Timeline

William and Mary Hazelton settle their young family in the burgeoning farmlands of the California’s Central Valley

William Hazelton returns from a cattle trip to Mexico, saddlebags stuffed with oranges. In the spring his wife Mary plants the seeds and the first two orange trees take root. These were the first orange trees in Fresno County.

The first ranches are developed and the Hazelton family begins to embrace life in the business of growing citrus.

Douglas Hazelton joins his father Ed and begins farming oranges. Father and son work together to build a family tradition from the ground up.

Douglas Hazelton identifies the need for a quality independent shipper and packer in the Sanger area. With the help of his daughters and son-in-laws, Doug begins packing his own fruit and Kings River Packing, Inc. is founded.

The busy facility undergoes large-scale renovations. The packinghouse is remodeled and modernized.

In order to increase production and limit risk an automated grading system with frost detection is added to the operation in order to deliver better fruit during freeze years.

With the addition of state-of-the-art harvest/packing equipment what was once just two trees, has become a successful family-owned growing packing and shipping company with international reach.