Wigrich Ranche Photographic Album, circa 1915

Add to Shelf

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.

Creators

ID: P 352

Extent: 0.1 cubic feet

More Extent Information

Scope and Content Notes

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. There are 62 photographs. 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.

Biographical / Historical Notes

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation: Wigrich Ranche Photographic Album (P352), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Acquisition Note: Collection purchased in 2021.

Other

Container List

Series 1: Photographs Add to Shelf

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.

Box-Folder 1.1 Add to Shelf

Item 1: Major W. Lewis Rose, Manager Add to Shelf
Item 2: The Product of the ranche (sic) Add to Shelf: Picture of hop clusters.
Item 3: The Wigrich Special Add to Shelf: Train carrying pickers.
Item 4: Major Rose and Family Add to Shelf: Major W. Lewis Rose, farm manager, with his wife Charlotte and daughter Winifred in front of their house with 2 dogs.
Item 5: Wigrich house Add to Shelf: Rose family and other man in front of house, two dogs.
Item 6: General view of the yards Add to Shelf: Includes drying kiln.
Item 7: The "upper six" dry-kiln Add to Shelf: Kiln with hops being loaded, workers, horses.
Item 8: The "big four" dry kiln Add to Shelf: Kilns and stacks of hop sacks on wagons.
Item 9: The bakery Add to Shelf: 7 adults and one child in front of a building.
Item 10: The restaurant Add to Shelf: Woman in the doorway.
Item 11: The grocery store and market Add to Shelf: Group in front of store, temporary tent to the side.
Item 12: Office of the yard boss Add to Shelf: 3 men on a porch, woman in 2nd floor window.
Item 13: The dance hall Add to Shelf
Item 14: The blacksmith shop Add to Shelf: Man and equipment in front of shop.
Item 15: Hops, galore Add to Shelf: Field, unharvested hop bines, 3 full baskets.
Item 16: "Vine down": result of heavy wind storms Add to Shelf: Field with pile of bines on the ground.
Item 17: Big load of the season -- 136 sacks Add to Shelf: Hops in sacks stacked on a wagon pulled by 2 horses, 2 men.
Item 18: In the furnace room of the dry-kilns Add to Shelf
Item 19: Sending green hops to the dry kilns Add to Shelf
Item 20: Tram car, entering the kiln Add to Shelf
Item 21: Examining hops after drying Add to Shelf
Item 22: Dry hops, entering the storage shed Add to Shelf: Open car of hops on trestle, 6 men, tents and fields in the background.
Item 23: Testing the hops after drying Add to Shelf: Man sniffing hops in front of large pile of hops.
Item 24: 10,000 boxes of dry hops in one pile Add to Shelf
Item 25: After the picking is over Add to Shelf: Stacks of hop baskets.
Item 26: Pickers leaving the ranche (sic) Add to Shelf: Men, women, and a child in and around a car.
Item 27: The "Wigrich Excursion" which returns the pickers to their homes Add to Shelf
Item 28: Down in the baling pit Add to Shelf: Group of men and horse, loose hops on the ground.
Item 29: Putting the crop into bales Add to Shelf
Item 30: Transporting "baled hops" to the warehouse Add to Shelf: Bales stacked onto a wagon pulled by horse, two men and a child on bales.
Item 31: Interior view of the warehouse Add to Shelf: Bales standing on end on a row.
Item 32: Loading hops on the cars at Wigrich station Add to Shelf: Train being loaded with bales, house to the side, sign with "WIGRICH."
Item 33: The accommodation train, Wigrich station Add to Shelf: People and supplies being loaded onto Northern Pacific train.
Item 34: Leaving the ranche (sic) with the season's crop Add to Shelf: Men standing in front of train on a track.
Item 35: Train leaving Independence, Oregon Add to Shelf: Train on track with town in the background.
Item 36: View of campground Add to Shelf: Multiple tents with trees around, dog in road.
Item 37: Mixing up bread for the pickers Add to Shelf: 3 men in a kitchen, large bowls on top of barrels with bread rising in them.
Item 38: Awaiting the daily mail: in the grocery and post office Add to Shelf: Group inside at a counter, workers staffing store.
Item 39: Group of pickers: flashlight taken in the dance hall Add to Shelf
Item 40: Horses of the W. R. Co. Add to Shelf: Horses lined up in front of drying kiln.
Item 41: Jersey and red durham cows of the W. R. Co. Add to Shelf
Item 42: Portland China boar: W. R. Co. Add to Shelf
Item 43: Duroc Jersey boar: W. R. Co. Add to Shelf
Item 44: Ten acres set out to young orchard Add to Shelf: Field, house and barns in background.
Item 45: The loganberry patch Add to Shelf: Rows of stakes and wires for berries.
Item 46: Blowing up stumps Add to Shelf
Item 47: Clearing the land, preparatory to putting in more hops Add to Shelf
Item 48: Armenians training the hops, Arslaien Bros., contracting co. Add to Shelf
Item 49-60: Twelve views of the pickers, Divisions numbers 1 - 12 Add to Shelf: Pickers in fields.
Item 61: Views of the Willamette River Add to Shelf
Item 62: The boundary line of the Wigrich Ranche (sic) Add to Shelf

People, Places, and Topics

Forms of Material

Related Materials