Wilson Popenoe
So the story begins something like this . . . in the first decade of the 20th century there is a man—Fred Popenoe (pronounce Pope-e-noy) who is something of an adventurer, leaving his Topeka Kansas home regularly to explore river beds in Central America for gold. He is also greatly interested in fruit . . . perhaps another source of fortune . . . Fred has been watching the citrus mania in California with interest. He doesn’t find gold in Guatemala, but brings back an avocado seed, an object that fascinates his young son, Wilson, who grows it in his back yard. The family moves to Atladena, California, so dad can get his feet wet in California fruit farming, signs on as a manager in an orchard there. But Fred quickly determines he can do a better job heading his own operation. Son Wilson meanwhile has become smitten with fruit, studying botany at Pomona College, a teenage pomologist. Dad is convinced that the path to fortune in California is novelty—growing tropical fruit that no one else is growing. In 1912 he dispatches son Wilson to India to find mangoes. Word of his intrepid explorations reaches the ears of David Fairchild, the chief plant hunter for the USDA. When Wilson Popenoe turns 21 in 1913, the Department of Agriculture hires him on as a fruit explorer.
Wilson Popenoe had virtues that won immediate notice from his USDA colleagues. He was intrepid, tireless, acute in his observations, maintained detailed records, and secured extensive information about fruit lore from local informants. When he accompanied the 1914 expedition to Bahi, Brazil to examine the site of the original Navel Orange and look for other citrus, he was appointed to stay behind and consolidate the findings. He collected the Jaboticaba (Brazilian grape) and the grumichama (Brazilian cherry). Upon returning to the U. S. he was immediately dispatched to collect date varieties suitable for cultivation is Southern California. His plant material-from 47 varieties--served as the basis for the development of American date cultivation. His tales of navigating tribal fiefdoms and lawless zones of Oman were part of the oral lore of the USDA in the first quarter of the century.
Repeated trips to Mexico and Guatemala in 1916-1918 had Popenoe traveling into the most inaccessible reaches of the countries in search of avocadoes. In short order he became the world’s expert in the fruit, identifying the varieties (Fuerte particularly) that would ground the California avocado industry. What set Popenoe apart from other plant hunters was his interest in ethnography. He photographed and document all of the growing practices of the Guatemalans he encountered, recorded their observations, securing translators when the informants spoke languages other than Spanish which he understood like a Native speaker. This comprehensive interest in culture, cultivation, and culinary application equipped him to write one of the classic books of 20th century pomology. At the age of 27 he released his Manual of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits excluding the banana, coconut, pineapple, citrus fruits, olive & fig (McMillan & Co.): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95472...
Popenoe continued on as a plant explorer until 1924 when the program began to decline. He was hired immediately by the American Fruit Company. Within that company he operated as a counterforce to the more exploitative elements in the firm, heading the school—“El Zamorano”-- set up in Honduras for central American fruit farmers. His papers at Carnegie Melon are an extraordinary record of information exchange with a global network of scientists, and unremitting efforts to improve the conditions of growers in Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. What did he do from his earnings in the fruit world? In the 1930s he purchased the near ruinous remains of the largest colonial era casa in Antigua, and with the aid of his archaeologist wife, restored it to splendor and filled it with a collection of paintings and material culture from Guatemala that has become a public resource in that country. Casa Popenoe, a public site, is one of the tourist destinations in the ancient capital of Guatemala.
Popenoe died in 1975, a celebrity in international horticultural and pomological circles.