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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1919)
G y TIIE SUNDAY. OREGONlAN, rORTLAND, OCTOBER 5, 1919. , VAST CRANBERRY INDUSTRY DEVELOPED ON NORTH BEACH BOGS L BT LCCILE F. SAUNDERS. THIS is he season for cranberry pie you've seen them. tho.e deep, rich, red Juicy pastries with nar row strips of crust laid across the top, checkerboard fashion, so that all th sugar and sweetness can bubble : up Inside. Then, too, the. day Is not " far off when mother will make up the menu for Thanksgiving dinner. ' "Don't forget the cranberry sauce." Willie or some of the otner youngsters will shout. Young William then gets a quarter and is commissioned to go to the cor ner grocery, there to invest in the principal content of the dainty, with out which no holiday dinner is com plete. When Willie roes out after the fruit be regards It impersonally as a lot of little red bails that apparently grow in flat wooden boxes about the sise of peach crate There is gen erally a graniteware scoop reposing in this crate and you gather the ber ries in this and pour them Into a paper bag. His mother, likewise, has a vague idea about cranberries. In fact most people don't know whether the cran berry Is picked from a tree, shaken off a vine or dug out of the ground. Alayb a few have hard that it is a Dative of the Cape C'cd region, but until the call came for pickers for the marshes of Oregon and Washing ton this fall the persons who knew that the berry Is grown within 100 miles of Portland were few. Even yet I among the gromers themseives scarce ly one knows the story of the trans planting of this great industry In the northwest. information relative to i this is hard to find and tales of the boary-headed pioneers of North Beach peninsula In the southwest corner of Washington, where the great bogs are principally to be found, are contra dictory. The same tenor runs through all of the accounts, however the spirit of a fight against odds'to put an almost unheard-of industry on. its feet. Ceods Carried la Boats. In the early days when there were but few towns on the coast and they were but mere trading posts, much of the goods sent to the Hudson Bay company at Astoria was shipped in by Willapa harbor and taken from the bead of this bay up the peninsula in flat-bottomed boats, through a chan nel known as Tarlet slough. This slough, running in- a sig-xag course from north to south, traversed a des olate area of swamps and emptied into Black lake, th: present source of water supply for the town of llwaco. Mail and o'.ber packs taken ever the old government portage were carried from the lake a quarter of a mile Into the old village and from there to Astoria in fishing boats. The only boats that couli come through the Tariet were poled along or drawn by horses on a foot path. Craaberriea Grow la 1S59. Often In winter the lowlands through the center of the peninsula were com pletely under water and the vast amount of decaying vegetation was all that would impress the casual trav eler. Indians and traders knew there was something else in all this wilder ness, for in the fall the ground would be covered with fine, hairy vines bearing red berries wild cranber ries. As early as 1859 old maps show the only name for this territory was "wild cranberry marsh," as this Is the ole label stamped on the part which Indicated the center of the peninsula. It happened that 2000 acres of the northern part of North Beach came Into possession of Chabot. the French millionaire of Oakland. Cal. About Si years ago he decided to put the land to some use and sent his nephew. Robert Chabot. north to look It over and improve it. The young man ob served the wild cranberries and wisely came to the conclusion that if a com mercial variety were imported a big harvest might be had. Accordingly he brought In bales of the plants and set them out in a 30-acre tract, while the settlers watched In astonishment. Cha bot spent his wealth right and left, put In drainage ditches, tarred plank walks, store houses and other quar ters. He was the only man near llwaco who bad any money at the time and stories of his eccentricities are still told about the old town. SllUIoaalre'a Work Wonderful. Once a settler nearby died from consumption and his wife had not nough money to purchase a coffin for him. She came to the village, met Robert Chabot on the street and told him she wanted to sell her two cows to pay expenses of the funeral. Abruptly he asked her how much she wanted. "Sixty dollars." was the reply. lis pulled the money from his pocket and handed It to her. "But don't yon want to look at 'the cows firstT" she asked. -No." he rrufny replied. "I'll send for them." Refusing any thank, he hurried en. Chabot had bes-un a wonderful work. He was not a practical man and the bog he planted undoubtedly never yielded him returns on the Invest ment. But his crops were large. Old railroad records