Black Diamond NOW

Pulling Out All the Stops - To Learn About Hops

Silly title, I know, but it sure was fun following those farm trucks full of hops as they delivered their bounty to processing plants.  If harvesting hops is considered low tech, then hops processing plants are anything but  Once a hop vine leaves the truck, it's all automated from there.  No more quaint looking hop kilns.  Following is an example of the typical hops receiving stations I observed.

This modern looking facility had 3 truck bays that were full constantly.  Note the hose like apparatus that hangs from the ceiling in each bay.  Here's a closer look.  

It wasn't clear to me how, whether through suction or done manually, but the end of the rope vine on which the hops grow is captured by this overhead "conveyer line".  Each vine is hung independently.  

Once hung, each vine then is taken to the building next door that separates the hops from the vines.  The door was closed and I was unable to observe exactly how this separation occurs.  Another conveyor then transfers the hops to another building next door for drying and final preparation.

The conveyor we see in the background recovers the vines and loads them into another truck for disposal (compost?).  Following is the modern version of a hop kiln.

This is definitely big business.  Here's the finished product all packaged and ready for use at a brewery.

72 million pounds of hops will be harvested in the Yakima Valley this year.  The U.K. represents the largest export market importing 10.7 million pounds with Mexico second at 8 million pounds.  Over 52,000 acres of hops are now planted in the U.S. with 75% of production grown in the Yakima Valley.  Thank you Ezra Meeker.

Trivia question - How many pounds of hops were produced in the Puyallup/White River valleys in 1888?  According to Legacy Washington, nearly 1 million pounds!  Pretty amazing.  Considering what was required to harvest and process hops at the time, it's even more amazing.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, MOHAI 90.45.11, Anders Wilse photographer, circa 1900

 

The Road To Innovation - Not Always Pretty

The road to technological innovation is a rough one, with failures far exceeding successes.  And so it was for early loggers in the northwest.  Faced with huge timber growing on steep hillsides and in remote locations, there was no roadmap that applied.  In the upper Midwest, Minnesotans and Michiganders logged "skinny" timber on flat land. This coupled with a shortage of capital meant that new non-traditional ways had to be found.  Early logging railroads here were not always what you might think of as "classic" and definitely not pretty.  Following are a few pictures of "home made" logging locomotives from the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, AR255-114-0-1_L-0404, John Labbe collection, circa 1903

The photographer's caption reads: "This home-built locomotive, operating on WOODEN RAIL and TRAILING logs in the woods of Southwestern Washington, might well have been termed an ABORTION by local loggers."  Why they would use two boilers remains a mystery.

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, AR255-114-0-1_L-0369, John Labbe collection, n.d.

No doubt for use on flatlands only.

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, AR255-114-0-1_L-0534, John Labbe collection, circa 1902

More wooden rails.

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, AR255-114-0-1_L-0721, Darius Kinsey photographer, n.d.

Looks like a Speeder adapted for use as a locomotive.

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, AR255-114-0-1_L-0720, Darius Kinsey photographer, n.d.

Definitely home built. 

I guess we could call these "innovation in the raw".

Hop Harvesting and Other Mysteries of Life

I try to make it a daily habit to learn something new each day.  Something that I've not known or understood before.  It could be trivial, or on good days, maybe more serious and important insight.  Last Saturday, it was more important and serious - I learned how hops are harvested and processed in modern day.  While waiting for the clouds to clear at Tipsoo Lake, I headed down into the Yakima Valley to see how it's done.  Hop harvesting is now in peak season and this is where 75% of the hops grown in the U.S. are produced (see my earlier post When Hops Were King).  

My fascination with hops is both historical and because they are such a unique plant grown in a very unique way.

Acres and acres, many owned by brewing companies, are now in full "bloom".  Note the rope to which the hop vines cling.  These vines can be 15 feet or more tall.

The harvest process is remarkably simple yet efficient.  It begins with a tractor driving down a row and cutting the bottom rope on each side.  This leaves the rope secured at the top by wires running across and down the rows.

Another tractor then follows and cuts the vine ropes at the top, with vines then falling into a truck located directly in front of the tractor.

Kind of hard for the truck driver to see.  I guess that's why they have a lookout apparently giving directions.  Once a truck is full of vines, still clinging to their long ropes, off they go to the processing facility.

They were filling a truck about every 10 minutes.

And this is what we have left.

There you have it, vital new information and knowledge to start your day.

Although the hop harvesting process remains what I'll call "low tech", hop processing technology is now anything but low tech.  More about this in a future post as I followed trucks from hop fields to processing plants.

p.s. The Yakima Valley Hops Festival is next Saturday Sept. 30 for those who may be interested.

