In 1963, Tillamook Cheese & Dairy paid for a newspaper ad explaining why Red Clover and TCDA were splitting from Tillamook County Creamery Association. The reasons included: anemic cheese sales; static sales despite more cheese consumption nationally; and policy decisions that weren’t made by the farmers. (Credit: Shopping Smiles, 9.26.63) READ MORE
On December 31, 1965, Red Clover Cheese Factory merged with Tillamook Cheese and Dairy. It was the only small factory that sided with Cheese & Dairy during the Cheese War, and it remained independent although close to the town of Tillamook until the inefficiencies of small factory production, combined with production space in the large… READ MORE
Here’s a photo of the interior of a Tillamook cheese factory. It shows workers behind a milk vat and stacks of round cheese molds. (Photo credit: Oregon Historical Society Research Library CN 258727) READ MORE
The 17 factories with cheese that was marketed by Tillamook County Creamery Association reported their production for 1936. More than 7.5 million pounds of milk became more than 8.5 million pounds of cheese with a value of more than $1,707,000, or $38,475,658 today. (Unknown source) READ MORE
Holstein Creamery was on the east side of Tillamook, one of many small factories in the early days of Tillamook County’s cheesemaking. It was near the Fairview Cheese Factory, east of the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Records show that Holstein was in operation in 1918. When the large factory opened north of town in 1949, Holstein… READ MORE
This Tillamook-area cheese factory was one of several small factories in the central Tillamook County region that functioned before consolidation into the one large factory north of Tillamook after it was built in 1949. In early 1969, all remaining Tillamook County factories were forced to join that large factory. One of the causes of the… READ MORE
This 1941 photo shows an employee at the big Tillamook cheese factory working on a vat of future cheese. Rennet was a key ingredient in creating the cheese. As Linda Kirk, who was a guide back when visitors could walk around the production floor, wrote in the book, Cheese War, “Rennet causes the milk to… READ MORE
This 1958 photo shows cheese aging in the Tillamook factory’s cold storage room. (Photo from Northwest Digital Heritage) READ MORE
Every day, Tillamook County farmers hauled their cans of milk to their cheese factory. The milk was from the previous night’s milking and that morning’s milking. Farmers belonged to cheese factory cooperatives close to their farms so the delivery didn’t take all day. Once the cans were delivered, it was time to head back to… READ MORE
Male cheesemakers created the cheese, and women packaged it. In this photo from an early 1950s publication, “Home of Tillamook Cheese,” the packaging department employees are working on the newly popular rindless one- and half-pound packages of medium and sharp cheese as well as wedges and snack bars – the products we are familiar with… READ MORE