show that in one .year he shipped 1700 barrels of cran berries from his tract. Chlacae Maaage Bog. The property was later turned over to the care of a Cape Codder named Landers, who knew much about the business. Almost the only pickers he employed were his wife and two daughters. A man named Clark fol lowed htm and the last managers of the bog were several Chinese. Chabot had employed, two Chinese Indians and Traders in Early h.borti, in Mhom he put great trust. They were very devoted to him ana remained on the property after he had turned it over to other managers. The wife of one of the Chinese died and becoming lonely, the widower went to San Francisco to purchase another. He had saved J600 from his earnings, but this was only one-half the current price of Chinese wives, so he was forced to borrow. Onre more happy, he returned from California with his bride and settled down to working the bog. Little did be reckon on the sudden demise of his second wit, for he lost her within six months before she was completely paid for. Tht Chinese was despondent He moved away from North Meach and with his departure came the decline of tht Chabot marsh. It went to weeds and never since has been cultivated. Seveaty-three Barrels Aaaaal Crop. In the meantime a Swede named Chris Hansen had come to the coast and about 17 years ago took up a small tract, which he planted in ber ries, having noticed that Chabot pro duced good crops. Mr. Hansen is now In Portland, at the Mann home, and his bog is providing an income for A. B. Moore, a naval officer, who purchased it. Hansen put in only two acres of berries, and for many years was the only berry producer on the peninsula. Several other ventures were made. A man named Orr plant ed two acres. Ivan Adams put in half an acre, which brought him more than $2000 in three years. He harvested about 73 barrels annually from it. While these marshes ware being operated on a small scale little was heard of them. The remainder of the bog land was unused and its owners considered the property as not wortb the tapes. All attention was given to ovsters, which could be scooped from" the shallows of Willapa harbor and brought a means of easy liveli hood to the settlers. Oysterville, to ward the extreme northern point of the peninsula, the old county seat, soon, became a prosperous town from the trade in oysters that passed through It. Rancher Startles Settlement. To the south more attention was given fishing and the peninsula be came a quiet community, filled in the summer with transient beach cot tagers and almost deserted In the colder months, except for the two villages .at the ends. Then came to llwaco an Idaho rancher, P. E. Brad ford, who startled the inhabitants by purchasing a homestead of 149 acres just north of Black Lake of Will Wheeldon at the exorbitant price ot $12 an acre. The settlers laughed in scorn at the investment and Mr. Brad ford's plan of using the property for grasmg land. For five years the Idaho man con trolled this part of the marsh and waited. He had a hunch that it would be worth something and when. he heard of a group of men who planned to enter a new industry, the manufacture of peat for fuel, he of fered his bog to them at from $100 to $150 an acre. The men looked over his property and were satisfied. It was close to the railroad and had all the qualifications of a good peat mine. Not long after Bradford de posited a neat sum in the llwaco bank, profits on his investment. Peat Project Begum. The new corporation supposed it was backing a wonderful project. In Ireland the peat was being used so largely for fuel that It was believed it would prove practical in the United States. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of machinery was installed to press the peat Into briquettes abAit half the size of bricks. A pit was dug and tons of the peat traveled into the factory, was pressed and run out on drying trays, the whole process being much the same as that em ployed in brickyards. Several thou sand tons of the bog land went over this route in the 18 months the plant was In operation. Disaster stalked upon its heels, and the would-be fuel kings discovered in what they had erred and that there was co hope of profiting by the in-, 50s Discover Berries; French Millionaire Puts Land to i'H?f:l: si ; ; IS SI vestal:!;:. . ,t . litsal m.ius excellen ce!. Il . i was bo light when the moiHtuie. was evaporated that what had been a ton of wet land could be counted In a few pounds of the dry product. This burned like chips and was eaten up rapidly in a stove. Con sidering the cost of manufacture and time required in the preparation the briquettes could never compete with the abundance of timber in this section. German Scientists Experiment. The last time peat was manufac tured at llwaco was in 1907. With the decay of the company Gustav Frelwald of Portland, one of its larg est stockholders, took over the plant and its option