HAMILTON RANCHES

In August of 1937, Jim Hamilton was born to one of the first families in the San Joaquin Valley to farm the fertile land. No one knew he would grow up to become one of the top leaders in the walnut and pecan industries. Growing up on his family's 50-acre farm he was exposed to the hard work it takes to plant, care for and produce a bountiful crop. Jim looked forward to college and wanted to become a physics teacher, but when his father became ill, he was needed at home to help run the farm... His career path was set at a young age, when he purchased first property and acquired a small 5-ton walnut dehydrator. Working long and hard hours during the walnut harvest season, he began to look for solutions that would ease the workload and produce more harvest. Transitioning from poles to knock the nuts down off the trees, in 1964 he built his first mechanical tree shaker nicknaming it "Boom".

Also known as: Hamilton Ranches Incorporated, Hamilton Ranches, Inc.

Primary location: Visalia United States