Description
The California Delta Farms Collection consists of business correspondence (1910-1917);
annual statements; balance sheets; dividend notices (1915-1917); a brief history of the
California Delta Farms Corporation (1920); and a scrapbook on the Corporation kept by
consulting engineer, Millard A. Klein (1924-1934).
Background
In 1902 Los Angeles capitalist and insurance executive, Lee A. Phillips, acquired the
Jones Tract in the Delta of the San Joaquin River. Out of this initial purchase grew the
forty-two thousand acre holdings of California Delta Farms, embracing at one time: King
Island, Bacon Island, Bouldin Island, the Rindge Tract and islands in Contra Costa County
to the west. Phillips devoted many years to the project of reclaiming these acres and
turning them into the most productive farm lands in California. To accomplish this goal,
Phillips created California Delta Farms (1906) and served as its President for more than
twenty years. The corporation sold capital stock in the amount of $8.5 million and $3.5
million in bonds.