on between 2000 and 3000 acres of bog. In his anxiety to put it to some use, Mr. Freiwald made a trip to Germany and carried sam ples of peat to that country, where he had scientists experiment with it. It was found that when . the peat was ground up, pressed and rolled, it could be made into imitation oak boards and other useful articles for Interior use. Whether the manufacture ' of these would have been attempted Is doubtful. Mr. Freiwald did not have to decide that momentous question, for it was about this time that H. M. Williams, a real estate dealer from Spokane, entered. To Mr. Williams North Beach is indebted for the. com mercializing of its long-slumbering industry, the cranberry business. After the settlers had lived on the land for 30 years without knowing its possibilities or how to derive a live lihood from it, Williams came in and brought with him the trade secrets that have meant a systematized ex ploitation of the marshes. Salt Water Floods Bogs. A little company of cranberry grow ers had been organized in Tillamook county, Oregon, at a settlement known as Cranmore. The plantings had scarcely been put in when salt water from the Pacific backed up and flooded the bogs. The investors heard of the wild cranberries growing on North Rfach, moved over to llwaco Junction and Seaview and made an other attempt at the game. They planted a piece of marsh, sold several lots and dropped the proposition again. H. M. Williams was born and raised in the cranberry lands of Cape Cod. One of his brothers was a professor at Massachusetts institute, having in his particular department the study ef cranberry culture. Another brother headed a big eastern cranberry grow ers' association. ' The third son came west 30 years ago and lived in Mon tana. He later moved to Spokane and whtle in that city stumbled upon in formation concerning the earlier at tempts to grow berries on the north beach bogs. On look at the marshes of the Tar let sloirgh was enough to convince the experienced grower that he had found a land of opportunity. Will iams bought the 140-acre tract at the peat factory, paying as high as $400 an acre for some of it. The settlers who had ridiculed Bradford for his $12 investment squirmed once more. They were firmly convinced that ulti mately owners of the bogs would live to see the day when they would re gret their purchase. Litigation Lasts Tkree Yearn. Mr. Williams Immediately plunged Into his business in the characteristic way of an .experienced Cape Codder. He built a small canal to drain his land and then the trouble began. As fast as he moved the water from his place the man next door ' was "drowned" and set up a howL Then Williams would scrape together some money and purchase this section, drain It and face the same complaint from his neighbor on the other side. There was no help for it, he gathered in every cent he could, purchased a right of way and put In a substantial canal, following as near as possible the Tariet. The once crooked slough was filled In In places and straight ened, so that a practical outlet, tak ing In as many of the lowlands as possible, was -put through from the Junction to the point where the Tariet Vk. r W. x 3 ' 1 enters Willapa harbor. lui enter prise cost slightly over $10,000. I Purchase of the right of way was no easy matter and litigation attached to it stretched out over three years, the most complicated case involving a small section owned by a Chinese. The settler had lived at the beach a good many years, then went to Port land and secured work cleaning out a saloon. Supposedly he died, leaving his property to a fellow Mongolian employed in the same place. When the second Chinese passed away he left the papers to the wife of the manager of a variety show. Mean while the land had been sold for taxes and the man who held the title re fused to part with it. For three years Williams searched for the woman who possessed the original papers, sending tracers from California to Alaska, and at last completing the leal by buying her claim to the title tor $100. Profitable Transaction Made. Some of the swamps were easy to secure, as they were being sold to pay for taxes. One man who had part of the present site of Cranmoor, the big farm owned by Williams, paid the latter more for one acre of It than he' had sold his entire tract for. Williams resold his holding to syndi cates and private individuals, and was thus instrumental in bringing about the Investment of half a millior dollars in the swamps. He then gave the greater part of his attention to his own 140 acres. It was no small job to improve this, and his son still tells the story of bis first visit to the site. ' . Herbert Williams, the younger man, was making a circuit of the -place with his father and decided to take a cross-cut over the bog, little realiz ing how treacherous it was under foot. He was equipped with stout boots, but had barely gone a hundred feet when be