The town of Garey was a by-product of the California land boom of the 1880s. Located about 20 miles southeast of Santa Maria, it was to be a shipping point for agricultural produce and a center for the fruit orchard industry. Yet within a year of the town’s founding, all these dreams would be shattered.
O. W. Maulsby was a self-made man who had the drive to translate his ideas and schemes into reality. He arrived in Santa Maria in 1884, in the midst of the aforementioned land boom. The development of rail lines and of the steamship was making the state ever more accessible. The state’s population soared in the 1880s and speculation drove land prices ever higher. Maulsby planned to ride this wave of prosperity.
Before his arrival, Maulsby had been involved in a number of successful land deals in the Los Angeles area. He now bought a tract of land near Solomon Peak, south of Santa Maria, and planted acre upon acre of olive trees, dubbing his new venture, Olive Hill Orchards. Over the next few years, Maulsby, with a changing cast of partners, bought additional tracts near Santa Maria. On most of these he planted different kinds of fruit trees, primarily apple.