The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1910-08-18
LOCAL MEN ORGANIZE
SEARS ORCHARD CO.

The D. H. Sears Orchard company
has been organized by group of we'll
known local men and others to de-
velop a large tract of orchard land in
Little White Salmon Valley. A. P.
Walker, of North Yakima, B. NJ.
Satterfield, of Pocatello, j. c.
Porter, Y. c. Brock and Roy C.
Brock, of Hood River, Oregon, incor-
porators, of the company recently
formed under laws of the State OF
Washington, and by virtue of the laws
of the state, trustees for six months,
met Thursday evening to elect officers
and further perfect the organization.
Officers elected were j. c. Porter,
president; A. p. Walker, vice.
president: V. c. Brock, secretary and
treasurer, and Roy c. Brock, business
manager.
The company holds a tract of fine,
undeveloped orchard. land in the Little
White Salomn valley in Skamania
County, Washington, 7 mile west of
Hood River. The tract consists of
2700 acres lying on the east side of
The Lite White Salmon River,
practically controlling the river from
its mouth to a point miles north of
the S. P. & S. Railway, which will
make it as easily accessible as any of
the valleys tributary to the Colubmia
river. Originally this tract was pur-
chased by the Oregon Lumber Com
pany from residents and homesteaders,
for the timber on it. After being
logged off, it was sold to John Leland
Henderson, and latter to the Portland
Railway Light & Power Co., who
purchased it with the intention of
utilizing the water power in the river
But upon their acquiring sufficient
power for their operations in the
Clackamas and other streams much
nearer Portland, they deemed it ad-
visable to dispose of their holdings
in Little White Salmon Valley.
J. c. Porter, of the Sears & Porter
Orchards, president of the company,
was pioneer Of the apple industry in
the Hood RIVER valley, having with
his father-in-law, d. H. Sears, now
deceased, grown the first commercial
orchard in the valley, and shipped the
first carload of apples from Hood
River to New York City. Mr..
Walker was for many years Chief
Dispatcher of the Northern Pacific
lines at Spokane, which position he
resigned to develop his orchard pro-
perty in the Yakiam Valley. He is
now one of the most successful orchard
lists in that section. V. G. Brock is
the Assistant Cashier of the First
National Bank at Hood River and
Treasurer for the County of Hood
River. B. M. Satterfield, was closely
associated with the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad in the east for many years,
later serving with the Oregon Short
Line. Roy c. Brock has been as
socated with the Sears & Porter in
terests in Hood River for a number of
years and for several years has filled
the position of manager for fruit or
ganization in Southern Idaho, Washing
ton and British Colubmia, later be-
coming identified with the large apple
exporting firm of Rae & Hatfield, New
York City, as their North Pacific
Coast Representative,
1t is the purpose of the company to
develop the tract into commercial
orchards and sell to the many desirous
of obtaining the orchards of this un-
excelled district, in a developed state.
Temporarily the Offices of the company
will be in Hood River. Manager
Brock says that the property bids fair
to make ideal orchard land. 1t has
been logged off for several years and
as the timber taken off was not large
the clearing will not be difficult. The
topography of the tract is said to be
similar on smaller scale to the west
side of the Hood River valley while
the soil is the famous red shot. Mr..
Brock says that the water rights
owned by the company will make ir-
rigation of the lands very easy.
They expect to get their plans per-
fected as rapidly as possible and it may
be that development can be begun
this winter.