The Sou'wester
of the Pacific County Historical Society and Museum
Spring 2004, Volume XXXIX Number 1
Last modified on August 24th, 2004 / Contact the Museum / Web editing done by Brian Davis at bridavis@gte.net.
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Volume XXXIX, Number 1
Spring, 2004
Long Beach Cranberries and World War II Cranberry Bog Railways
A quarterly publication of the Pacific County Historical Society
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The
     Sou'wester
ISSN #0038-4984
Copyright, 2004, by the Pacific County Historical Society.  No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Society's Editorial Board.

The Sou'wester is a quarterly publication of the Pacific County Historical Society and Museum.  The Pacific County Historical Society is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization in South Bend, Washington.
       1008 Robert Bush Drive
       P. 0. Box P
       South Bend, WA 98586-0039
       Website:  www.pacificcohistory.org
       E-mail:  museum@willapabay.org

In addition to the Sou'wester, the Society publishes a quarterly newsletter for its members and operates the Pacific County Historical Society Museum in South Bend, Washington.

  • Annual membership fees include Society membership and a subscription to the Sou'wester:
    • Single                                        $25
    • Family and foreign memberships $35
    • International                              $40
    • Corporate                                 $100
    • Contributing                              $50
    • Benefactor                                $200
  • Pacific County Historical Society Board of Directors:
    • Ron Hatfield
    • Ken Karch
    • Marion Davis
    • Sue Pattillo
    • Stuart Freese
  • Pacific County Historical Society Officers:
    • Vincent Shaudys, President
    • Robert Gerwig, Vice President
    • Anne McNelly, Secretary
    • Bud Cuffel, Treasurer
The Pacific County Historical Society welcomes contributions of articles and/or photographs relating to Pacific County history and culture.  Although care will be taken in handling all submitted materials, we assume no legal liability or responsibility for loss or damage.  Materials accepted for publication may be edited for grammar, clarity, and/or length.

Design and electronic page layout by Charles B. Summers, South Bend, Washington.
Printed by VSR Printing, Vancouver, Washington
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The
     Sou'wester
Spring Issue, 2004
  • Contents
    • Introduction: Page 2
    • Long Beach Cranberry Industry in World War II: Page 3
      • Military increases market demand: Page 3
      • War effort calls for more productive, efficient equipment: Page 6
        • Dry harvesting equipment: Page 7
        • Wet harvesting equipment: Page 11
    • Cranberry Bog Railways: Page 13
Cover Photograph

J. D. Crowley, founding superintendent of the Long Beach Cranberry Research Station stands in front of the facility's first building in the 1930s.  PCCRF #2004.1, Lee Paul Crowley collection.

The Cranberry Research Station's location today with it's museum and gift shop north of Long Beach on Pioneer Road.
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Introduction
     Growers on the Long Beach Peninsula and in the Grayland area are equally significant contributors to Southwest Washington’s cranberry production.  Previous Sou’wester issues have included stories about the early industry in both parts of Pacific County (Vol. 4, No. 3, Autumn, 1969; Vol. 18, No. 3, Autumn, 1983; and Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter, 1999).  However, this issue is limited primarily to historical materials displayed at the Long Beach Research Station’s cranberry museum on Pioneer Road, with a special focus on the period surrounding World War II.

