On October 9, 1848, General John G. Adair was appointed as the first collector of customs for Oregon, with his office at Astoria. He at first occupied an office in a rented building but the government soon erected the building which is pictured here- the first custom house in the territory.
In January, 1935, the report on farms in Oregon is as follows: Farms — full owners - - - - - 42,653 in the state. “ with managers - - - - - 715 “ “ “ “ with tenants - - - - - 14,065 “ “ “ “ part owners - - - - - 7,396 “ “ “ Total number of farms in the state of Oregon - 64,826.
It is estimated that more than $2,500,000 worth of home garden and truck garden products were raised in Oregon in 1935. Here we see one of the big diversified truck gardens.
In 1934 Oregon produced 4,930,000 bushels of apples for which the average price of $0.69 a bushel was received. The wheat yield was about 12,615,000 bushels.
Here is a sample of the more than one-and-a-half million tons of hay raised in Oregon in one season. Alfalfa constitutes the major part of this amount, while grain hay, wild hay and red clover follow in the order given. Oregon’s yield of all kinds of hay in 1934 was about 800,000 tons.
An Oregon strawberry field which yields ripe, red, luscious fruit that needs no further description to most Oregonians. The barreling of strawberries (cold pack) increased from 32,717 barrels in 1926 to 67,655 barrels in 1932. The packing of frozen strawberries in packages ranging from one pound to fifty pounds increased from 739,853 packages in 1928 to 1,921,802 packages in 1932.
At one time Baker County lead in the production of gold. This is a near view of one of her dredges in operation. The 1932 report gives Jackson and Josephine counties as the most important gold producing district in Oregon. Baker Country stands second and Curry is in third place.
Here is an ocean steamship at a Portland wharf ready to load a cargo of wheat. Comparing the three major wheat export districts of the United States over a period of seven years, 1925 to 1931, inclusive, Portland ranks second each year with the exception of 1927 when she placed first. That puts Portland first as a wheat port on the Pacific Coast and second in the United States.
Mrs. Dye's home is on the Heights, Oregon City, overlooking the Willamette River. "Not only pioneers but voyagers of the Hudson Bay era, Indians and Missionaries have made pilgrimages to this home and told again the tales of the other days."
Eva Emery Dye is the author of McLoughlin and Old Oregon, The Conquest, and McDonald of Oregon. Her heroes are Indians, traders, trappers, missionaries and pioneers, the first whose feet trod the shores of Puget Sound and the Rover Columbia. Mrs. Dye is the mother of four children and wrote The Conquest while two of her children were babies. In 1934 her latest book The Soul of America, an Oregon Iliad was published. Commenting on this book Mrs. Dye says: "This is an Oregon story, but it is much more than that. It reaches back into the origins of Oregonians, and the spirit that brought them here. It is not adventure merely; it is history and it is life." The Oregon Skylark and The Oregon Grape are her best known poems. The Oregon Grape was set to music by A.M. Sanders.