When Hops Were King

Several years ago I posted an article titled Coal, Clay, Cinnabar or Timber - Who Really Was King in the late 1800's?  The answer of course was none of them - hops were king at the time.  Even today, hops remain big business in Washington State with 75% of the hops grown in the U.S. grown in the Yakima Valley.  Though Germany is typically #1 in the world, the U.S. comes in a close second.  If you have ever seen them, hop kilns are unique and what we see in the Yakima Valley today pretty much resemble the same structures we saw in the Puyallup Valley back in the day.

Image courtesy University of Washington Libraries, BARR155; A.H. Barnes photographer, circa 1910

Must have been picture day in the Puyallup Valley.  Jacob Meeker first began growing hops on his farm in Sumner in 1865, followed by his son Ezra who had a real knack for both the technical side of growing and processing and promotion, traveling frequently to Europe to sell his hops.  The following illustration shows just how sophisticated Meeker's processing facilities were.

Image courtesy University of Washington Libraries, shs15362, circa 1883

Quoting from illustration notes: 

"This illustration shows several buildings at Ezra Meeker's hop processing plant in Puyallup. A wagon (right) carries in boxes of hops. The wood (foreground) is fed to the furnace (far right) which heats the row of chimneyed kilns where the hops are dried. The illustration is taken from Meeker's 1883 book on hop growing."

The vents at the top of the of the kilns actually had fans to move hot air generated below up and through several levels of hops containers stacked for drying.  The following graphic shows a typical kiln used in the Yakima Valley today.

More sophisticated to be sure but using the same principles with the same exhaust vent structure at the top.  For IPA fans, this is where your brew begins.

Where Hot Springs become Geysers

Hot springs are a fairly common phenomenon in Washington State and were particularly popular as a resort/spa destination in the early to mid 1900's.  Known for the miraculous curing powers of their mineral water, they sure made you feel good.  Soaking in nice warm water will do that for you.  The Green River Hot Springs near the ghost town of Lester was one the biggest and best in it's day.  But we don't have geysers here.  What's the difference?  They both have geothermally heated water bubbling up to the surface.  The difference, of course, is water under pressure.  Our local hot springs are more like small "seeps".  You have to go to Yellowstone to see the big ones and home to over half of the 900 or so total geysers in the world.  

So when in Yellowstone, you have to play tourist and take in the sights of these wonderful phenomena.  Not even a geyser, the Grand Prismatic Spring is one of the more beautiful springs you will ever see.  It's also the largest hot spring in the U.S. and no. 3 in the world.

And colorful too.  The range of colors we see are caused by the different micro-organisms that live in the springs.

Here's a view from the ridge that we see in the background above.

Lots of people.  But on to the geysers - nearly 500 of them at Yellowstone.

Put that same hot water under pressure and a very narrow opening to the surface, as pressure builds it eventually causes an eruption.  Old Faithful, of course, is the most commonly known.  With all the lights from surrounding buildings, though still beautiful, I found that it was not the best place to try to capture the geyser erupting at night along with the milky way and stars in the background.  Here's what I got.

Determined to see something more natural, I settled on hanging out at the Great Fountain Geyser.  Sure had a nice sunset.

I had heard that the Great Fountain was due to erupt sometime between 7:30 pm and midnight.  I got lucky and the milky way showed up too.

Pretty amazing place.

McDougal & Biladeau Logging - Ravensdale 1910 - 1912

When I think of Ravensdale history, my mind obviously goes first to coal and coal miners (see Bustling Ravensdale Circa 1914 and Ravensdale Circa 1910's).  Logging and the McDougal & Biladeau Logging Company, however, also played an important, though short, role in the town's history.  Judging by the size of McDougal & Biladeau's logging operation, it was quite significant for its time, logging both section's 18 and 19.  I expect that the mines represented a ready market for much of their logged timber.  They operated two complete logging camps.  Following are a couple of photos of Camp 1.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, CUR835, Asahel Curtis photographer, circa 1911

Powered by a wood fueled steam donkey and using a spar tree for rigging, flat cars are being loaded, 3 or 6 logs to the railcar depending on how many they could stack on.  

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, CUR836, Asahel Curtis photographer, circa 1911

Logs were typically transported as stacked with NO chains to secure the load.  Following is a view from Camp 2.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, CUR839, Asahel Curtis photographer, circa 1911

Look at the size of drums used on this rig.  Not the safest place to be.

Fox Jump

Yep, foxes really do jump when they hunt.  Following is a sequence of photos that track a fox as it successfully lands dinner.  Had I not seen it, I would not have believed it.

Ouch, looks like he would smash his nose.

Got it, some kind of rodent with a rat like tail.

Here's a close up.

Such beautiful animals.  3 days in Yellowstone averaging maybe 4 hours per night sleep.  So much to see and so much to be in awe of.

 

Logging Trucks - Air Conditioned

Why did so many early logging trucks have no doors?  Built in air conditioning? 

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, PIC1622, Lee Pickett photographer, circa 1931

As we can see in the above photo taken near the Miller River in King County, transporting huge logs on undersized rigs could be dangerous.  Roads had many twists and turns and were not always in the best of condition even with planks laid in sections like we see above.  The weight of a single log could easily cause failure in even the best maintained brakes when going steeply down hill, and you never knew when you might lose control.  Removing the door therefore became common practice, making it easy to depart the cab in a hurry when the brakes failed.