The Cranberry Museum's recently opened display of early sorting and drying equipment surrounded by new wall panels with historical photos and interpretive text explaining the role of cranberries in World War II, experimental harvesting equipment, and bog railways.  PCCRF photo.
Also see the museum's cranberry harvesting section on Page 16.
     In 1993, as a result of Washington State University’s decision to close the station, West Coast cranberry growers formed the Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation (PCCRF) to purchase the facility.  WSU continues to support the personnel working at the station, while the growers farm the bogs and maintaining the buildings.  In addition to continuing cranberry research, the Foundation maintains a demonstration cranberry farm and produces commercial cranberries to help fund research and extension activities.  With the help of grants from the Ben Cheney Foundation, the station’s main building has been renovated to include a meeting facility, museum, and gift shop.
     The Cranberry Museum and Gift Shop were opened on May 2, 1997.  Although a small, one-room display of artifacts and merchandise had been established two years earlier, the new, 1200 sq. ft. facility is now a professionally designed and constructed interpretive center.  It provides residents and visitors alike with a first-class resource for learning more about the cranberry industry and its role in the economy of the Pacific Northwest.  The adjacent Gift Shop has a large selection of cranberry-related merchandise, and visitors can take the walking tour of the Research Station’s working cranberry farm.  Harvest operations in the fall are an added viewing and picture-taking opportunity.
     The museum’s main attraction is a photographic display including varieties of the cranberry, preparation and planting of a bog, cultural practices, pest management, irrigation, harvesting, processing, and marketing.  Each phase is explained and illustrated on large, 4-foot-high, wall-mounted display panels, along with the 75-year history of the Long Beach Research Station.  Over 100 professional color photographs, as well as rare historical pictures dating back to 1925 and a collection of old West Coast cranberry product labels, are accompanied by explanatory text.
     In addition, cranberry growers have donated an assortment of cranberry farming equipment, much of which was custom-made to fit the unique needs of cranberry cultivation and harvesting.  For example, there is a motorized Furford picker/pruner developed in 1956 and manufactured by Julius Furford of Grayland; a 10-foot tall suction picker that worked much like a vacuum cleaner to pick berries in the late 1940s; a gas-powered water beater used to shake berries loose in the wet harvest of a flooded bog; a homemade electric weed whacker from the 1940s; a variety of hand-operated scoop pickers; and many other tools and pieces of equipment built especially for cranberry farming.
     Earlier this year, the PCCRF added more museum space along with another group of historical photographic panels featuring the contribution of cranberries to World War II, the impact of the war effort on experimental methods of harvesting cranberries, and the use of rail systems to move product and materials across the bogs.
     The PCCRF has graciously authorized the Sou’wester to use the photographs from these recently completed displays.  In addition, the text of this issue’s articles is based on what was originally written for the display panels, with a few minor adaptations to the Sou’wester format.  For more information about the museum, call 360/642-4938 or 360/642-2891.
Bruce Weilepp, Editor
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Long Beach Cranberry industry in WWII
Text and photographs provided by the
Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation
Military increases market demand
     Cranberries, along with many other agricultural products were essential in feeding U. S. armed forces during World War II.  In fact, the Cranberry Army Pool was formed to encourage cranberry growers to pledge sale of a portion of their annual crop to the U. S. government as part of the war effort.
     The subsequent increase in demand for cranberries during the early 1940s significantly expanded production on the Long Beach Peninsula.  For example, prior to the war the market for fresh cranberries was limited to Thanksgiving and Christmas, since berries harvested in September and October would spoil if kept any longer.  Although growers stored them in drying trays, moisture still damaged some before they could be sold during the holidays.
     However, with a dehydrator built by Cranberry Canners, Inc. in Grayland, freshly picked berries could be dried, shipped to armed forces locations around the world, and reconstituted for use.  This process enabled more fresh berries to be sold during, as well as after, the harvest period and reduced fruit loss in storage.
     At the same time, the wartime shortage of manual labor to hand-pick the berries prevented growers from keeping up with the increased demand.  As a result, they began to look for new, mechanized, and more efficient methods to harvest and sort the berries, which led to the development of a variety of new and innovative harvesting and sorting equipment.
     Also during the war, cranberry Research Station superintendent D. J. Crowley was commissioned as a captain in the Washington State Guard Reserve.  He organized a 120-man company and trained the troops to assist in any emergency.  The coastal community of Long Beach was considered isolated from the rest of the state and vulnerable to attack.
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This certificate was awarded by the Cranberry Army Pool to all cranberry growers willing to pledge to sell a portion of their crop exclusively for use by the armed forces.  PCCRF #2000.1.5, a gift from Doris May Madden, daughter of W. H. Martan, cranberry grower.
