Celebration Corner: Gorrill Ranch’s 100th anniversary

The Business: Ralph Gorrill, who had a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, was working on road and bridge projects for the state in the Durham, Calif., area. In 1918, he acquired about 2,400 acres from the Stanford University Trust, which was selling sections of what was then known as the Stanford-Durham ranch. The land, renamed the Gorrill Ranch, had been used for pasture and for growing wheat.

Using his engineering skills, Gorrill leveled the ground and designed a gravity-fed irrigation system. He began farming rice, which was then a new crop in the Sacramento Valley.

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Barbara Spector

Barbara Spector is Family Business Magazine's editor-at-large.


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