The Paul Ecke Ranch had a large and significant influence in San Diego and especially North County. They donated land for community and state parks, opened youth buildings, and were active in donations to schools and many community programs. The YMCA located in Encinitas was named Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA and Paul and Magdalena gave five acres of land to expand the facility. This YMCA continues to have a large impact on the community helping kids with after school and sporting programs. Paul Jr. also donated land that is now the Paul Ecke Sports Park that has four baseball fields, a large soccer field, skateboard park and a jogging path. In keeping with the Ecke’s contributions to the children and youth of the county, Paul Sr. in 1987 endowed 100,000 dollars to the school of his namesake, Paul Ecke Central Elementary School.
In the 1980s Paul Ecke Jr. formed Carltas. Co. adding real estate development to the Ecke business within North County. The Ecke’s sold land that became landmark places in North county and the Carlsbad and Encinitas region such as LEOGLAND, The Flower Fields, Carlsbad Premium Outlets and the Encinitas Ranch neighborhood. According to Dan McSwain from the San Diego Union Tribune “Encinitas Ranch was an early hit, with 1,000 upscale homes, a golf course, and shopping center on 853 acres. In one particularly farsighted move, in the depths of the 1990s real estate recession Carltas essentially gave away 180 acres in Carlsbad to Legoland, whose executives picked the site from among 500 candidates for their only U.S. theme park. Although Carltas benefited from roads, infrastructure and other improvements funded by Legoland, the company received no direct cash for the land.”[1]
GiS Map
This geographic information system (GIS) project mapped a sample of 108 Ecke Ranch shipping envelopes from March 1956 to show the immense reach that the business had in the United States. We chose a sample of only one month to map because the scope for a month of shipping is immense, well within hundreds of shipments. The Ranch’s shipping envelopes show where the Ranch shipped plants, cuttings, and various correspondence between other growers within the country.
[1] Dan McSwain, “Poinsettia farming dynasty provides lasting lessons,” The San Diego Union Tribune, April 27, 2013. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com.
Bibliography
Ecke, Paul Jr. and O.A. Matkin, ed. The Poinsettia Manual. Encinitas: Paul Ecke Poinsettias,
McSwain, Dan. “Poinsettia farming dynasty provides lasting lessons.” The San Diego Union Tribune. April 27, 2013. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/sdut-poinsettia-farming-dynasty-provides-lasting-2013Apr27-story.html.
Melvin, Robert. Coastal Dispatches, San Diego: January 25, 1989. Ecke Archive, CSUSM.
Perry, Leonard. “Fun Facts About Poinsettias.” University of Vermont. Accessed March 28,https://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/points.htm.
The Paul Ecke Ranch, Inc. Business Records and Family Papers (SC001), Special Collections, California State University San Marcos Library.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “The Great Plains During World War II.” 2008. http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/homefront/rationing.html?section=homefront.
Wendt, Paul. “The Control of Rubber in World War II.” Southern Economic Journal 13, no. 3 (January, 1947): 203, doi:10.2307/1053336.