A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

Bob Lynn Interview

2019.009.004

Sound

In the 1940's Bob Lynn, was a former citrus grove owner in Riverside County. Both his grandfather and his father worked for the industry throughout the early 1900s. He recalls having owned more than one hundred acres of navel oranges in the City of Riverside. His grandfather was first involved in the Sunkist industry when he became a manager for the Arlington Heights packing house, where he inspected citrus wooden boxes and shipped them to different states.  Lynn's father became an inspector for Sunkist, making sure fruit had been properly waxed and wrapped. When Lynn was six, he worked for his family’s citrus groves, killing gophers in the fields. At the height of the citrus acreage decline, he recalled a change in climate; the air became hotter and there were less trees, as buildings and blacktops replaced navel groves. With the decline of the citrus industry in Riverside, he worked to preserve the groves and became one of the founders of the Riverside Historical State Park, providing tours to the locals and establishing the Sunkist and gazebo areas, and was one of UCR’s first varial tree growers.

Citrus Industry
UC Riverside
Citrus Economics

"Inland Empire, California
Riverside, California
New York"

1890s-2000s

Gudis, Cathy

12/12/2017

Lynn, Bob

.wav

English

1:47:34 Min