90 YEARS AND STILL GROWING!
To commemorate Holloway’s 90th anniversary in 2022, we wanted to do something big. Like really big.
So our team of soil experts decided to disc a giant 90 in the gypsum-laden soil behind the Holloway mine.
The 90 spans more than 5.6 acres, or four football fields, is big enough to be seen from space and not only pays homage to our 90 years but showcases some of the services today’s Holloway offers. And it reminds us where it all started … at our Lost Hills mine, where Holloway’s Golden Gypsum was first discovered back in 1932.
90th Anniversary News
Al Holloway: Tribute to a grandfather who changed the face of Valley agriculture
Everyone called him “Dad,” from his friends to his family. He was known in the valley as the crazy fellow out in Lost Hills with ideas about mining gypsum for agriculture. To young Al Holloway, he was just the greatest man to ever walk the earth. His name was Harvey Mulford Holloway (H.M. Holloway), and he was the boy’s grandfather.
Old Model-Ts, Cars Remind Us of Holloway’s Early Years
You never know what you’re going to see in the field… At a customer vineyard in Paso Robles, Calif., recently, we saw a club of Model Ts and 1915-1930s classics cruise by, reminding us of the early days of Holloway -- founded some 90 years ago in 1932.
A Look Back at Holloway’s Gypsum Miner Mascot Over the Years
On, we’ll call it Miner Monday, we look back at Holloway’s gypsum miner mascot over the years.
90 Years & Still Growing: 1964 E&MJ Ad Showcases Lost Hills Mine
This Clark Equipment ad from Engineering and Mining Journal in November 1964 highlights Holloway’s Lost Hills Mine with a photo of a Michigan Tractor Scraper that scraped 1 million tons of gypsum between 1959 and 1964. Since 1932, Holloway has been the leading supplier of soil amendments to the south Valley, scraping, delivering and spreading more gypsum than any other supplier. Today, as part of an occasional series entitled "90 Years & Still Growing ..." highlighting Holloway and California ag history, we look back at our founder and celebrate the early days of H.M. Holloway and how our 90-year-old company came to be.
Our Roots in the Central Valley Run Deep
From its roots in the 1930s, H.M. Holloway, Inc. has been a leading producer and supplier of high-quality agricultural gypsum to the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast of California. The Holloway Group recently formed Holloway Agricultural Services, LLC, to expand on our product offerings to include other soil amendments, nutrients and related agricultural products and services. Today Holloway is a full-service, one-stop shop operation, working with growers from planning stages through materials delivery and application, while also assisting with harvest, waste collection and other elements of farm management. Ultimately our goal is to bring our farmers the greatest return on every dollar invested in their soils. We are also investing heavily in our research and education programs to promote industry best practices for cost-efficient sustainable farming and aspire to become one of the premier thought leaders in the California agricultural community.
The History of H.M. Holloway
H.M. Holloway is a classic Western American success story. At the dawn of the Great Depression, Harvey Holloway found steady work as a night watchmen for the Richfield Oil Corporation in Lost Hills, California. Walking the rugged terrain he noticed outcroppings of a reflective white material and watched a few local farmers carry off wagon loads of the mineral to put on their fields.
Harvey’s curiosity prompted him to collect samples of the material and have it analyzed in a Bakersfield lab. He learned that the substance was calcium sulfate dihydrate, also known as gypsum, a mineral known to add calcium, neutralize salts and improve water penetration in soils. The local farmers clearly saw a benefit to yield when they applied gypsum, motivating Harvey to seek to acquire a surface lease from Richfield so he could effectively supply the local farmers.
In May of 1932, Harvey Holloway leased a 40-acre parcel and launched his gypsum-mining operation with little more than a pick, a shovel and a wagon. Holloway quickly came up with a way to show, not just tell, the benefits of gypsum. Shortly after acquiring the Richfield lease, Holloway approached a farmer whose 40-acre alfalfa field ran right along Highway 46, a main thoroughfare in the area. Holloway convinced the farmer to let him add gypsum to just half of his acreage. Soon after, Holloway’s marketing intuition paid off. The farmer’s yield doubled on the half with gypsum, and the lush growth in a side-by-side comparison was evident to everyone traveling on 46. News of this valuable soil amendment traveled quickly, and Holloway was in business.
Harvey Holloway invested in surface leases for many years, and as revenues increased, he was also able to purchase land from Richfield eventually leading to over 2,200 acres owned in fee and 800 acres leased at the Lost Hills site. Today, the company that started with a pick and shovel has grown into a thriving business in multiple different industries consisting of what is now known as the Holloway Group.
90th Anniversary Photo Gallery
ABOUT US
Although the Holloway Group of companies continues to expand, our classic value system that started with a pick, shovel, man and mission to help our farms and communities grow persists today.