sank In a mushy hole and came within an ace of drowning. Settlers Are Convinced. . Some of the old employes of the peat factory remained there to work the land, and one old man in particu lar would not move away from the vicinity. He had once been em ployed in a sawmill operated many years ago at one end of Black lake. The proprietor of. this establishment he asserted, had been possessor of $6000 in $50 octagon slugs of Cali fornia gold. These the aged watch mon said, the lumberman had buried in the marsh and his employe had been, searching for them ever since. In his spare time he would shoulder a shovel and hike off across the bog to dig wherever fancy dictated. The treasure was never -uncovered. With the coming of H. M. Williams settlers gradually became convinced that they were holding ground that was worth more than $12 an acre. As the cranberry man bought up the right of way prices went skyrocketing. An other company, the Pacific Seaview Cranberry association, came in, pre pared a large tract Just to the north of Cranmoor and plunged into a slough of grief. Great fields were drained, sanded and prepared for the vines. Plants sent from the east at a big expense, arrived before the ground was ready and dried up. Some were put In canals to freshen up, but they mildewed and incurred another heavy loss. Projeet Found Too Bla At last the ground was set out and the investors folded their hands and waited for the third year, when they understood money would begin to flow into their pockets. They had not reckoned on weeding and general up keep and found their project too big to care for. Parts of it went back to grass. This was just one of the big disappointments. Through lack of knowledge of the business, owners of property on the peninsula had come to the conclusion that preparation of the ground and a three-year wait was all that was needed to build up the Industry. It was not long before they were rudely awakened. Small farmers found they could afford a cranberry field of two or three acres If they were on hand to care for it. Some were lucky and the weeds Use; Growers Reap Profits of $400 to $500 An Acre; 4 jv'v: ':-.wr . . jr. fegite w' - ' -nj I oner Weeding a second-year field not yet ready to come Into bearing. An nncultlvated bog In the wild state may be seen In the backa-round. The view 91tnlltmwU,mM.umllmmtmrmMrmlUttm old Tariet .longs. Lower rlghtNely completed vvarehoa.e of the ColumbI- River CrnXrry Growers' nocl-tlon. Tbi, Is ISO feet In length. In the picture on the left U a group of picker, at work on the edge of . bog adjoining the timber line. White stayed away. Others went to great expense to fight this pest. A group of growers east of Sea view had put in their three years and found they were not living in lux ury, as had been anticipated. In fact, more money was needed to keep up their places. The plantings were put in six years ago. principally by Port land folk, who hired the work done. Facing the prospect of losing every thing they had sunk in the land and letting it go back to weeds, they formed a co-operative association and hired a manager to supervise their bogs. New Organization Formed. The 'new organization, known as the Columbia River Cranberry Grow ers' association, was made up of 40 members headed by George M. Healy of the' Woodard-Clarke Drug company. The vice-president is Dr. David tsru ere of Portland. The three other or ganizers were E. M. Hulden of Hepp ner, G. H. Shoemaker and Dr. H. R. Biersdorf. both of Portland. Members of the association are scattered all over the country, two living in Chi cago, one in North Dakota, one in Pasadena and several in various parts of Oregon, but the majority are Port land business men. attorneys, doctors and school teachers. The present secretary-treasurer, who acts in the capacity of manager, is V. H. Allen, formerly of Salem. The tract controlled by the co-operative concern is one of the largest, if not the largest, cranberry bog in the United States. It is one and a half miles In length and contains over 300 acres, 150 of which are planted. There are altogether about 2500 acres of cranberry land on the penin sula and of these 600 are under cul tivation. Nearly all of the crop is marketed by the Pacific Cranberry exchange. Profit. Seem Assured. To the small Investor cranberries are a disappointing crop in wJilch to stow away any money. Early disap pointments have a tendency, to make the schoolteacher with three acres forget that several millionaires were created by the Cape Cod bogs. A jurvey of the land now set out would convince any but the natural born pessimist that with the first big crop a boom in cranberries will be on, and that a person who retains ownership of a good bog ten years cannot fail to come out on top. One of the great drawbacks lies In the difficulty in preparing the land. The - swamps are overgrown with scrub trees, tough, wiry grasses and all the dense vegetation that