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http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2000/09/25/story1.html
Valley Landowners Facing End
of Era
Mike Padgett — The Business
Journal Central — September 22, 2000
Arizona's farming heritage is
fading. In its place are homes and schools and shopping
centers that fill up as fast as the paint dries.
Some farmers in the path of
urban growth say they have little choice but to sell to
developers ready to plant houses in place of
crops.
That's why some of the region's
pioneering farm families literally are losing ground to
urban development.
Nearly 100 years ago, James
Oliver Power started the Power farming dynasty in the
East Valley.
Soon, it will be a grandson
bearing the same name who, because of a changing economy
and enticing offers from developers, will end the era of
Power family farms.
Throughout Maricopa County,
land where crops or cattle were grown for generations is
sprouting houses and shopping centers. In far north
Scottsdale, what was a cattle spread called Carefree
Ranch today is Desert Mountain, a luxury golf
community.
In Glendale, third-generation
farmer Bill [Jack,
mother Doris] Tolmachoff* sees himself
as the last of his family to work the West Valley land along with cousins
Ephram E. Tolmachoff, David J. Tolmachoff, and Paul P.
Popoff. The
family business was started by his grandfather, William
Tolmachoff, in
1912 in Arizona the late 1800s.
Twenty years ago, the extended Tolmachoff
family owned, were
buying and rented as much as about 2,000 acres.
Today, after his
relatives sold selling most of their his land
to developers, the younger Tolmachoff owns 20 acres and
leases 450 more.
The march of urban growth
across the Valley is why James Power's grandson Jim has
mixed feelings when he goes walking in his East Valley
cotton fields. Farming is the Power family heritage,
dating to the early 1900s. But developers planting homes
nearby are the family's future.
At its peak, the Power family
totaled more than 2,000 acres and employed as many as
500 workers.
Today, just a few miles north
of the Power family's land is the right of way for a
freeway.
"The family farms throughout the western states are
becoming an endangered species," said David Iwanski,
executive vice president of the Agri-Business Council of
Arizona.
Valley farmers still put in
long days growing and harvesting crops, milking cows or
operating egg ranches, but those days are numbered. The
land their families have owned or managed since the
early 1900s is giving way to residential and commercial
development.
Each year, about 5,000 acres of
productive farmland in the Valley is sold to
residential, commercial or industrial developers,
Iwanski said.
Power, 50, isn't surprised by
those numbers. He said he and his family realized in the
1980s that, while it means parting with their heritage,
they inevitably would sell their land to
developers.
Power said his family's farming history started with his
grandfather, who had eight sons and five daughters. Two
of the sons died in their teens.
Today, with the growth of the
family tree, grandson Jim Power has 98 first cousins. In
the early 1980s, as the Power families kept growing,
developers started making offers to buy the Power
land.
"It was apparent the pie could
not be divided, nor could it sustain that many other
family groups," Power said.
As the family expanded away
from farming into other careers, Power opted to stay on
the farm. He likely will be the one to close the
business.
"I'm ending up being the person
who gets to sweep the last sweep and turn out the light
and lock the door," he said.
Today, Power still is growing
cotton and other crops, but next door on former Power
family land are new homes under construction. They are
part of Power Ranch, a master-planned development at
Power and Queen Creek roads.
Overseeing the work is
developer John Graham, president of Sunbelt
Holdings.
Already open next to Power
Ranch is Trilogy at Power Ranch, an active-adult
community that is a joint venture of Sunbelt and Shea
Communities.
Recognizing the significance of
the Power family history in the region, Graham designed
permanent display space in the Power Ranch information
center for Power family photographs and a narrative of
the family history.
Conversion of farms or ranches
to homes hardly is new in the Valley. Park Central Mall
in central Phoenix was built on the site of a dairy.
Much of the Arcadia area in east Phoenix was citrus
groves.
Also gone are the cattle feed
lots near 48th and Washington streets that gave The
Stockyards Restaurant its name.
And in north Scottsdale, the
luxury-gated community of Desert Mountain was developed
on what was Carefree Ranch, an 8,000-acre cattle ranch
that was sold to developers in the mid-1970s.
Carefree Ranch's last foreman
was Arkley "Lee" Mullinax Sr., 60, who is retired in
Arkansas.
Mullinax was surprised when he learned the land on which
he supervised the cattle operation nearly 30 years ago
is being sold in lots of an acre or more, starting at
$700,000.
"I rode fence lines: I checked
the cattle and kept good watch on things and made sure
they had adequate water back up in the canyons,"
Mullinax said.
Today, the hills of the former
Carefree Ranch are dotted not with cattle but with
seven-figure houses surrounding five Jack Nicklaus golf
courses.
Across the Valley, urban
expansion is forcing families such as the Powers and the
Tolmachoffs to either sell their land and move
farther out, or get out of the business, said Robert
McGee, president of Southwestern Business Financing
Corp.
"They keep going farther out
and the rest of us keep catching up to them," McGee said
"As long as we grow, we're going to take over farm
land."
http://agriculture.state.az.us/CD&P/farm-mar.htm
Arizona — Farm to Family
Directory
Maricopa County
Tolmachoff Farms Summer May - July
5726 N. 75th Ave. 9am - 6pm
Glendale, AZ 85303 Fall Sept - December
(623) 386-1219
Visit a real working farm in the city that offers a large
variety of farm fresh produce including sweet corn,
tomatoes, okra, and watermelon along with canned goods,
honey, farm animals, and a play area. Summer season from
mid May — end of July. Family farm day with kids
activities in early June (please call for date). Also fall
fun includes a 7-10 acre corn maze [discontinued until
code violations were met] and pumpkin
patch from mid September — mid December. Family owned and
operated.
* The Bill Jack Tolmachoff family
converted to Baptist, abandoning their heritage Dukh-i-zhiznik
faith from Russia.
Spiritual Christians in
Arizona
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