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     Newspaper articles dealing with issues involving the war and cranberry industry appeared regularly in local newspapers at the time, specifically, the Chinook Observer and Ilwaco Tribune.  Here are some samples:
Crowley Addresses Kiwanis On Relation Of Food To War
     Long Beach, Wash—D. J. Crowley was the speaker at Kiwanis on Monday of last week, with Stanley Lochrie in charge of the program.
     Crowley spoke on the relation of the farm to the war effort and stressed the point that we are all in the war whether we realize it or not.  It takes seventeen men in industry to keep one soldier equipped and fed at the front and he said the American farmer will help mightily in bringing this war ‘to a victorious conclusion.  Food, he declared is the most potent article behind the soldier at the front and the worker in industry.
     Joseph Schultz attended with Mr. Crowley and spoke briefly.  Schultz is here for the second season to aid in some experiments in cross-breeding cranberry varieties to develop new and better plants.  The two men have out one thousand such plants and hope some of them will prove to be better in color and easier to harvest than the standard varieties now in use here.
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Pickers Wanted To Help Harvest Cranberry Crop; Twenty Growers Pledge to Sell to Government; Yield expected to be very good
     Long Beach, Wash—Harvesting of the peninsula’s main crop of cranberries will get underway Monday, growers announced this week, appealing to everyone to spend all possible time in the bogs.  Picking of Early Blacks and Centennials already has started, but the bulk of the peninsula’s 400 acres will not be ready until next week.
     D. J. Crowley of the state college experiment station reports a heavy set of cranberries, but adds that a good rain followed by warm weather is needed to fill out the berries.  The 1943 crop has possibilities of yielding 50 per cent more than last year.
     Growers are urging anyone wanting to pick to contact them and make arrangements for transportation if desired.  A special appeal is made to experienced scoopers and pickers as they will be most valuable in getting the crop harvested.  Pickers will be paid 45 cents a measure, which is an attractive price with the heavy set of berries.  The price at Grayland is 65 cents, but this is for a measure one-third larger than is used here.
     All peninsula members of Cranberry Canners, Inc. have signed the Cranberry Army Pool, pledging their crop to the government.  Other growers who wish to join the pool must first join the co-operative for the duration.  Growers who have pledged their cranberries to the CAP are Ingwald Alsaker, Lester Barnes, Carl Bernhardt, Albert Berry, Cline & Huddleston, T. C. Bloomer, Gene Crowley, Ida Dahl, Simon Delorey, Guido Funke, Bessie Goldenberg, William Litsche, Wilbur Meriwether, Leonard Morris, W. H. Morton, Ostgard & Sundberg, Rolla Parrish, Phillips & Kattu, Anna Pugh, Una Rine and George Westcott.
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Experiment Station Staff Aids Production Of Food For War
     Long Beach, Wash—Work and organization at the statewide system of agricultural experiment stations and branches directed from the Pullman headquarters was shown the Chamber of Commerce at their meeting Tuesday noon, with four research leaders speaking.
     “Agricultural experiment stations and other governmental units doing such work help the people even more than they do the farmers” said Dean E. C. Johnson, director of all the stations, who presided during the program.  “Through the work of these experts everybody is assured of a continuous supply of fine foods” he explained.  He told of the entire organization, including the two newest units to be set up, one at Mount Vernon to help in vital war production of vegetable seeds, and the other at Vancouver, looking toward helping war workers of that crowded area making some adjustments in moving toward the land when peace returns.
     D. J. Crowley, superintendent of the station at Long Beach, was introduced by Dean Johnson as “the man who saved the cranberry industry for Washington”.  Colorfully he told of that battle with which he has been connected since 1922.  “When we first went over to survey that industry” he said “we found more problems than cranberries” recounting the fight that has brought it up from a crop of $25,000 a year to its present importance of $700,000.  They have overcome insects, disease, unseasonable frosts and are now licking wartime absence of spray materials.  “This year we are shipping one million pounds of dehydrated cranberries, which the Army lists as the soldier’s favorite dehydrated dish” he said.  “Shortage of the crop in Massachusetts makes our crop of special value this year.”
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This poster was distributed during World War II as part of the campaign by the U. S. government and food producers like the Armour company to encourage support for the troops through the supply and conservation of food.  PCCRF #2000.1.6, donated by Lois May Madden.
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The war effort calls for more productive, efficient cranberry harvesting equipment
     The earliest method of harvesting cranberries, of course, was to pick them by hand.  It was very slow and labor intensive, and the wartime increase in demand for product and the corresponding loss of manual labor prompted growers to begin experimenting with new equipment to make harvesting more efficient.
     Two types of harvesting machines evolved around Long Beach during and following World War II.  One included machines designed to pick berries directly from dry vines, and the other type dislodged berries from vines under water in flooded bogs.  Today, the latter, or wet harvesting, is used almost exclusively on the Long Beach Peninsula, while growers in the Grayland area still prefer dry harvesting methods—most notably the Furford picker developed by Grayland grower Julius Furford.

