Ray Pool is one of Madera County’s most respected farmers. For more than 60 years he has worked his land to produce a variety of crops, including almonds, grapes, alfalfa, cotton and corn. By any standard, he has been a winner, but there is more to his story than success on the ground. It took success in the air to put him where he is today.
Pool graduated from Arcola School and then Madera High. After Pearl Harbor, he entered the service where he learned to fly B-17s. When the war was over, he went to Nevada where his father had a cattle ranch. While there, Pool decided to put his flying skills to work herding wild mustangs with an airplane. Unfortunately that endeavor ended when he hit the side of a mountain and lost a leg.
Upon his recovery, Pool went right back to flying, but this time rather than herding wild horses, he was searching for fish over the Pacific Ocean. His job was to fly over the water at night looking for schools of fish for commercial fishermen. That speculation didn’t pay off either; therefore, he was soon back in Madera looking for another opportunity, but this time on the ground.
By 1950, Pool decided to turn to farming. He purchased 150 acres at a cost of $137 per acre on Road 18 in the Berenda hardpan area. There he tried growing cotton, corn and alfalfa on half of the land and put the rest to pasture. He continued until he almost went broke, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit defeat yet. He still knew how to fly...