Please Note: All Material on this page, and in all my "History of Gear" webpages, is copyrighted, and no usage of my material is permitted unless explicit permission is granted by me, Bruce B. Johnson, owner of OregonPhotos.com.
In the image is a Native America motif; it is similar to some petroglyphs I have seen in the Columbia River Gorge. I took this image inside the Pendleton store in Washougal. The object is a very large blanket of thick wool, that hung with many others, all with wonderous motifs celebrating the long-term linkages between Pendleton Woolen Mills and the Native American culture of the Pacific Northwest. It's a very honorable tradition.
Pendleton Mills began in 1863--- To place this date in context in The History of Gear, this was seventy-five years before REI Coop was formed in Seattle!
When Pendleton Woolen Mills opened, Oregon had only been a State for four years! The cold, wet climate provided an excellent long-term market selling wool clothing and blankets to generations of loggers, farmers, ranchers, Native Americans and townsfolk! Even the rise of the new-fangled wool replacement called "fuzz pile" failed to put this Northwest legend in the grave.
These Days, the main Pendleton facilities are split between the mill in Pendleton, Oregon and the store and factory near Oregon's largest city, some 200 miles to the west of Pendleton (the town)....The corporate offices are in Portland, making the company an Oregon-based one. Customers now associate the company with the sprawling store/factory just across the Columbia River from Portland, in Washougal, Washington (see below)....For more about Pendleton, go to my "Pendleton, page one."
Please Note: All Material above, and in all my "History of Gear" webpages, is copyrighted, and no usage of my material is permitted unless explicit permission is granted by me, Bruce B. Johnson, owner of OregonPhotos.com. .. Editors: Please contact me if you have interest in publishing....Others: if you were involved with one of the old-line, vintage gear companies and have a story to tell in these pages, please contact me soon.
