A Historic Look at Growing Cranberries on the Oregon Coast
Published: 09/25/2019
This 1912 photograph shows workers, primarily women and children, harvesting cranberries near Sand Lake in Tillamook County.
This 1912 photograph shows workers, primarily women and children, harvesting cranberries near Sand Lake in Tillamook County.  Photo courtsey of Oregon History Project

A valuable food for Native peoples and early pioneers, cranberries thrive along Oregon's Coast with its temperate climate, sandy soils and plenty of rainfall.

Historically, native cranberries grew in the northwest region of Oregon, harvested by indigenous people who shared the fruit with explorers. White settlers later harvested wild cranberries because they were a good source of vitamin C, which prevents scurvy and the berry's waxy coating allowed for long keeping.

In 1893, W.C. King started growing cranberries and by the turn of the century he was considered the "cranberry king" of Tillamook County. He wrote to the Oregonian in 1900 that the "picking season is usually one of pleasure to picker and grower. The weather generally is fine—September and October—and men, women and children come for an outing in the cranberry fields. They come with a camping outfit prepared to enjoy the pleasure of outdoor life." He also noted that pickers earned 50 cents per bushel. "My best pickers," King wrote, "average about three bushels a day."

Today, most of Oregon's cranberries are produced on the South Oregon Coast near Bandon, where residents have celebrated the fall cranberry harvest since 1947 with the Bandon Cranberry Festival.
A Historic Look at Growing Cranberries on the Oregon Coast