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Wigrich Ranche Photographic Album, circa 1915
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Wigan, Richardson and Co.
- Title
- Wigrich Ranche Photographic Album
- Dates
- circa 1915 (inclusive)19151915
- Quantity
- .1 cubic feet, (One 9x13 box, including 62 photographs.)
- Collection Number
- P 352
- Summary
- The Wigrich Ranche (sic) was a hops farm located in Buena Vista, Oregon, approximately 3 miles southeast of Independence in an area that was called the “Hop Center of the World” between 1900 and 1940. The Wigrich Ranche (sic) Album documents the operational and worker activities of the farm.
- Repository
-
Oregon State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives Research Center
Special Collections and Archives Research Center
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis OR
97331-4501
Telephone: 5417372075
Fax: 5417378674
scarc@oregonstate.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research.
Historical NoteReturn to Top
The Wigrich Ranche (sic) was a hops farm located in Buena Vista, Oregon, approximately 3 miles southeast of Independence in an area that was called the “Hop Center of the World” between 1900 and 1940.
Originally known as the Krebs Ranch, the largest hop farm in the state, it was purchased by English hops merchants Wigans and Richardson in 1911. They called it Wigrich Ranche, the name is a consolidation of Wigan and Richardson. They established a buying office in Salem. In the 1920s, the Wigrich Ranche was said to be the largest hop yard under a single trellis in the world. In 1941, they sold the farm to the Steiner Company, headquartered in New York, and it was renamed the Golden Gate Hop Ranch. It was sold again in 1949 to Herman and Myrtle Moritz and then to Robert Fitts in 1952, who stopped raising hops.
Major W. Lewis Rose, formerly of the British Army, began his work as farm manager in 1913. He was formerly an estate manager in Ireland and in the army with Richardson. He managed the farm until 1928, when he resigned due to ill health; he died in Victoria, B.C. in 1930.
The photographs were taken by the Parker Studio, Salem, Oregon.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The Wigrich Ranche (sic) Album documents the operational and worker activities of the farm.
Included are photographs of Major W. Lewis Rose, farm manager, and portraits of Rose with his wife Charlotte and daughter Winifred in front of their house. Also included are photographs of large drying kilns, storage sheds, and other equipment; the office of the yard boss; the bakery, restaurant, grocery store, market, dance hall, and blacksmith shop; a newly-planted orchard; plants damaged by a wind storm; bales of hops en route to warehouse storage and being loaded on a train at the Wigrich railroad stop; livestock used on the ranch (Jersey and Durham cows, and Poland Chinese and Duroc Jersey boars). Interior shots include a furnace room with a drying kiln; a tram car loaded with hops entering a kiln; men examining the hops harvest; hops stored in a warehouse, and men preparing bread in the bakery to feed the pickers. There are many photographs of workers, including group-portraits of laborers harvesting hops or transporting them to the warehouse; men in a baling pit; a view of a tent camp and grounds; workers waiting for mail delivery at the post office in the grocery store; dressed-up workers at the dance hall; and workers leaving the ranch after harvest to return home via train or automobile. One image shows a group of Armenian laborers of the Arslanien Brothers Contracting Co. training newly-established bines (hop vines) in a field. A series of photos entitled “Twelve Views of the Pickers,” shows seasonal workers divided into twelve groups, many wearing large hats, holding hops plants, pets, bales, etc. Some men are perched on wire fencing. The presence of women and children indicates many seasonal workers brought their families along.
The album is 8” x 12”, with black leather covers and 51 4.75” x 6.75” silver prints mounted on 32 brown leaves. This genre of albums were created to document the operations of businesses; in some cases as a visual record and memento for management, for promotional purposes, or distributed to potential or existing customers.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Preferred Citation
Wigrich Ranche Photographic Album (P352), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Acquisition Information
Collection purchased in 2021.
Related Materials
The Wigrich Ranche Photographic Album is complemented by the Mt. Angel Abbey Hops Photographs (P 349), Hop Growers of America Records, Oregon Hop Growers Association Records, Hop Research Council Records, and Godfrey Hoerner Collection. Also of note are the research reports in the Agricultural Experiment Station Records and Hops Research Reports, which have all been digitized, as well as materials in the Crop Science Department Records (RG 095) and College of Agricultural Sciences Records (RG 158).
The Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives Oral History Collection (OH 35), which includes interviews from industry professionals, journalists and community members. The Brewing and Fermentation Collection (MSS BFRC) consists of materials collected by the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center pertaining to the history, growth, and culture of the Pacific Northwest brewing industry, including regional hops and barley farming, commercial craft and home brewing, and craft cider and mead.
The Oregon Hop Grower /Pacific Hop Grower (1933-1940) and The Hopper (1945-1954) are periodicals that supported the growers, brewers, and related industries with articles about crop forecasts and yields, mechanization and technological advances, pests and diseases, research, health, and membership information. They also contain minutes and reports from various state and national grower associations.
The Hop Press: A Memorandum of What's Brewin' newsletter was prepared by Hop Specialist G.R. Hoerner and issued monthly by the Oregon State College Extension Service to provide information on hops and brewing to County Extension Agents in Oregon.
