Historic Hood River
Cherry Picking, 1929
7-1-2013
Notes
It’s July 1929, and the cherries are ripe. I sure appreciate the work of the horticulturalists who figured out how to keep the fruit closer to the ground. I cropped this image, but the tree keeps going up and up.
Charlott
I am trying to figure out what the small plants are in the foreground. Little girls loved their dolls, even in the cherry orchard. Just wish we knew who "grandpa" was.
l.e.
I think that might be Alva Day’s daughter on the ladder. I think I recognize her from previous photos.
Possibly his other daughter with the doll and Alva’s father in law lived with them for a while so maybe that is who the gentleman is.
We had two old cherry trees on our farm when I was growing up and they were very, very tall. I don’t know how anyone picked them because the branches with cherries hung way out and were flimsy. Even if you had a ladder tall enough, you couldn’t brace against those branches.
Dedilee
Charlotte, those plants are staked… Maybe dahlias? Looks like these trees may be in the yard area instead of an orchard.
Paul
That doll could be "Chucky"!!
charlott
My grandfather had the tallest cherry tree ever grown in Hood River County. My Dad and Uncle had a platform built way up in the top. They would climb as high as they could on a "spike" ladder then use their mountain climbing skills to go on to the platform. Once they went up they never came down all day. Their buckets were lowered by rope and Grandma sent their lunch up to them in a bucket. Once spraying for things such as cherry fly became a real issue, Grandpa chopped it down as there was no way one could spray the complete top of that tree. Made a whole bunch of fire wood.
Buzz
How tall was it?
Arthur
Buzz, the tree is still going strong where the negative cuts off, at about 3 times the height of the man on the right.
l.e.
There is a face in the trees!!!!
Just over the top of the little girl with the doll.
I am guessing we are looking at Helen on the ladder. She would have been about 17 years old. Emma, age 8 with the doll. Alva’s wife Io hiding in the tree and her father William Stewart about age 77.
Charlott
I will ask my cousin who was older and much more familiar with the tree. He was the one that told me that Grandpa had been able to get a pretty good measurement of it and it was about 50 feet high.
All I know is that from my little girl perspective watching my
Dad and Uncle up there so high, it was the highest tree in the world.
Arthur
Good eyes, l.e. There is an older woman in the shadow behind the girl with the doll.
Charlott
Had a conversation about my Grandpa’s cherry tree and I stand corrected. It was about 78 feet high, and 42 feet wide. Since they had a platform way up, then my Dad and Uncle would climb from there they were able to get a measurement using ropes. Length of rope from as high up as they could possibly get to the ground. One big old cherry tree to say the least. I would imagine there was a photo of it, no doubt lost to time, sadly……..Know it was the talk of the county though………
l.e.
Interesting Charlott.
Any idea if your family had planted it or a previous property owner?
On Government Island, down by the Portland Airport, there was a huge English Walnut tree. It was suppose to be the largest in Oregon. Walnut trees take a long time to grow and I always wondered who planted it.
The Hudson Bay Company were probably the first white people to make use of the Island or was it a later homesteader?
Charlott
It would have definitely been planted by Grandpa, as he planted his orchard in about 1906-1907. When I first remember that tree was probably about 1947, so it had been growing and growing for a very long time. I know it must have been the early 1950’s when they took it out of there. To bad they didn’t having spraying helicopters then, as it could have become a true Hood River landmark.