Tent City - Caladero Dehydrating display

October 6, 2018

For the 12th year ALPS celebrated the founding of our city by participating in the Colony Days Tent City, the reenactment of Atascadero’s founding days.

The ALPS tent represents the history of the Caladero Products Company (a subsidiary of the Colony Holding Corporation) that operated a large fruit and vegetable processing plant and dehydrating facility from 1918 through the mid 1920’s.  The tent has many articles and pictures of the processing plant along with the 1914 Planting Map for the colony.

The Caladero Products Company processed by dehydrating, canning and preserving, all of the output of the 4,000 acres of fruit and vegetable growers in Atascadero and the surrounding county.  The plant was highly mechanized with electric lights and motors to drive conveyor belts, washing, slicing, peeling, grinding and dehydrating machinery.

Further research on Caladero and other historic topics can be performed at the Atascadero Historical Society’s Museum at 6600 Lewis Avenue.