Collections linked to Oregon State University research, as well as other manuscript collections are described on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives research guide. More information pertaining to the history of hop growing and brewing in Oregon can be found on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives website.
There is a similar album from Wigrich Ranche at Yale University.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Series 1: PhotographsReturn to Top
The photographs document the fields, facilities, processes, and people involved in the operation. Each photograph in the album has a caption, which is the title of the item. Additional description of photograph provided as needed.
| Container(s) | Description |
|---|---|
| Box/Folder | |
| 1.1 | |
| Box/Folder | |
| 1.1 | Major W. Lewis Rose, Manager |
| 1.1 | The Product of the ranche (sic)
Picture of hop clusters.
|
| 1.1 | The Wigrich Special
Train carrying pickers.
|
| 1.1 | Major Rose and Family
Major W. Lewis Rose, farm manager, with his wife Charlotte and daughter Winifred in front of their house with 2 dogs.
|
| 1.1 | Wigrich house
Rose family and other man in front of house, two dogs.
|
| 1.1 | General view of the yards
Includes drying kiln.
|
| 1.1 | The "upper six" dry-kiln
Kiln with hops being loaded, workers, horses.
|
| 1.1 | The "big four" dry kiln
Kilns and stacks of hop sacks on wagons.
|
| 1.1 | The bakery
7 adults and one child in front of a building.
|
| 1.1 | The restaurant
Woman in the doorway.
|
| 1.1 | The grocery store and market
Group in front of store, temporary tent to the side.
|
| 1.1 | Office of the yard boss
3 men on a porch, woman in 2nd floor window.
|
| 1.1 | The dance hall |
| 1.1 | The blacksmith shop
Man and equipment in front of shop.
|
| 1.1 | Hops, galore
Field, unharvested hop bines, 3 full baskets.
|
| 1.1 | "Vine down": result of heavy wind storms
Field with pile of bines on the ground.
|
| 1.1 | Big load of the season -- 136 sacks
Hops in sacks stacked on a wagon pulled by 2 horses, 2 men.
|
| 1.1 | In the furnace room of the dry-kilns |
| 1.1 | Sending green hops to the dry kilns |
| 1.1 | Tram car, entering the kiln |
| 1.1 | Examining hops after drying |
| 1.1 | Dry hops, entering the storage shed
Open car of hops on trestle, 6 men, tents and fields in the background.
|
| 1.1 | Testing the hops after drying
Man sniffing hops in front of large pile of hops.
|
| 1.1 | 10,000 boxes of dry hops in one pile |
| 1.1 | After the picking is over
Stacks of hop baskets.
|
| 1.1 | Pickers leaving the ranche (sic)
Men, women, and a child in and around a car.
|
| 1.1 | The "Wigrich Excursion" which returns the pickers to their homes |
| 1.1 | Down in the baling pit
Group of men and horse, loose hops on the ground.
|
| 1.1 | Putting the crop into bales |
| 1.1 | Transporting "baled hops" to the warehouse
Bales stacked onto a wagon pulled by horse, two men and a child on bales.
|
| 1.1 | Interior view of the warehouse
Bales standing on end on a row.
|
| 1.1 | Loading hops on the cars at Wigrich station
Train being loaded with bales, house to the side, sign with "WIGRICH."
|
| 1.1 | The accommodation train, Wigrich station
People and supplies being loaded onto Northern Pacific train.
|
| 1.1 | Leaving the ranche (sic) with the season's crop
Men standing in front of train on a track.
|
| 1.1 | Train leaving Independence, Oregon
Train on track with town in the background.
|
| 1.1 | View of campground
Multiple tents with trees around, dog in road.
|
| 1.1 | Mixing up bread for the pickers
3 men in a kitchen, large bowls on top of barrels with bread rising in them.
|
| 1.1 | Awaiting the daily mail: in the grocery and post office
Group inside at a counter, workers staffing store.
|
| 1.1 | Group of pickers: flashlight taken in the dance hall |
| 1.1 | Horses of the W. R. Co.
Horses lined up in front of drying kiln.
|
| 1.1 | Jersey and red durham cows of the W. R. Co. |
| 1.1 | Portland China boar: W. R. Co. |
| 1.1 | Duroc Jersey boar: W. R. Co. |
| 1.1 | Ten acres set out to young orchard
Field, house and barns in background.
|
| 1.1 | The loganberry patch
Rows of stakes and wires for berries.
|
| 1.1 | Blowing up stumps |
| 1.1 | Clearing the land, preparatory to putting in more hops |
| 1.1 | Armenians training the hops, Arslaien Bros., contracting co. |
| 1.1 | Twelve views of the pickers, Divisions numbers 1 - 12
Pickers in fields.
|
| 1.1 | Views of the Willamette River |
| 1.1 | The boundary line of the Wigrich Ranche (sic) |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Hops industry--Oregon.
- Hops--Harvesting--Oregon.
- Hops--Oregon.
Corporate Names
- Parker Studio (Salem, Or.) (creator)
Form or Genre Terms
- Photograph albums.
- Photographic prints.
Finding Aid Authors: Tiah Edmunson-Morton.
2022
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
