The later big waves of immigrants to the valley were Portuguese and Italian. The Delta Mendota Canal was built in the 1950s and the San Luis Dam in the 60s, and then the Cal Aqueduct system was completed. These systems provide the irrigation that serves the tremendous abundance which grows in the valley. Los Banos means The Baths and refers to hot springs or pools in the foothill creeks west of the present town and I-5. The town grew from about 5000 people to10,000 when the Dam was built, and today has a population of about 20,000 people.
Sturgeon is primarily a cotton farmer.
He farms 147 acres. Ninety two are his own and 55 part of a family inheritance. The Central Valley produces about 1 million bales of cotton a year, the 2nd largest state cotton production after Texas. H e likes to talk about the farmers he knows who are all computerized and use various sciences in their propagating and farming. He believes, and probably correctly, that city people think of farmers as backward uninformed people with a narrow focus in life.