Reporter Dorothy Neighbors visited the large Tillamook cheese factory in 1958 and wrote about the experience for The Seattle Times. (Credit: The Seattle Times, 11.18.58) READ MORE
Category Archives: Factory System
Beaver Cheese Factory
This 1893 photo shows two cheesemakers at the Beaver Cheese Factory. Ike Heiner (left) was the cheesemaker; Elizabeth Foland (right) was a rare woman assisting in the factory. According to “The Tillamook Way,” Ike worked at Beaver for 30 years after the cooperative was formed by Merriman Foland, Joe Bixby, Walter West, Al Bunn, William… READ MORE
Timeline, 1963
Cheese War Timeline Event Date Event Source (See key below.) 1-1963 and 2-1963 A dairy stabilization law for the Portland milkshed was drafted by an Oregon Dairymen’s Association committee headed by George Milne, president of Tillamook Cheese & Dairy. The draft… READ MORE
Timeline, 1962
Cheese War Timeline Event Date Event Source (See key below.) 1-1-1962 Tillamook Cheese Association and Tillamook Grade A Shippers Association consolidated as Tillamook Cheese & Dairy Association on January 1, 1962. Ferd Becker, Tillamook farmer, said the Tillamook Cheese Association had title to its cheese factory, and the Grade A… READ MORE
Timeline, Pre-1960s
1850s – David Wilson brought the first domesticated cows into the area1889 – Merriman Foland and Bob Richards became Tillamook’s first commercial cheesemakers1894 – Peter McIntosh, a Canadian, brought his full-cream cheddar recipe to Tillamook and shared it with the cheesemakers1909 – 10 factories formed a marketing cooperative and named it Tillamook County Creamery Association1919… READ MORE
Memories of the Early Days
Use this link to access a 1991 interview with Dorothy Thornton, the daughter of Carl Haberlach. He was hired when 10 of the cooperative factories formed a marketing group and named it Tillamook County Creamery Association. She says he ran the organization “with an iron hand,” and he put the factories on a path to… READ MORE
Early Cheese Factory in Tillamook
The first Tillamook Cheese Factory, or “cheese kitchen,” was located at the south end of the town of Tillamook. It was one of four factories that agreed to consolidate if a new factory were built. When that facility was completed in 1949, this factory closed and, along with other factories near town (Maple Leaf, Clover… READ MORE
Awards
Tillamook Cheese gained consistent quality at its numerous member factories and won awards. Here is a photo from June 1952 showing some of its honors. READ MORE
Tillamook Factory Opens in 1949
Several small factories near the town of Tillamook agreed to consolidate if they could use a new, larger facility. Clover Leaf, Maple Leaf and Holstein factories joined forces with Tillamook Cheese Factory to build the factory north of Tillamook that we know today. The new cooperative was named Tillamook Cheese Association. (Photo Credit: The Oregonian,… READ MORE
Boxes for Shipping Cheese
In the early days of Tillamook’s cheese production, wood from the area’s many forests was used to make boxes that protected the cheese while it was shipped to groceries. Usually, the task of making boxes fell to the most junior worker in the cheese factories, who made boxes while observing the other workers and the… READ MORE
