Wagner, Charles U.

Flax was grown at least by 1844 in the Willamette Valley. A flax oil mill was established at Salem in 1867, and the first flax-spinning mill was operating at Albany by the 1870s. An exhibit of Oregon flax won the bronze medal and certificate of merit at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. By the 1890s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was touting Oregon and Washington as good flax growing areas; however, costly hand labor required to harvest and process it and competition with European producers limited flax production. In 1915, the state of Oregon built a flax processing plant at the state penitentiary in Salem, and this plant became known as the State Flax Industry. The state joined the Works Progress Administration to construct three cooperative processing plants at Springfield, Canby, and Mount Angel in 1936. Six processing plants and two spinning mills were operating in Oregon by 1941, and production reached its peak during World War II, with increased demand and reduced access to European flax. More processing plants were built to meet the demand, but the industry declined following the war.

From the description of Charles Wagner Willamette Valley Flax Industry Photographs [graphic], 1941-1946. (Oregon Historical Society Research Library). WorldCat record id: 54864022