Historic Hood River
View from Mt. Hood Hotel
Notes
We’ve seen many views of the original Mt. Hood Hotel, like this and this, but this is the first image in our collection with the camera pointing outward.
Gifford Uptegrove, Walter Mason and Ward Cornell were all a few years out of college when they decided to try their hand at running a fruit ranch in the upper Hood River Valley. Uptegrove and Mason were both recent graduates of Princeton University (classes of 1906 and 1905) so it’s likely they met there. It may seem odd three young men from New York City wind up in Hood River looking to purchase a ranch, but they were very much a part of a movement. You may recall 1911 was the year the Hood River Realty Board published this map as part of the effort to attract men from around the country to try their hand at growing fruit in Hood River.  The advent of refrigerated packing houses allowed Hood River fruit to develop markets nationwide. The packing houses needed more fruit to meet the demand, which in turn fueled a major real estate boom. Row crop farmers from the Midwest were recruited with promises of big profits and better quality of life. Fruit orchards, they were told, were easier than row crops, Hood River had plenty of water, a perfect climate, and plenty of outdoor recreation. Apparently this same pitch attracted these three men.
I am guessing they stayed at this hotel on their trip to investigate local real estate. They purchased their Parkdale area ranch in late 1909.
Cornell quickly figured out where the money was in this picture, and established himself as a realtor and insurance broker to the Upper Hood River Valley as you can see by this ad in The Hood River News.
Kalley
It’s fun to read all of the advertisements in the paper. The articles too, especially the one about ” How Boys and Girls Go Wrong” by Julia A. Hunt. Our concerns about our young people haven’t changed much from over a century ago.
My Mom still talks about being raised on a dairy farm and how much she loved that. Then my parents bought a small farm and I was blessed to be raised in the country. I watched my two kids grow up in the Oak Grove area. Not all are so lucky to have lived on a farm though.
L. E.
So much detail in this photo.
I assume the wagon is coming from a steamboat docked out in the River because of low water. But, that is just my theory.
I am wondering where the wagon is going? If it was coming into town, seems like it would have turned right, to come across the tracks. So is it headed toward the Hood River to cross to the east side?
The White Salmon hills are devoid of trees and Strawberry Mtn. is devoid of houses as is most of the Bluff.
I see the thing-a-ma-jig that fills the train with water. Do you know where the water came from?