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Grapevine’s Great Depression Cantaloupe Boom and Festival
When cotton crashed in the Great Depression, Grapevine, Texas faced ruin. But the town had a sweet idea.
On advice from Texas A&M, farmers ditched cotton and planted cantaloupes instead. Soon, over 25,000 acres bloomed with melons, yielding more than 200,000 bushels that shipped as far as Kansas City.
In 1935, the Lions Club started the Cantaloupe Festival, which quickly grew to draw 20,000 visitors each summer. Newsreel cameras rolled as crowds packed in for contests, dances, and to see the Cantaloupe Queen crowned…