This photo of Grayland cranberry pickers illustrates the labor intensive harvesting method in use
throughout Pacific County prior to World War II.  PCCRF #2004.10, Lee Crowley family collection.

First effort to speed the manual picking process was a wooden scoop that combed through the
vines, picked, and collected more berries than what could be done by hand.  PCCRF #1997.1.1.
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Dry Harvest Methods
     Strippers:  During the war, however, Long Beach cranberry farms were still experimenting with machines for “stripping”— a process using a system of tines or “fingers” to comb through dry vines, dislodge, and collect the berries.  This equipment, however, often resulted in the tearing or pulling of the vines and required incorporation of a trimming device to cut vines loose from the tines, which in turn damaged the fruit.  Cut vines and debris also clogged the berry collector and required a separate cleaning operation.
     Fixed-tine strippers were designed with a row of tines on the leading edge of the equipment as it is pushed or powered through the vines.  The basket-tine stripper employs a series of tined baskets on a continuous conveyor that descend into the vines, strip the berries loose, and scoop them up into a collector.  The “Oregon” fixed-tine stripper incorporated a ground roller to prevent vines from being torn from the bog floor and a reciprocating sickle to cut loose tangled vines.
     Vacuum Pickers:  One of the most unique pieces of equipment developed to increase cranberry production was the vacuum or “suction” picking machine, which some growers claimed could do the work of 10 to 12 manual pickers.
     They were a West Coast innovation in the cranberry industry with basic components including a motor powering a high velocity exhaust fan, a collection container, and a hose mounted on a platform with wheels.  An operator held the end of the hose down in the vines where the suction pulled the berries loose and propelled them up through the hose into the collector.  As shown in the accompanying photographs, suction pickers ranged from small, single-hose units not much bigger than a modern-day shop-vac to large, self-propelled, multiple-hose units capable of harvesting thousands of pounds per day.
     Although they could quickly pick large quantities of berries with little damage to the bog, the suction pickers had the disadvantage of also collecting loose vines and other debris that had to be removed later.  Also, the high velocity of the suction inside the collection hoses (over 100 miles per hour with a 2000 cu. ft. per minute fan) damaged the berries as they traveled through 90-degree turns in the 4-inch to 6-inch diameter, steel-reinforced hoses to the collection bin.

Fixed-tine stripper.  PCCRF #1997.1.2

Basket-tine stripper.  PCCRF #1997.1.3

The "Oregon" fixed-tine stripper.  PCCRF #1997.1.4.
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Harvest Problems Uppermost in Growers’ Minds; Some Try New Inventions
     Long Beach, Washington—Cranberry growers of the peninsula district are looking forward to the harvesting in a few weeks of one of the largest crops of cranberries ever produced here, with every grower optimistic as to the size and quality of the crop, but somewhat apprehensive as to the harvest operation, due to the scarcity of help.
     Picking will begin next Monday at the state experimental station, and Guido Funk of Cranmoor has a new machine picking the Early Blacks and other varieties planted there.  The machine, manufactured in Aberdeen, was delivered at Cranmoor on Monday evening, and was put to work immediately.
     This outfit is of the familiar “vacuum cleaner” type first used here last season on the Charles Nelson bog at Nahcotta.  The berries are whicked into the dome-shaped center section of the machine, which is lined heavily with a rubber sponge material to prevent bruising.
     Nelson says it enabled him to harvest a crop that he otherwise would not have been able to harvest with the limited help available.  He thinks so well of it that he bought a second one this fall.  John Elo also invested in one, and Carl Brateng of the old western bog on Pioneer Road has one.
     The mechanical picker is operated by two men, and does not do a fast job, but is thorough, never quits as long as men will work, and harvests in wet weather as well as dry.  In wet weather, the berries have to be washed, but in that case, they are delivered immediately to the station in Long Beach, where they are frozen, after which they are taken to the cranberry cannery at Markham, Washington, or at Bandon, Oregon, for the canning operation.
     The Funk machine may be seen in operation from the road past Cranmoor, and the two men holding the end of the big hose over the berry vines to suck the berries off the vines are Guido and his son Albert.

Many early suction pickers were small, and a single operator
manually pulled the machine across the bog.  PCCRF #1997.1.6

Larger, multiple hose pickers were mounted on converted vehicle
chassis' with gas engines and self-propelled.  PCCRF #1997.1.7

PCCRF #1997.1.8

The smallest of the early suction pickers (also see the photo #1997.1.8
above) appear much like a modern shop-vac.  PCCRF #1997.1.9
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Deanne and Charlie Nelson (at right) with the first commercially built suction picker to work in Long Beach.  PCCRF #2000.2.

A different kind of vacuum harvester was developed in 1947 in an effort to speed the process and reduce berry damage.  Instead of hoses, the collection system employed a a 24"x2" rectangular picking head connected by an 18" diameter section of aluminum tubing.  Suction is provided by a gasoline-powered fan housing, transferred by means of a flexible canvas boot.  The picking assembly was manually swept across in front of the machine and picked a 24" wide swath as the machine was moved over the bog.  PCCRF #1997.1.5.
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Harvesting with a multiple hose suction picker at Cranguyma Farms.  PCCRF #2000.3.

