Historic Hood River
Hood River County Products
9-30-2011
Notes
This February 1967 snapshot shows a display of local products. The vodka, scotch, apples, pears, canned fruit, apple juice, apple syrup and fishing tackle are fastened to a locally manufactured sheet of “Hardboard.”
Charlott
At least no horrible mint jelly that AGA made. Must have decided it wasn’t all that great……….and from experience it was not !!!!!!!!!!!
l.e.
So, tell us Charlotte how you really felt about the mint jelly.
I know this is probably really simple but what it AGA?
Jim Gray
Not on plywood, but Hardboard made at the Dee Hardboard plant, My Grandfather worked at the Dee sawmill, my Father, son & myself worked at the Dee Hardboard plant which supplied many family wages to residents of the valley.
Esther Smith
l.e., AGA was Apple Growers Association
Charlott
Apple Growers Association was what Diamond Fruit was orginally. One of the "perks" of being a member of AGA was the fact that you could get from the cannery at a reduced rate the products that they offered. Now I don’t know whether they actually produced the mint jelly, or bought it from somewhere else and slapped he AGA label on it. My father thought it was a wonderful buy, so bought of case of the "nasty" stuff.. Years laterl there were jars of it in the fruit cellar that ended up in the dump. Now you know the story…..
Arthur
Thanks for the correction Jim. I’ll fix the caption text. The label says "US Plywood Hardboard". Was it marketed by US Plywood? I can’t read the rest of the label.
And that’s apple syrup in the middle. Not sure what it was used for.
Jim Gray
Yes Arthur, US Plywood was the name of the company that bought the complex & forest land from Oregon Lumber company & I believe shortly afterward shut the lumber mill side down, then was bought out/merged? into Champion International.
Charlott
Then it burned down. It was a very hot fire to say the least.
Jim Gray
Correcting myself, Hines Lumber Company bought it from Oregon Lumber then US Plywood.
Charlott
AGA made the first "mini" cans of apple juice I ever saw. A number of cases of those "mini" cans ended up at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Valley Forege one summer. Two Pine Grove youths, Marc Thrane and Alan Bickford were fortunate enough to attend. Boys exchanged things from their locality at the Jamboree. Being both boys fathers were members of AGA, they were supplied with all these "mini" cans of Hood River apple juice, which were shipped back there. Bet the two of them made a big hit with their fellow Scouts.
Phil Jensen
…the two plastic fishing boxes were part of a Luhr Jensen purchase of Ewing Products, a Los Angeles based ( Burbank )plastics firm that also included the Little Chief Smoker. They had sold 150 smokers the year we bought the company. The plastic part of the company was soon "usurped" by the Chinese tsunami, …but the smoker division remained healthy and grew to be a very substantial business. The Smoker plant at Oak Grove (suberb of Hood River) is still operational at that location and is now owned by Bear Mountain of Cascade Locks (Wood Pellets / Chips). They now employ around 15 people.
Jimmie barber
My grandfather (Elmer Hausinger) was the lead millwright at Champion Lumber his brother Alfred and Aloise both worked there as well. I grew up around that old mill and knew it very well.