page_title: Oxnard Plain
section_title: Initial European migration
hierarchical_section_title: Oxnard Plain / History / Initial European migration
caption_attribution_description: Fruit Picking, Oxnard California
context_page_description: The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California, United States surrounded by the mountains of the Transverse ranges. The cities of Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme and much of Ventura as well as the unincorporated communities of Hollywood Beach, El Rio, Saticoy, Silver Strand Beach, and Somis lie within the over 200-square-mile alluvial plain. The population within the plain comprises a majority of the western half of the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura Metro Area and includes the largest city along the Central Coast of California. The 16.5-mile-long coastline is among the longest stretches of continuous, linear beaches in the state.
  The high quality soils, adequate water supply, favorable climate, long growing season, and level topography are characteristic of the Oxnard Plain where the top cash crops are strawberries, raspberries, nursery stock and celery. Ventura County is one of the principal agricultural counties in the state and it is a significant component of the economy with a total annual crop value in the county of over $1.8 billion in 2014.
context_section_description: Many of the Spanish and Mexican rancho families benefited when the cattle market peaked between 1848 and 1855 due to the California Gold Rush. Cattle ranching declined drastically when a drought hit the area in 1863.
  James Saviers bought property in Rancho Colonia in 1862. He was a blacksmith and farmer who grew and sold eucalyptus trees used to protect crops from the seasonal Santa Ana winds that originated inland and brought strong, hot, extremely dry winds to the treeless plain. Settlers Gottfried Maulhardt and Christian Borchard along with Christian's son, John Edward, and nephew, Caspar began farming with 30 acres (12 ha) of wheat and barley in 1867. New markets for the grain opened up when a shipping wharf was first constructed in 1871 at Hueneme. Irish immigrant Dominick McGrath arrived in 1874 with his wife and children to begin farming on the plain. Johnnas Diedrich, with his bride, Matilda, began a new life of farming in 1882 having come from Hanover, Germany. Lima beans eventually became the dominant crop but farmers were actively growing trial fields of sugar beets in 1897. New Jerusalem was founded in 1875 along the south bank of the Santa Clara River. The community, eventually renamed El Rio, was along the route between Ventura and Hueneme.
caption: Farmworkers picking crop
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