Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 2014)
Special Edition • Morrow County Fair and Rodeo • Heppner Gazette-Times, Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - Page 3 2014 Grand Marshal Morrow County Grain Growers Long-time Morrow County institution, the Mor row County Grain Growers, has been honored as the grand marshal for the 2014 Mor row County Fair and Rodeo. MCGG was first organized on March 18, 1930 in the lone High School gym when 100 farmers pledged 183,000 bushels of wheat to coopera tive selling. The cooperative was formed to give the local farmer more leverage and higher prices in the market place. The articles of incor poration were filed on April 2, 1930. On April 18, 1931, the Lexington Oil Coopera tive was formed. The oil Co operative began purchasing gas and lubricating oils from Portland, passing the savings on to the producers in the area that were shifting their farming from horses to trac tors. The producers found that just as with wheat, oil prices were more to their advantage through cooperatives. In 1932, the cooperative went into wheat storage. On April 1, 1940, Morrow County Grain Growers pur chased the assets of Farmers Elevator Company adding Heppner, McNab and lone El evators. In 1952, North Lex ington and Ruggs Elevators were built. In 1954, the coop erative built a grain elevator on the Columbia River at the site where the Patterson Ferry took vehicles across the river from Oregon to Patterson, MCGG main office in Lexington Washington. The Ferry ceased operation when the Umatilla Bridge was built several miles upriver. The company bought the property from the last op erators of the Patterson Ferry, gentlemen whose last names were Hogue and Warner, hence the name, Hogue War ner. Hogue Warner has evolved over years the to become one of the most ef ficient fa cilities on the lower Colum bia River for unloading trucks. The company currently operates eight-grain elevators, one of which is leased. Total license capacity is 3,934,000 bushels. In 1967 Morrow County Grain Growers, Inc. merged with Lexington Oil Coop erative, placing the company in the retail business, sell ing hardware, fuel and tires. About that same time, the company bought Lexington Implement Co.# from Red Leonard and became an In ternational Harvester Farm Equipment and Truck Dealer. In 1971, the cooperative moved into the building now occupied in Lexington, put ting all three of the former companies in one location. In 1976, the company bought the Cenex Soil Service Center in lone, Oregon, adding Fer tilizer and Chemical sales to its retail business. In 1987, the company pur chased Pettyjohn Oil Co. in lone, doubling the petroleum volume the company was doing at that time. The Fer tilizer Depart ment moved their office to the building Pettyjohn op erated from. In 1988, they expanded its farm equip ment deal ership into Sherman and Wasco counties by opening a parts store at Sherman Farm Cooperative’s new Farm Store in Wasco, Oregon. In 1989, the company bought Heppner Nor-Gas, adding more diversification and helping with cash flow during the winter months when seasonally things were slow for the other departments within the company. In 1991, they began sell ing fertilizer and chemicals at Wasco. In 1997, the company built a new facility at Wasco, putting the Agronomy and Machinery dealership togeth er in their own facility. In 2002, MCGG sold its tire inventory to Les Schwab and exited the tire business. Also in 2002, MCGG pur chased the Polaris ATV and Snow mobile dealership in Lexington. In 2005, the cooperative pur chased Green Feed and Seed in Heppner. The company consoli dated its inven tory of clothing, fencing, livestock equipment, and animal health products to the Green Feed and Seed store in Hep pner. In 2006, the cooperative pur chased the inven tory of Heppner Auto Parts in Heppner and moved the NAPA inventory to its Lex ington store. One January 1, 2007, the cooperative purchased NAPA Auto Parts stores located in Boardman, Oregon, and Uma tilla, Oregon. The acquisition of these two stores comple mented the vision of the com pany to strategically focus the organization for long-term success at serving the mem bers by focusing employees on delivering maximum val ue at what they do now and looking for new products and services in growing markets to properly balance the portfolio of services and mitigate mar ket risk. Cur rently, the cooperative is serving 7 counties in north cen tral Oregon and Klickitat County in Washington, with its Farm Equipment dealer ship and its Agronomy depart ment. The Energy department serves 5 counties in Oregon. Grain comes to Hogue Warner from as far away as the state of Idaho. Hogue Warner El evator is strategically located, making it a terminal of choice for trucks needing a back haul of grain out of the Boise Val ley area. With over 70 full time employees and now over 600 members. Morrow County Grain Growers Incor porated is a story of growth, diversification, consolidation and vision for the future suc cess of its members MCGG celebrated its golden anniversary with festivities in 1980. In addition to current manager John Ripple, past managers include Larry Mills, Harlan McCurdy, Jr., and A1 Lamb. The first general man ager was Amil Swanson. Morrow County Grain Grow ers, Inc., serving your com munity since 1930
