Pendleton Woolen Mills and Woody Guthrie

As promised here's part two of the Pendleton Woolen Mills Saga:

In the late 1890’s the pro-business East Oregonian newspaper ran an editorial extolling the virtues of suits made from wool that was raised, spun, and woven in Umatilla county. Although this promotion likely helped business at the young Pendleton Woolen Mills, manager and stockholder Theron E. Fell’s plan was not to focus on the production of suiting materials but rather to focus attention on selling blankets and Indian robes to the nearby Umatilla reservation (261) The total Indian population of the United States at the dawn of Pendleton Woolen Mills was approximately 263,000 people. Populations in the Northwest were approximately 4000 in Oregon, 10,000 in Washington and 12,500 in California (261).

 

Shortly after the opening of the scouring plant, then scouring plant manager Theron E. Fell had “talked hopefully of a woolen mill” (257).  By mid-July 1898 Pendleton Woolen Mills was legally incorporated and plans for the mill were made public. However, raising money for the venture was slow. Lomax states that “Money-raising was always a difficult task…but especially at this time when the country was just emerging from the panic conditions of the early 1890’s” (258). Despite delays caused by the economic slump the Pendleton Woolen Mills began operation on September 7, 1896 (260).

 

“The company took particular pains to weave the correct designs and color demanded by the Indians…Robes with colors acceptable to the Crows in the north were unacceptable to the Navajos in the southwest. To meet this diversified demand and to assure accuracy in manufacture, a factory representative visited the various reservations” (261). Such attention to detail paid off, and Pendleton blankets sold well on the reservations. One store in Yakima, Washington placed an order for 1000 blankets in March 1897 and estimated that an additional 1500 would be sold that year (262).

 

Pendleton products also sold well off the reservation. Robes in school colors were popular at colleges and universities, steamer rugs sold well in the east. But Pendleton remained primarily focused on the production of Indian blankets and robes. They worked to capitalize on the idea of the “romantic western Indian” to sell these products off the reservation. Early advertisements explicitly announced the connection between the Pendleton Mills and the Umatilla reservation pointing out that Pendleton robes are to Indians what a “Paris hat is to a Chicago girl on Easter morning” (264). In 1902 further investments were made in advertising. A number of well-known Indians were photographed wearing Pendleton robes, and these images along with a variety of images depicting Pendleton’s being used indoors and out were reproduced. An eight page booklet showing suggested uses for Pendleton robes was also produced from these images (268)

 

Despite initial success, the first woolen mill at Pendleton did not last long. Using a number of primary source documents including legal proceedings, newspaper articles, and property leases Lomax infers that the Pendleton Mill went idle around 1907 (271). His sources seem to indicate that both economic problems in the region and legal problems at the mill played a role in the company’s collapse.

Photo:. Umatilla County: A Backward Glance. Compiled by theUmatilla Historical Society. Published by E. O. Master Printers, Pendleton. 1980.

Lomax, Alfred L. Later Woolen Mills in Oregon. Portland:Binfod and Morts, 1974.

As an aside to all this Pendleton talk, I had the privilege of watching a 1950 film called "Columbia" which was put out by the Boneville Power Administration. It was one giant ode to dam building as a force for colonization and weapons manufacture. It was totally disturbing and would have been funny had it been fiction. The entire musical score was Woody Guthrie...