Historic Hood River
Hauling Fruit
10-11-2011
Notes
The crates may now be plastic and the tires have air in them, but otherwise getting fruit to the packing plant hasn’t changed much since this picture was taken in the 1920s.
Don Mowers was the driver. We’ve seen his truck before in this
picture.
l.e.
I have been reading about the Barlow Wagon Train in 1845.
In approximately 75 years roads and methods of transportation have definitely changed and improved.
And in those 75 years lots of fruit trees have been added.
Bill Pattison
My best guess is these packed fruit boxes were packed in the growers packing house on the ranch and are gong to the cold storage plant like the Union Building and many others in the Valley. The fruit was stored there until sold and shipped by train to the markets through out the country and the world. Most often the growers personal lable was attached to the box end. This was the source of the late Dave Burkhart’s lable collection.
Charlott
Bill is right, many of the farmers had their own little packing houses prior to companies like AGA and Duckwalls.
If one knows where to look lots of these buildlings are still around. One such family establishment now houses Cody’s Fruit Stand on the Odell Highway.
We must take into consideration that now one load of fruit can equal many loads hauled on a truck such as in the photo. With modern "tote bins" and the equipment to move them things are much easier than when farmers had to wrestle these boxes around. Not to mention that most of them made their own boxes from "box shook." Long hard process when it came to boxes and "lugs".
How far we have come.
Kenn
Those hard tires would be a rough ride even on a modern paved road.