<Begin Segment 11>

KP: Richard, did you have any questions that you wanted to...

RP: Actually, I wanted to hear a little bit more about the freeway project that came in through the ranch.

KP: Okay. Richard wants to know about the freeway that came through your dad's ranch.

MJ: Okay. Well, the freeway, there was all kinds of news about it in the paper and everything that they wanted to change the, put a freeway in. And they were gonna cut through Salinas, through my dad's ranch and back behind Alisal and that way. Anyway, of course, my dad didn't want anything to do with it. "No, you can't do that. You're going through the ranch." Well, they finally said, "Well, we'll just take the land if you don't, if you won't sell it." Well, his idea was to put it, the freeway closer to the Gabilan Mountains and keep it out of right downtown Salinas, put it over towards the mountains and bypass Salinas. Well, they wanted it closer of course for business. So it, finally he hired a lawyer from San Francisco and fought it as much as he could. And finally gave he gave. And, like I said, they cut the ranch in half so all his high ground and his tractor sheds and everything were on one side and the real farming ground was on the other. So that's when he, when he leased it out. But, years later, like maybe ten years ago, I was told by somebody that there was an article in the paper that Elwood Juhler had the right idea. The freeway should have been put over by Gabilan Mountains because it has made a mess of north Salinas and then south Salinas has died because of it. Everything's gone there and the south Salinas just died. Almost all the shopping centers and stuff are just evaporated.

KP: Which freeway was that?

MJ: That's 101. So it went, went on down towards King City, San Ardo, and that way. So, it's a big four-lane freeway. It did cut off the water. He didn't have to worry about the upper part floodin' but he really didn't have to worry about that too much anyway. [Laughs] But it's still being farmed. They haven't done anything with it. And when we sold it, we sold it to some German investment people that bought it from us. So, and I imagine they still have it. I have never heard what had happened from then.

RP: Are the Hibinos still farming?

KP: Are the Hibinos still farming? Is it still a viable...

MJ: Yes, oh yeah, yeah. Hibino Farms is big. You google 'em, they're just Hibino this, Hibino that, all the way down and all the kids and grandkids. They're just a lot of different ones. So they're, they're still farming. I think the other one is also still in that area. I think my brother told me last night that they're both still farming. Still have farmers, of course it's not them. It's their kids that are farming it. But, farms are still there. Anything that was in that Carr Lake area is gonna stay there because it's still, it still is a problem with the water. Not near as much. And my dad also fought that. He wanted them to dig a, the ditch deeper underneath the roads going into Salinas and lower so he wouldn't have to pump that water out. And they wouldn't do it, they wouldn't do it. Well, here about oh, probably twenty years ago, they went ahead and put a new ditch in and lowered it and you got rid of the pumping station. So it just, gravity flows out. But if you get a heavy winter, it still will backup.

KP: Sounds like your dad was a man ahead of his time.

MJ: Yeah. He was. He really was. He, he was always thinkin' ahead, and that was very expensive to pump that water. You pump, pump twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for probably a couple months, gettin' that water. It was in the canal. It wasn't floodin' anything, but if you shut off the pumps, it just backed up and then... so he had to keep pumpin' it out. Until it got to where it was real low in the ditch, then you could pull the weir boards out and it would slowly gravity out. So that was probably May or June before he could do that. Otherwise you were pumpin' it. So it was very expensive. At my dad's funeral I remember there was a... and I believe he was a Japanese farmer, that said that he remembers Dad in a, in a horrible rainstorm and the, the pump had quit and the water was backin' up, and he went out there standin' up to his knees in water and putin' new fuses in. And this Japanese farmer said, "I can't believe he didn't get electrocuted." But, that was something that he just talked about. And then there was quite a few Mexican people that got up and talked at his funeral about how he had, they had helped them over the years. Yeah.

KP: Well, anything else you want to mention?

MJ: No, I think I probably pretty much covered it all. My sister was very active in 4-H. And then she married William Barker who was the farm advisor in Salinas for many, many years. And their kids are active in 4-H still and they still have the fifteen hundred acre ranch up in Crilintera, and the kids live on it, but Bill and Norma both have died. So, but the kids still have the ranch and they're still very active in all those things.

KP: Well, that was a great story. It was great hearing your family history.

MJ: Yeah.

KP: And on behalf of myself and Richard and the National Park Service I want to thank you for taking your time to do this.

MJ: Oh, you're more than welcome, more than welcome.

KP: All right. Thank you.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.