The Sunday Oregonian., August 13, 1911, SECTION FIVE, Page 4, Image 52

GARDEN VALLEY OREGON PARADISE
Orchards and Vineyards Take Place of Cattle Ranches in Beautiful
Vale of Umpqua, Where Country Is Dotted With Fine Homes.
. College Men Have Fertile Farm.
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PT W. A. PETTIT.
TUB old Indian name. Umpina. la
not hard to pronounce. Vlaitora
frequently miki the most weird
irruntlnKS and quarklnirs In trying to
peak It. but all one ha to do Is to be
Kin l'e a baseball fan who la colna- to
ay "umpire" and end like a New Kng
and rhool ma'am who l Just sarins;
"Chautauqua." What rould be simpler?
The old I'mpqut Valley, one time
atamplnc-cround of the I'mpoua In
dian. I larire 3a miles wide but
on would nerrr ituess It. fur It Is
broken up Into hundreds of little In
tervales, a whole herd of them. troop
Ins; oown from the head waters In the
Caarade Mountains to the sea. And
rery lfttle valley Is a surprise, home
are Just lre enough for a slnaie farm.
and. shut In on all sides by the wooded
or rocky hills, are veritable fortresses
where outlaws, like the Doons of old
Kntrland. mieht flourish, unmolested.
Others of these Intervales are large,
especially those directly on the river,
and Garden Valley Is one of these.
Superb View Moris Visitor.
Garden Valley Is the rreateit sur
prise of alL It Is the valley that Ly
man Ileecher S perry, the traveler and
lecturer, said was the most beautiful
"small " valley" he had ever seen. As
one drives out northwest from Rose
burs; toward the North I'mpqut River
he ptuti through the orchards of Ed
enbower let no one say that this coun
try has lacked ambition In the matter
tf names! ver Vinegar IU1I and
through a little pass, when suddenly
tne wUole of Garden Valley Is spread
out before him, ah immense checker
board the squares of which are marked
by fields of alfalfa, corn, hay, wheat,
apple orchards, prune orchards, and
one 100-acre patch of gigantic Doug
las fir. And beyond, the blue Coast
Kange rises In grandeur to the west
ward and from Its peaks the buck deer
nuy rest his eyes on the sleeping; Pa
cific Ocean. It Is the most enchanting
-jmall vai:y" In Oregon: The man
from Massachusetts says, "There's
nothing finer In the Berkshlrcs" a
great admlsslnn for a Massachusetts
man. The. man from Colorado says.
-This for me! Give me beauty Instead
of grandeur for a place to live in, every
time! and the man from Nebraska
simply looks and ssys. "Well I'll be
darned!"
Garden Valley has three surprises for
the visitor. The first Is Itself, for he
probably never heard of It. It arrived,
so to speak. In the night, and lis de
velopment has come without flourish
of trumpets. The second surprise Is
that so much of It Is undeveloped.
Nearly four square miles In the very
heart of the Valley belongs to a single
wealthy farmer. C. T. Curry, and thous
ands of acres besides belons; to three
or four neighbors of his who simply
farm It- They are happy, have become
wealthy, and do not rare to sell, though
their land would bring a fortune If put
Into fruit. It should be said, though,
that the only one of them who has be
come a bank officer has a big. bearing
orchard! ,He Is Morris Webber, vice
president of the First National Bank
of Rosebura-. If you should drive out
there now you would more than likely
see him in overalls bossing; a gang of
men at work on the road a magnifi
cent, graveled automobile road which
is to run through the valley. If you
are from the East this will be another
surprise to you, for there the vice-presi
dents of the banks seldom woiHc on the
roads. In Oregon the fact that a man
has money doesn't make him any bet
ter than one who has not. either In his
own estimation or In that of his neigh
bors. The per capita sale of overalls
Is large, and gout and dyspepsia among
the rich men are elements of civilisa
tion that have not yet been Introduced.
Steamboat Canlala FleOM-d.
