Greetings family, friends and neighbors. Today's historical snippet is about a roadside fruit stand that grew into a world class restaurant, tourist destination, and finally into a successful retail, business and recreation complex...and it began a century ago with a walnut........Bill
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IT BEGAN WITH A WALNUT
The black walnut that California pioneer Sallie Fox planted at her Vacaville ranch in 1859 was the inspiration for the naming of Helen and Ed Power’s original small roadside fruit and vegetable stand.
Located along old U.S. Route 40 “Lincoln Highway” beginning in 1922, the Power’s NUT TREE was a welcome rest stop for motorists traveling between the Bay Area and Sacramento and within a few years was attracting as many as a thousand cars a day. The designation of route 40 change to Interstate 80 and a seemingly limitless boom in business convinced the Powers to add an outdoor eatery, bakery, gift shop, toy store and ultimately an upscale signature pioneer California cuisine restaurant featuring fresh locally grown produce.
In 1955, Ed and Helen’s son and aviation enthusiast Ed Power’s Jr. created the Nut Tree Airport to attract private pilots to the families growing enterprise. To transport visitors arriving by plane on the nearly mile long single runway to the Nut Tree Plaza and popular restaurant while providing a miniature train ride attraction for guests arriving by automobile, Powers obtained one of Bud Hurlbut’s 14” gauge motorized train sets. Hurlbut had gained notoriety in the amusement park industry by building and operating the Knott’s Berry Farms Calico Mine and Timber Mountain Flume rides and supplying his trains to parks throughout Southern California and the Bay Area.
The Nut Tree restaurant was identified as “the region’s most characteristic and influential restaurant” in the 1970’s and 80’s attracting Hollywood stars, politicians, Presidents, and the Queen of England to it’s indoor aviary and tempting small loaves of freshly baked bread. The Coffee Tree restaurant and coffee shop was added in 1965 across Interstate 80 from the Nut Tree restaurant for customers seeking a quicker and more economical meal. A family feud and court battle resulted in the closure of the iconic roadside attraction in 1996 and the demolition of the restaurant and main buildings seven years later. The Nut Tree reopened in 2006 as a mixed use development with restaurants, retail stores, offices, hotel, residential housing, and a small Family Park where youngsters can still ride on the original Hurlbut train.
-Bill 4/25
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