Tulare Lake lies near the southern end of California's Central Valley. The proximity of such a huge, seasonal lake to a large farming operation was a mixed blessing. During dry years, as the shoreline contracted, the land could be transformed to grow grain or row crops. In wet years, however,...

United States on May 03, 2008