Garden Valley's third surprise Is that
so much of It Is developed to the very
hlfrhest degree. The writer went to
a livery barn to apply for a team to
Garden Valley, just as another man- did
the same and so there was company on
the ride. The stranger turned out to
be Captain Earl Ilackett. of the steam
er Paloma. which Is a familiar sight to
all Portland river men. Captain Hack
ett and his father have a (0-acre orch
ard In Garden Valley, lying on the
river. The orchard Is 2 years old ap
ples, peaches and a few almonds. Just
for fun. When asked how the Colum
bia Digger Company that Is the name
of the Ilackett company happened to
Ho Into f rult-ralslng In Garden Valley,
Captain Ilackett smiled and said that
he did not want all bis eggs In one. bas
ket, and that they were "orcharding"
for two very simple reasons; first, as
Insurance. The Columbia River sand
business rntrht some time be slack, one
ran never tell. In which case a (0-acre
bearing; orchard In Garden Valley would
he a comfortable thing to contemplate.
The second reason was simply for
pleasure. Beautiful scenery, boating,
fishing, a fine garden besides the orch
ardwhat more could tired city folks
want? And It looked good to these
steamboat men. They are going to
have some young colts down there pret- i
tve Afters swjXXTX
XVXTf!
ty soon and the whole family Is going
to emigrate from Portland to the orch
ard to have a house party In honor of
the great occasion.
The bridge connecting the two sliles
of the valley has not yet been built,
and an old-fashioned ferry Is tempo
rarily transferring teams across. It Is
slow and picturesque, but beloncs to
the era of the cave-man and seems
strangely out of place in the Garden
Valley of today. Still. It has Its ad
vantages. If the ferryman has had good
luck the night before', you can buy fine
salmon for eight cents a pound at the
boat In the morning. It Interests the
Eastern people who visit the Valley,
and besides, serves as a clearing-house
for the news and nesr-news of the
valley, for Garden Valley has no news
paper. Returns Are Large.
After crossing the river the undevel
oped places are left behind and one
finds himself In the midst of 2000 acres
of young orchards and vineyards, and
he pinches himself to make sure that
be Is not dreaming. The Columbia Dig
ger Company's orchard is only one. The
Helblg- orchard of JO acres, with its ar
tistic bungalow on the hillside. Is a no
table one. Mr. Helblg, who l an East
ern man. Is raisins; berries, garden
truck and corn between his young trees.
When asked whether he could actually
make a living out of it now he replied
that he waa maklna- J1000 this year.
Then there is the LaBrie bearing
orchard, which has built the finest
house In Garden Valley and enables Mr.
R. K. I.aBrio to maintain a' city resi
dence at Roseburg as well as the coun
try home In the valley. The Hess. Hut
ton, Sinclair, Harding, Roberts and
other-orchards are most promising. The
planttnsrs are largely apples, Newtowna
and Spltzenbe-rns.
One Interesting experiment, which Is
not an experiment, is being tried by a
man who knows what he Is about Wil
liam A. Sussmilch. a California orange
grower, became convinced that there
was more money In apples and pears
and grapes in Oregon than in oranges In
California. This fact, with the attraction
of the unmatched Oregon climate, led
him to sell his orange grove for 11300
an acre and buy a little hill that Juts
out into Garden Valley. He named It
Garden alley Helg-hts. What he was
gninir to do with It no one knew, but
that he was stark; raving erasy all the
old-timers were sure. Today a great
slice of the hill has been cleared and
In place of oak grubs and dlgrger squir
rels he has one of the finest Tokay and
Malaga grape vineyards In the Umpqua
Valley, besides several acres of pears
and apples.
It is on this piece of development
that William Walker, till recently car
toonist on the Philadelphia North
American. Is engaged. He has by no
means given up his art and Is selling
smiles or grins at so many dollars
each to the Eastern funny papers.
Eastern Men Interested.
But perhaps the most Interesting en
terprise In the whole Garden Valley Is
a great ISO-acre orchard that Is own ell
and operated by a company of Eastern
college and professional men and in
corporated under the name of the Over
land Fruit & Development Company.
One of the owners. Charles A. Brand,
who was managing editor of the Pil
grim Press publishers, of Boston, for
several years before taking up this
work. Is treasurer and manager of the
company's orchards, while all the rest
of the owners are working at their
"steady Jobs" in the East. The Over
land Orchards is the largest single or
chard In the Umpqua Valley and has
the distinction of having been planted
to keep, not to sell. 'This great tract,
with a mile of frontage on the Umpqua
River, already has over 200 acres of
growing fruit. Imagine it! If the rows
of trees and grapes that belong to
these people were set end to end they
would reach all the way from Portland
to Salem, a distance of over 60 miles.
