Mark Twain’s critical view of the exotic coconut tree, which he described as a “feather-duster struck by lightning,” didn’t keep American pioneers from appreciating the fruit it bore. Coconuts, despite being from tropical locales, became popular in the American West in the mid-1800s. Usually spelled cocoanut or cocoa nut, the fruit could survive the sea voyage during an era of unrefrigerated sailing vessels. As early as 1860, The Daily Evening Bulletin in San Francisco, California, a


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