There are many reasons why the strawberry field at the southwest corner of 4th and Main in Otay should be preserved and designated an historic site.
  • It has been farmed continually since William Black built his home nearby in 1869 and planted orchards and crops on the 160 acres around his home. It is the oldest farm in the south bay still in operation.
  • It is located along Main Street, the historic road in the Otay Valley that was the stage coach route to Yuma in 1869 and that joined with the El Camino Real north-south road near the La Punta adobe home built by Santiago Arguello in 1834.
  • The National City and Otay Railroad was built in 1887, through the town of Otay, and along Main Street next to the farm.
  • In 1889 it became lot 16 in the Brimhall's Addition. It bordered the lot on the west where the first schoolhouse in Otay was built. This schoolhouse was replaced by the Otay School in 1888 on the site of the present Montgomery school.
  • It survived the great flood of 1916 that destroyed many homes and farms in the Otay Valley.
  • In the 1930s and 1940s was part of the holdings and ranches owned by Lucky S. Waller and his son Luckie B. Waller.
  • In 1950 and 1951, Antonio Cacho bought the 20 acres south of Main Street from Luckie B. Waller on both sides of 4th Avenue and grew produce that he sold at his Cacho Produce stand east of 4th Avenue. Antonio and his son Luis Cacho farmed hundreds of acres in the south bay and Otay Valley, were on the Board of the Farmers Association, were leading citizens of the town of Otay and founders of the Otay Youth Center. Luis Cacho was the first Hispanic to join the Chula Vista Lions Club.
  • In 1961, Cacho sold the farm to Nelson & Sloan that owned the gravel pit south of the farm. This gravel company and the nearby Fenton gravel plant were pioneers of the large mining activity in the Otay Valley from the 1920s to the 1970s.
  • Since 1961, the farm has been leased to the three Kusaka brothers, Sam, George and Tom, Japanese Americans who came from Idaho after the Second World War and farmed hundreds of acres in Otay Valley and Otay Mesa. The vegetables grown by many farmers were processed at the Kusaka Packing Plant at the northeast corner of Hollister and Main, now the site of a machine shop.
  • The strawberry field of about five acres at 4th and Main is the last remaining farm in Chula Vista, and the last remaining segment of an historic area of the Otay Valley. It is a legacy of the agricultural economic activity that shaped the history of the south bay for over a hundred years.

By Steve Schoenherr Nov. 19, 2013 for the South Bay Historical Society