The Wheatland Riot

The Wheatland Riot is an event that took place August 3, 1913 “on the ranch of a large hop grower named Durst near Wheatland, California.” (507) Durst had falsely advertised he was hiring 2700 workers and in reality he could only hire 1500 workers. May families caravanned to seek employment only to be met with a lack of water and sanitation while camping out. Durst had advertised for more workers than he needed so it could “drive wages down” he also intentionally kept the living conditions at the camp as inhumane living conditions purposefully hoping workers would leave and he could withhold ten percent of their wages. The people had enough of the terrible conditions which lead them to organize to improve working conditions. Their meeting was interrupted by “the sheriff and his men who fired a gun in the air” and then everyone started fighting. The riot caused a stir and resulted in deaths and there were many people arrested.


Reported by:
Maria Martinez