Charles Wagner Willamette Valley Flax Industry Photographs [graphic], 1941-1946.

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Charles Wagner Willamette Valley Flax Industry Photographs [graphic], 1941-1946.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54864022

Charles Wagner, manager of the Oregon Insurance Rating Bureau (later the Pacific Fire Insurance Rating Bureau), made the 5 x 7 inch glossy prints to document the value of harvested crops, storage and processing buildings, and harvesting and processing equipment. The images show the Willamette Valley flax industry at its height, including plants at Canby, Corvallis, Dayton, Harrisburg, Irving, Monroe, Mount Angel, Santiam, Silverton, Springfield, St. Paul, and Washington County.

54 photographic prints : b&w ; 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 7 in.)

Oregon Historical Society Research Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 7682568

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Wagner, Charles U.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ks9qm6 (person)

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 Euro...