History Corner

Fire affected Mesa Orchards several times in its history, the worst of course being the one that killed Charles Seymour in 1920. And last week I mentioned the fire that burned the evaporating plant in November of 1924.

On Feb 5, 1930 Enderse Van Hoesen wrote a letter to the General Insurance Company of America agent in Weiser: “We had a fire on December 10th around noon which destroyed our boiler-house. You are probably aware of the fact that we were washing apples at the time and since our water supply was shut off we were compelled to use a portable electric motor and pump to pump water to the boiler.”

A letter from Mesa, that also seems to date to around 1930, states: “The Mesa Orchard Company grew and shipped a total of 265 cars of fruit during the past season. Five cars of the above consisted of pears and eighteen cars of peaches, leaving a balance of 242 cars straight apples. Our fruit this season will be sold through the Federated Fruit & Vegetable Growers, Inc. of New York City.”

In letters referring to a financial statement, total assets of the Mesa Company are listed at $438,286.68. $197,828.45 of that amount was the value of buildings, the tramway, machinery and equipment, leaving $240,464.23 worth of land and fruit trees. Liabilities totaled $111,858.09 most of which was not in the form of bank loans, but “carried in the east on a long term proposition.”

Another, unsigned letter, dated April 10, 1930 from the orchards concerned Lost Valley Reservoir: “Mr. Ed Holbrook, Tamarack, Idaho - Dear Mr. Holbrook: I am enclosing a few post cards which you can fill out and send to me after you make a trip to the reservoir. Keep track of your time and we will adjust it with you. I do not think it is necessary to go over more than three times a week until the water gets up to the concrete part in the spillway. Would like to get it about half way up on the concrete before opening the gate very much so that we can be sure of filling the reservoir. If there isn’t much change perhaps you had better shut the gate again.”

A letter from Holbrook about this time said, “I went over to the dam yesterday and I had some time getting over from Strawberry. It took 7 hours to make the trip. There was a lot of snow on the north slopes. The water stood at 1770. I will go over again tomorrow and that will give me some idea how fast it is raising.”

The October 2, 1930 issue of the Weiser Signal once again published statements about the size of Mesa holdings. It is another illustration of how hard it is to nail down the actual acreages and standing in comparison to other orchards, as the statements vary so much: “The Mesa Orchards located some 57 miles from Weiser consists of 1353 acres of apples, with peaches and pears interspersed over part of the Orchard. It is the largest Orchard under one management in the United States, and this year the Orchard being 21 years old, will produce upwards of 350 cars of apples, 8 to 10 cars of peaches and 10 cars of pears. A Tramway 3.6 miles long between the mammoth packing plant at the Orchard and the loading platform and storage at the railroad cost $50,000. It will load seven carloads every 24 hours when worked to capacity.”

On March 16, 1931 The Mesa Orchard Company mortgaged its property with Chaney & Rowell Inc. of Nampa. The mortgage was not to exceed $200,000 at 7% interest.

The August 18, 1933 Leader reported that two big apple storage buildings were being built at Mesa. They were to be 75’ X 100’ with basements.

I accidentally neglected to include the teacher’s name in last week’s Mesa School photo. It was Olive Addington (Hugh’s wife) who started teaching there in 1930.

Continued next week.