Guayule (Parthenium_argentatum) plants were grown in Salinas Valley, California from 1926 through 1945 as a source of rubber. A Mexican desert shrub with 20% pure, harvestable-rubber, the Intercontinental Rubber Company (ICRC) bred the plant to double its rubber content. In 1926, ICRC set up large scale growing operations and a processing plant in Salinas Valley. They had eight thousand acres of guayule under cultivation with up to five tons of guayule rubber made daily.
During WWII Americans faced a shortage of rubber and Japan controlled 90% of the supplies. In order to assure adequate rubber supplies domestically, the US Government passed the Emergency Rubber Project Act in 1942 and took over ICRC’s operations in Salinas. The US Forest Service directed what was known as the “Guayule Rubber Project.” Guayule nurseries were established in Bakersfield, Oceanside, and Indio, California and in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. By 1944, 32,000 acres of guayule were in cultivation and processed in Salinas.
The end of World War II and improved production of synthetic rubber spelled the end of the Guayule Rubber Project in the Salinas Valley. The land was turned over to the production of other crops.
Following the oil crisis of the 1970s, prices of both natural and synthetic rubber skyrocketed. Congress approved the Native Latex Act of 1978 to again explore domestic rubber production based on guayule.The AIDs epidemic of the 1980s created greater need for latex products and this was compounded in the 1990s when thousands of healthcare workers developed allergies to tropical latex; sixteen died from anaphylactic reactions. It turns out latex from guayule is hypoallergenic and does not cause allergic reactions. Today companies are again growing guayule in the Southwest US as well as internationally to commercially extract natural rubber for medical devices and specialty consumer products. It is also being explored for use as a biofuel.
These photos are part of the US Governments New Deal Photos taken from 1935 to 1945. Thanks to http://photogrammar.yale.edu/ for making the collection easy to sort through and download!
Sources Used
- History of Commercial Rubber Extraction from Guayule. Yulex Website.
- Guayule Rubber Industry in Salinas, California, ca. 1942. Online Archive of California. BANC PIC 1962.006--fALB
- Parthenium_argentatum. Wikipedia.
Love those black and white photos. The US Governments New Deal photos are a great resource!