History of Greenfield
The Greenfield region was originally settled by the Chumash people. Many small settlements over the years were located in this area, however most of the tribe's people preferred to stay farther inland because of the frequent flooding caused by the largely flat delta. Maritime explorers from the Spanish empire claimed all of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 and would reach the site of Greenfield in 1773 and note its possible future of a trading port, however because of the shallow delta no further exploration of the area was done.
Greenfield was founded originally as Hunters Point in 1790, by an Irish explorer 'Sean O'Riley'. Sean was the very first Irish explorer to reach the west coast of America amongst the other settlers in the area who were mostly of Spanish descent. The settlement was named 'Hunters Point' due to its heavy animal population, and it's cooler temperature which was great for hunting. With lots of food in the area and fertile land, the settlement quickly attracted settlers from many parts of the west coast. Unlike the cities of Los Angeles to the south and San Francisco to the north, Hunters Point grew slower.
During this period the entire So-Cal area dubbed New Spain became independent from the Spanish empire in 1821, and the small hunting town now existed within the Mexican Republic. Because of the settlement's small size at the time, it was not considered a key target for either the Mexicans or the US Army during the Mexican-American War. There was still a small fort built by the US on the west coast of the Hunters river that was named Fort Franklin but it never saw any fighting.
By this time Hunters point was growing and hunting was no longer a sustainable industry for the village as most of the animals were hunted to almost complete region extinction. Because of this the village began looking towards other options to stay alive, and realized that its inland bay could be a great shipping port if the delta was dredged enough for shipping. So along with help from the US Army corps of engineers a lengthy dredging project was begun. One of the key individuals pushing for the dredging was a local landowner named Jerimiah Kennedy. He had become mildly wealthy for being a successful land speculator in the region. He saw the immense benefit of the muddy flooded land near the delta and bought it for cheap from the village. Jeremiah then used his influence to make sure the dredged dirt from the delta was dumped in his previously unusable land, making it the most valuable land in the village. He then began subdividing his land along the water and selling it to local industry and shipping companies. His immense success and a feeling of being cheated out of profits caused the village of Hunterspoint to impose heavy taxes on the new area. However Jerimiah was able to use a legal loophole from the sale of the land to claim the land was not part of the incorporated land of Hunterspoint, and in an equally petty move petitioned the governor to make a new town. Jeremiah named his town Greenfield in order to hopefully encourage pilgrims from the east to settle down there.
Because of this, Greenfield became a small boom town while Hunterspoint stalled in growth. During this time both towns began claiming land for their region leading to multiple disputes, and even at one point, a small skirmish along the border of the two towns that led to two dead and 4 injured. Because of this, the governor sent the US army to take control. Over the watchful eye of uncle Sam, both villages, now full fledged cities signed a land agreement. This agreement called the Hunterspoint-Greenfield Land Agreement, stated that the city of Greenfield would have rights to the land east of the Hunters river, and Hunterspoint would keep its historic city core on the east side, but get land rights to the west of the river. This deal was only made possible because of a new toll bridge the state of California agreed to fund. The Hunters bridge crossed the river for the first time, and also was tall enough to allow current freighters through. The city of Hunterspoint, not wanting to miss out on an opportunity, heavily marketed the new land to the west as prime industrial land for the current industrial revolution spreading across the country.
Because of the huge boom of industry in Hunterspoint, a major need for housing became apparent. The relative filth of Hunters Point at the time meant that the majority of the working class looked across the river to Greenfield for housing, and land speculators were happy to sell. Because of this, Hunterspoint became the de facto working city while Greenfield became the cultural hub and living quarters for a majority of the region. During this time, the population of Greenfield doubled that of Hunterspoint with approximately 100,000 residents.
During this time the railroad made it to both cities, and a huge fight arose on to whether the station, which was located in Hunterspoint due to all the industry, should be labeled as Hunterspoint or the much more populous city of Greenfield. There were several cases of city officials sneaking out at night to remove the signage and replace it with their own. This lead to the city placing armed guards around the station at all hours. By this point most of the population and the state of California was sick of the silly bickering and decided enough was enough. The governor officially merged the two cities in 1872 and named the new city Greenfield because of its much larger cultural significance.
Much of the poor working class who lived in Hunterspoint saw this as an offense on there city and feared further public funding being taken away from the historic Hunters Point region to pay for projects in Greenfield. Ultimately their fears became true when it was exposed that the new city government cut important housing budgets for the new area called Barons Bar to build a brand new canal that went out to the west to encourage industrial development. This caused a small uprising of the working class who stormed the city hall to demand the mayor be put to death. This event which became known as the Hunters Revolt was quickly squashed by local militia but it did not quell the resentment.
During this period from the 1870s to the 1920s, Greenfield saw massive growth as global trade to Asia boomed. Because of the incredibly successful port of Long beach being built in the early 1910s in Los Angeles, Greenfield planned a similar port to the south of Barons Bar, an area home to a large working class neighborhood. The city came in and demolished the entire area and placed displaced residents in shanty towns to the northwest of the city, an area that would eventually be known as Westwood.
This along with a possibly rigged mayoral election between a wealthy landowner Thomas Barton, and his opponent Gregory Hale, lead to a full on revolt of the working class. June 1931 became known as the month of the blood-red sun. The working class specifically targeted wealthy areas and the corporate offices within the downtown leading to major damages and destruction before the national guard could come in and take control.
Even with the city now in relative control, there was still major disdain for the city government. This led to one of the single largest coordinated strikes in US history when over 90,000 workers walked out of their jobs. The loss in revenue from no workers led the company owners to force Thomas Barton out of office, and Gregory Hale was named the new mayor.
In the 1940s Ashfield and many neighboring communities were added to the city of Greenfield, doubling the population to close to 700,000 people. This massive growth was in part due to the GI bill and the large amounts of open land for development. Oil was also found near the coast at this time, and the city began its largest building boom in its history.
During this time period the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was released and Greenfield, much like the rest of California, started demolishing its city for new highways to support the growing suburban area around the city. This helped continue Greenfields growth, officially breaking into the top ten most populous cities in the United States.
The 80s saw a decline in industry and a general disinvestment within the city. Crime was rampant downtown and much of the historical industrial west bank of the Hunters river had dried up. Unemployment reached an all time high, and more and more people began fleeing the city core for the suburbs.The city looked to other forms of income and started pumping large amounts of money into its tourism industry as well as encouraging small tech startups to make Greenfield home.
The 2000-2020s saw a large amount of reinvestment back into the city. Major projects like the waterfront park, the new Kazias stadium, the Baronsbar redevelopment region, and a massive expansion onto Greenfield International airport helped the tourism boom. Greenfield was also chosen to be the starting point for the new California high speed rail. Today Greenfield stands as a commercial, and high tech industry hub, and continues to see growth.