I took some extra time before the recent state conference in Ellensburg to visit the Central Washington Branch of the Washington State Archives.

Brigid Clift is the director of the Archives Branch and a most sunshiny and helpful gal she was! I emailed her ahead of time with a short list of things I wanted to view (their catalog/holdings is online) and she had them ready for me, no problem.

One really fun thing I wanted to look at was a mimeographed newsletter titled The Goodfruit Grower. The first issue of this local publication..

was on Thursday, April 18, 1946 with the stated purpose “to watch and report regularly the news, data and information of dollars and sense value to our readers.” Here are some of the quips I copied:

16 May 1946:  “London: the first strawberries of the season appeared in the London market today. Priced at 5 cents a berry the supply disappeared within an hour.”

Grafton, ND:  “More than 4000 carloads of potatoes, about 80,000 tons, which could have been used to help feed starving Europe, have rotted in this community because government agencies failed to provide transportation.”

“A new type of Yellow Newton apple has been announced by Curtis Allen, Yakima fruit grower.”

“The time for peach and apricot growers to control the costly peach borer is right now, the Chelan County agent said recently….the poison recommended is ethylene dichloride.”

“Disease ridden cherry trees in King, Pierce and Thurston counties, some 17,500 of them, are being pulled by the state.”

13 Jun 1946:  “Congressman Hal Holmes of Washington informed the Yakima Chamber of Commerce that he is urging the Department of Agriculture to take immediate steps to provide a supply of bread to the harvest workers in the Yakima valley.”

If you have ancestors who lived in the counties covered by these archives, I strongly suggest you plan a visit.  The sign is hidden by the bushes but the building, on the campus of the college, is this:

Thank you, Brigid, for a delightful visit.