The Buckle of the Prune Belt

Here is a fact that surprises almost every visitor sipping wine on the plaza. For much of the twentieth century, Healdsburg was not wine country at all. It was prune country.

During the nineteen twenties, growers pulled up many of the vineyards around town and replanted with fruit trees, especially French prunes, Imperial prunes, and apples. Two forces drove the change. First, prunes and canned fruit were reliably profitable and easy to ship on the railroad.

Second, in nineteen nineteen the Volstead Act ushered in Prohibition and gutted the market for wine grapes overnight. So the vines came out and the orchards went in. The town leaned into it with real civic pride.

Healdsburg adopted an official booster slogan that told the world exactly what it grew, Healdsburg, the Buckle of the Prune Belt. For decades, blossoming orchards ringed the town each spring and drying trays of prunes baked in the summer sun. It was not until the later twentieth century that the pattern reversed again, as grapes were replanted and wine finally became the dominant industry.

So when you admire those celebrated vineyards, know that many of them stand on ground that spent two full generations as prune and apple orchards.