The Puritan Ice Companies

The rise and fall of a California business in an era of rapid technological change—includes historic photos. The Puritan Ice Companies operated at Santa Barbara, California, from 1922 to 1986, opening the vegetable markets in the Santa Maria and Lompoc Valleys to wide distribution by pioneering the use of refrigerated railcars. Puritan ran the world’s largest poultry plant and, during the World War II homefront era of the 1940s, was pivotal in facilitating Mexican labor in California, expanding