To care for an orchard like this Is
something of a chore.
The visitors were taken out to a lit
tle eminence from which almost every
foot of the orchard can be seen and
told to look around. Not a weed In
sight! And there, from that center, the
rows of trees half a mile long- reached
out in every direction like the spokes
of a wheel, each row as straight as an
arrow and with hardly a tree missing
In the whole tract. It waa a sight
never to be forgotten.
But it is only when the visitor la in- j
vited into the old farm house that he
realizes that he is having an experi
ence. One great room occupies almost
the whole first floor. An immense,
stone fireplace, a library of hundreds
of volumes, valuable paintings, framed
autograph letters from various literary
celebrities, a typewriter, a big incubat
or, two dogs and a cat furnish the
living room of this unique college men's
ranch house. Among the autographs
are two or three of especial Interest,
one of them being the original of
Edward Everett Hale's famous "Ober
lln College letter," which was written
to Mr. Brand while he was president
of the New England Oberlin Alumni
Association at Boston. Another relic
of priceless value la an autograph copy
of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
written for Mr. Brand by the venerable
author, Julia Ward .Kb we, on. her 89th
birthday. Then, in a corner opposite
the Incubator is a most ancient and
curious high-backed black oak chair,
half burled in Government bulletins
when the writer saw It, that belonged
for many years to the Poet Longfellow
and came from his Cambridge house.
The place is full of interesting things,
and In the Summer, of interesting peo
ple, for some of- the Eastern owners
are there most of the time.
When asked for a little story of the
undertaking Mr. Brand said:
"Well, to begin with, there are not
many of us, and none of us belons to .
the class known as the 'idle rich!' Ther
are more college professors than any
thing else, and you know college pro
testors are not noted for their wealth.
"Some of the things that led us to
organize this enterprise were these:
"1. We were most of us professional
men with fairly good salaries, but la
lng up a very small amount of money,
reajly too small an amount to make
much of an Independent Investment. We
couldn't afford to start orchards of our
own and live on them without income
for six years.
"2. We knew that whether we would
or not the time would come when we
must have income without salary.
"3. We knew that there was nothing
like an orchard investment when It was
a good one, and another thing, the ex
pense did not all have to be met at
once.
Xovel Organization Success.
"So here we are. -The officers of the
company are the largest owners. We
have no land to sell. no offices to main
tain and no promoters to pay for we
are our own promoters. Wouldn't our
people prefer a 10-acre tract of their
own to owning stock in the company?.
Yes. some of them would till they
tried it. Why, think of It! Suppose we
had gotten some insane colony idea
into our heads and each man had de
cided to take 10 acres for himself and
more onto it with his promising fam
ily. Twenty-eight houses at the start.
Twenty-eight barns at the start. Twenty-eight
teams and sets of Implements
at the start, and so on and on, to say
nothing of tha promising families and
the six years of living and working
and eating without salaries. The
thought of this 280-acre orchard having
to support such an army as that for
six years is simply appalling. As it Is,
from six to eight men can do the work,
and in the Fall all but two of these can
be dispensed with. No, we are satisfied
with our own way. It is the economical
one and we know it."
"But to change the subject, had you
noticed "that we have more pears than
apples and that we have 2 acres or
Tokay and Malaga grapes.' Lome out
year after, next and try them. You know
they bear early and they are going to
helD us carry the expense of caring for
our orchards before very long. Do you
know Commissioner A. H. Carson, of
Grants Pass? He is our horticulturist
and himself the largest grower of Eu
repeon grapes in the state. The story
of his winning of success is .one that
you ought to get for The Oregonian
some time."
And then we branched off onto other
topics and after a while I went to the
ferry that leads to town. But before I
got there I heard a small boy singing,
or shouting an old, familiar tune, only
he sang it this way
"When the roll is called up yonder,
I'll be here!"
Instead of being shocked it seemed
very natural and I said to myself, "Of
course. .WhQ wouldn't?"