B. F. Isaacson Co. (Aberdeen, WA) built suction pickers in early 1940s.  PCCRF #2000.4.
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Wet Harvesting Equipment
     Along with the interest in better picking machines for the dry harvest of cranberries, the war’s dual impact of better markets and fewer workers got some growers thinking about a totally different way to gather the fruit with the help of water.  The first effort flooded the bogs with a few inches of water to help raise the vines off the sandy soil far enough to allow pickers to use hand scoops more effectively.  The tines on the leading edge of the scoop threaded through the semi-floating vines and dislodged the berries, which were collected in the back of the scoop.
     The next major step forward came when growers realized the implications of the berry’s natural buoyancy.  If the bog was completely flooded and the berries could be released from the vines, they would float to the surface where they could be easily scooped up.  That in turn led to experimentation with the two key phases of wet harvesting—(1) breaking the berries loose from the vines underwater, and (2) collecting the berries floating on the surface.
     Flailers:  Flail machines were typically designed around a rotating, drum-shaped unit with a series of horizontal bars fitted with tines.  As the unit was moved through a flooded bog, the gasoline engine-powered, chain-driven drum rotated while the horizontal bars repeatedly struck the vines under water, knocking the berries loose and allowing them to float to the surface.  The berries could then be scooped or netted.

A hand-operated flailer pushed across a bog with
a small motor to turn the drum.  PCCRF #1997.1.10.

A self-propelled flailer with a gas engine to turn the drum and driving wheels.  Men in background using hand scoops to collect the floating berries.  PCCRF #2004.9.1.
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     Manual Scoops:  Once berries were dislodged from the vines with a flail machine, scoops made with a wire mesh (photo on right, PCCRF #1997.1.12) could be used to collect the berries floating on the surface of a flooded bog.
     Nets:  Much like the centuries-old method of fishing, nets (photo below, PCCRF #1997.1.13) could be used to collect berries floating on the surface of a flooded bog after a flailing machine had been used.  Netting helped speed the harvesting process by concentrating the berries in a limited area where scoops could be used more effectively.

Rather than a drum with cross bars to beat the vines, this flailer used rotating groups of metal tines to pull the berries loose as they threaded through the vines.  PCCRF #1997.1.11.
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Cranberry Bog Railroads
Text and photographs provided by the
Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation
Practical transportation over the vines
     Like any agricultural operation, growing cranberries requires move around the farm of various materials and equipment, as well as harvested berries.  However, unlike crops grown in rows that allow tractors and other vehicles to be driven across fields without damaging the plants, cranberries cover every inch of a bog with a thick mat of twisting vines.  Not only would repeated travel on top of the vines be destructive, but the sandy soil underneath would be disturbed.
     Before converting from dry to wet harvesting, Long Beach cranberry growers found the best way to solve this problem was with a railway system, and the predominately dry harvesting operations in Grayland still depend heavily on their railways.  Permanent rails on the bog limit any vine damage to the narrow width of the track and the wood timbers (ties) supporting them.  Tracks were typically built with light steel rails similar to full-sized railroads and supported with 4” x 6” cross-beams, although some rails were made of wood—either with flat planking or 2” x 4” lumber on edge.
     Rail cars were constructed in a variety of sizes and shapes, depending on the grower’s needs and abilities, and usually rolled on wheels converted from vehicles designed for other purposes.  Some cars were pushed by hand, although growers normally had at least one with a gas-powered engine capable of pulling loads on other cars.

Cranguyma Farms rail cart hauling pipe for its sprinkler irrigation system.  PCCRF 2004.8.

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Cranguyma Farms installed 7 miles of standard gauge track by 1947.  PCCRF #2004.4, Lee Paul Crowley collection.

A load of sand transported in a push cart on a portable wood rail system.  PCCRF #2003.1.1, Jay Hardin collection.
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Rather than a steel railway, some farm tracks were built with flat planks.  PCCRF #2004.5, Lee Paul Crowley collection.

Research station rail cart and flat car carrying boxes of hand-picked berries.  PCCRF #2004.3.6, Lee Paul Crowley collection.
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A visitor takes in the pictures and artifacts on display at the museum's cranberry harvesting section, PCCRF photo.
Also see the museum's sorting and drying equipment on Page 2.
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A gas engine powers a railway car with cab pulling a load-carrying flat car across a Cranguyma Farms cranberry bog.  PCHS #2004.2.  WSU Collection.
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