Vanishing Placer: Final days for the Blue Anchor fruit-packing plant

The gray, galvanized-steel enshrouded buildings had once been the hub of activity for Loomis Basin tree-fruit growers. But the pall of inevitable demise hung over the Blue Anchor fruit-packing plant when Journal photographer Jeff McPhee and this reporter visited them on a chilly, gloomy winter day in 1994. The doors were going to shut for good by the end of January. "It's the close of an era for us," Blue Anchor board president Howard Nakae told the Journal. For Nakae, whose Twin Peaks orchard in Newcastle had rotated through plums, pears and cherries over the years, the hum of activity in and around the buildings were strong, pleasant memories deeply entrenched in a world of change. And while the plant was set to close, Nakae's days as a grower were far from done. His ranch just off Highway 193 between Newcastle and Lincoln produced cherries for years after that. He would die in 2006 at 87 — a member of the agricultural old guard who could vividly remember a time when thousands of boxcars laden with freshly picked fruit would be shipped out of Placer County. Each car would have a minimum of 26,000 pounds of fruit. In 1923, for instance, 2,547 full cars were shipped from Placer County. "Placer County once bragged that it was the fruit basket of the world," Nakae wistfully recalled in the waning days of '94. "It was a way of life for Placer County." And it was a hectic life bountiful in many ways, with as many as 17 packing sheds hugging the sides of the rail line. Loomis had three plants, Penryn two and Newcastle five. There were also sizeable shipments out of Auburn, Lincoln, Penryn, Roseville, Colfax and Applegate. The Blue Anchor packing plant would open in 1932 on land that already housed a shed believed to have been built as far back as the 1890s. The California Fruit Exchange co-operative and Blue Anchor eventually outgrew their roots in Loomis and built a handsome Mission Revival-style headquarters in Sacramento. Loomis, Lodi, Dinuba, Exeter and Delano served as district offices. By 1994, with more rooftops overcrowding treetops and growers aging out, fruit output in Placer County had declined to a level deemed too low by the cooperative to stay open. Blue Anchor — as the fruit exchange had started labeling itself in the 1960s — would cease to exist by 2000. The Blue Anchor packing facility — where three generations of Loomis-area residents had found jobs and made memories — burned down in 2002. By then it was owned by the South Placer Heritage Foundation and there were plans to rehab it and make it into a community center. The nearby Loomis Fruitgrowers Association plant — the last 20th century packing shed in Placer County still operating — had closed too. That came in 2001, soon after the association celebrated its 100th anniversary. With many of the growers elderly or soon to retire, the decision to close the Blue Anchor plant was difficult but inevitable, a Loomis Basin Chamber of Commerce official told the Journal 25 years ago. "It's kind of sad," chamber manager Hazel Hineline said. "That future generations won't have the same connection with them that so many adults have today." "Remember This?" and Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com or 530-852-0232. Thomson is a state and national award-winning reporter who writes for the Auburn Journal.