The following information was provided by J.J. Inskeep 20 Mar 1958:
This photograph shows shocks of flax drying in the field. Plants were machine pulled. The roots added to the total length of fibre obtained from each plant.
Fibre Flax production got underway in the early 1930s. Production at first centered around the state penitentiary at Salem which maintained a retting and scutching plant and purchased flax in Marion and Clackamas Counties.
A successful processing plant, retting and scutching was erected at Lone Elder 2 miles south of Canby in the mid 1930s. This was a cooperative venture under good management. In the late 1940's Willamette Valley production was rendered unprofitable by European imports. Purchasers were not interested in Oregon flax because of the limited acreage favorable to the fibre flax plant in the U.S. (the Willamette Valley). Synthetics also played a part as substitutes. The Lone Elder plant was liquidated successfully about 1950. A second plant constructed near Liberal was never successfully operated.
A-0025.000164
Made/Created
Place
Unincorporated Community
Lone Elder
County
Clackamas
State
Oregon
Country
United States of America
Continent
North America
Notes
Medium: Photographic Paper
Location of Negative: Halon
