Law Practice
Apr. 6, 2021
California: From a mining state to a farming state
In 1884, the economy of California abruptly changed its prime focus from extraction, specifically gold mining, to agriculture. How did this happen? The farmers won a lawsuit.
Donald E. Warner
Donald is a Los Angeles-based lawyer and adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where his courses have included California Legal History.
In 1884, the economy of California abruptly changed its prime focus from extraction, specifically gold mining, to agriculture. How did this happen? The farmers won a lawsuit.
On Jan. 7, 1884, Judge Lorenzo Sawyer of the Federal Circuit Court (the precursor to today's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) issued the court's opinion in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining. That, all by itself, was the sole basis for the change...
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