A brief land history
The land that our market exists on has had a long history with the cultivation of food and stewardship of land. Scroll through a very brief history of food in West Gresham. This legacy continues today through community gardens and food growers in the Rockwood neighborhood!
What is now known as The Portland Metro area has been the traditional home to the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla and many other tribes for thousands of years. These indigenous peoples served both as residents and stewards of the land, cultivating the once wild forests into hunting and farming areas.
By 1860, all the indigenous tribes in Western Oregon had either been driven onto reservations or ruthlessly murdered. Despite intentional acts of violence and genocide that linger on today, the indigenous tribal nations still remain active today.
Pictured here, people of the Klamath tribe sit in their dugout canoes.
Picture courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society
Like much of East Multnomah County, parts of Gresham were home to Japanese farmers. Brothers Joe and Henry Kato, pictured here, are farming their cabbage field just off SE 190th Avenue and Richey Road.
The Katos were interned during World War II, and the Bliss family took care of their farm during that period. This photo was taken shortly after they came home, in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Henry Kato would go on to become a prominent Gresham citizen, playing an instrumental role in the establishment of the Gresham-Ebetsu (Japan) sister city program, working with the Gresham Historical Society on local Japanese American history, and serving on the citizens advisory board for Mount Hood Community College during its founding, among many other civic activities.
Picture and information courtesy of the Gresham Historical Society
The Gresham Berry Growers was a cooperative association of berry farmers in eastern Multnomah County and northern Clackamas County. The association began in 1919, and became the largest employer in Gresham through its cannery and packing plant, shipping millions of pounds of frozen produce across the country during its peak production years. In 1965, facing supply issues caused by Gresham's increasing urbanization, the association's board voted to merge with the United Growers of Salem under the Flav-R-Pac label, moving the cannery business to Salem.
Picture and information courtesy of the Gresham Historical Society