abounds in moist country. When this is cleared away the surface is . scraped off, or scalped, as the process Is technically called. Depending upon the condi tion of the bog, anywhere from four inches to four feet of the top must De removed before peat Is reached. This Is at solid, dark sponge, pressed by the weight of the sodden vegetation above it. Each year the old plants dying down have laid on the ground beneath the newer generation and have been gradually absorbed into the peat, which is of different texture according to the plant life of which it Is composed. Some of it Is from fern, another part of buck rush, an other of wiregrass and the greater amount of sphagnum moss, the same substance used during the war in the making of surgical dressings. This pulp Is dark and thoroughly waterlogged, but as soon as dried in the sun it becomes light and cracks open. For this reason it Is necessary to pump in on the peat from three to V 4 tlfi " i .wv.'.v atring. marking the row. ior eacn picker may k en six inches of sand to hold the level, keep down the weeds and prevent the sponge from splitting and drying out. Where a poor piece of work is done by the men clearing the land often they do not go deep enough and roots, moss and stumps are left. In a few years when the bog has settled these appear on the surface. The soil is too acid to cultivate unless sand is spriad on it. Follnge Grow. Rapidly. Vines were first shipped in from the east in great bales, buf. now the association is prepared to supply its own cuttings and has enough on hand for 100 more acres. The foliage mul tiplies rapidly and soon the ground is covered with a dull green carpet, which in the spring is brightened with a delicate pink bloom. Careful pruning prevents the runners from getting too long. In the peninsula it is not necessary to flood the fields, the process resorted to in the east, to prevent freezing. The land is drained by series of ditches all emp tying into the main canal. Fungus and the fire worm are the two principal enemies of the fruit. A government expert was sent to the pnn ft on WjtsVlretnn State - col- eaetable ITTs!T-m.i mi i T.ii-i.i.1. imi-iih snisin.nmminiiiiir w ii.i.i . i .... . Greater Development Is i .v -x a- r 2 'f lege and has succeeded in doing away with the insect pest. Sprays are be ing used for the fungus, which has not yet been stamped out. This turns the berries white and creates a cot- tony substance inside of them. The Columbia River association has put in a power spray plant with pipes running through every bog. Faucets are placed along these at Intervals and a hose may be attached and the liquid sprayed over the entire lot. Last Yeart Crop Heavy. Last year the bogs yielded a heavy crop and some of the blue haze dis appeared from the horizon. Had everything turned out well good re turns would have been brought in. but fate intervened again. No road led to the bogs and carrying the ber ries out was a slow process. Because of the lack of a warehouse there was no place in which to store the fruit. While growers were pondering over this state of affairs the food adminis tration limited the use" of sugar. Without sugar a cranberry can pass Into the sour pickle class. It simply can't be sold for sweets. At the time when the association should have been shinpinsr out carloads of fruit wan j ---jSv s - ill 4 When erandmother was young she took Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound for some female illness and it helped her. My mother took it during the change of life and it did wonders for her. So when I got into a run down condition and suffered with periodic pains, back ache, bearing down pains, I took it and it restored my health." Thus writes a young woman of the third generation about this great remedy for woman a ills. CoitlDO IYDIA C. RNKHAM -MEDICINE CO., LYNN, M Near. 2 ' ' r s4- daily there was no demand for It and at the critical season It was forced to stop picking for two weeks. With the signing of the armistice sugar restrictions were raised and the . price went up. Cranberries for the Christmas trade sold at t'27 a bar rel, but by December there wasn't much left of the North Beach crop. It had principally been a loss. Warehu.e I. Built The association prepared so face al most any situation this year. A ware house 150 feet in length has Just been completed and the road into Seaview and llwaco can now be traveled by auto trucks. Through the mile and a half nf holm n. unioue roadwav has been la-id over one of the main ditches so as to conseive space. This road way has the width of an automobile and will accommodate the average truck on strips of planking. This main route connects with a number of side spurs running into the outer edges of the marsh. Along these flat cars may be pushed by hand and crates can be moved out as' fast as the auto truck operates. At the edge of each individual bog fronHnderf on Prk H. 4 I poundl m .in mii i ISM i ' A