The Black River - A River No Longer

Until 1916, the Black River linked Lake Washington with the Duwamish River, and the water was deep enough for steamboats to travel between towns on the lake and Puget Sound. After the lake was lowered in 1916, during construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, the Black River dried up and gradually disappeared. This photo shows the Black River as it looked around 1898-1900.

Photo courtesy Museum of History & Industry, 1988.33.286, Anders Wilse photographer, circa 1899

What was once the streambed of the Black River is currently the site of the Renton Wastewater Treatment Plant and its point of discharge.

Black Diamond Library - Circa 1917

Yep, this is not a typo.  Black Diamond established the first community library in our area all the way back in 1917.  Ever resourceful, city fathers carved out available space in a local hotel for the library's first reading room.  Enumclaw followed suit in 1922 but it was not until 1947 before Maple Valley added a library and 1988 before Covington had it's own library.  Providing a quality education for our children and space for building "community" have long been high priorities here.  

A few more key dates:

• 1943 - The Black Diamond library was closed and what is now the King County Library System (KCLS) served our community with bi-monthly bookmobile service.
• 1944 - A local teacher refurbished and reopened the library.
• 1948 - Black Diamond formed a Library Board.
• 1957 - The library moved to a teachers cottage on Lawson St.

Photo courtesy King County Library System and History Link.org

Headlines read "Black Diamond library moves to old "Teachers Cottage" , making it the only library in King County with it's own bathtub."

• 1959 - Black Diamond contracts with KCLS for library services.  This is also the year Black Diamond was first incorporated as a city.
• 1968 - Library moves to Municipal Building, current location of Police Dept. headquarters, City Courtroom and Council Chambers.

Photo courtesy Black Diamond History, New library, muny building dedication set, circa 1968

• 1990 - KCLS annexation
• 1991 - Library moves to rented space on the 2nd floor of what is now City Hall on Roberts Drive

• 2008 - 150 people attended the grand opening of our community's wonderful new facility

Though the technology and means of delivering services has changed considerably, the library's core mission is little different today than it was 100 years ago.  More about this is a future post.

 

Lake Sawyer Fish are Biting!

Labor Day weekend - time for Judy and granddaughter Noel to go toe to toe in their own unique fishing derby.  It's been a while since their last contest, but time to get out the hooks and dig for worms.  Here's a photo of Noel at about age 2 with her first catch.

Here she is again now at age 17.  They sure grow up.

To all of our surprise, the fish were really biting.  Nothing big.  Just sunfish.  They sure like worms.  In less than an hour, Noel had landed (and released) 14 while Judy still managed to bring in a respectable 7 fish.  Great fun for even 17 year olds - to go along with swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding.

We even had a nice colorful sunset without the smoke.

Labor Day weekend at Lake Sawyer is quite the place to be.  You can even march in the Black Diamond Labor Day parade.  Now beat that Seattle.

 

Back to School Circa 1921

Back to school time and its been interesting observing families as they stock up on today's "ten essentials" in preparation.  Certainly a big change from when Judy and I went to school and light years from early Black Diamond days.  What was needed by school children early in the 20th century?  In large part, student needs were dictated by the "media" teachers worked with including chalk boards, paper and bound books.  Pencils and chalk would do the trick and maybe a few crayons for fun.  Books were generally supplied by the school and fiercely guarded like they were the crown jewels. 

Photo courtesy Museum of History & Industry, 1983.10.2404.3, Webster & Stevens photographers, circa 1921

The above photo shows the "Back Room" at West Seattle High School.  At the time, many schools taught commercial classes in subjects such as how to staff an office, records management, typing, taking dictation, office supplies management, inventory and other "administrative" skills.  Few students went on to University.  Books were also precious - to be scrupulously tracked and accounted for.  Here we see upper grade students checking out books to other students and accounting for every single one.  Taking a book home was often prohibited lest one get lost for the next class.

Biggest change in essentials today?  Backpacks to be sure and as you get older, cell phones - for use just as calculators, keeping track of homework assignments, reading books electronically and scheduling of course.  And you still do need pencils.

Lake Sawyer Water Quality Trends - Phosphorus

For Lake Sawyer water quality, phosphorus represents too much of a good thing.  Just as phosphorus in our lawn fertilizer serves to stimulate plant growth, it has the same effect in the lake stimulating algae and other plant growth.  The more plant growth we have, the less light, the less oxygen and the accumulation of even more oxygen depleting waste along the lake bottom.  The following graphic serves to illustrate.

This process eventually leads to lake eutrophication, otherwise known as a dead lake.

Obviously, this is not what we want for Lake Sawyer.  To measure the state of lake water quality, King County uses what is called a trophic state index that includes the measurement of three variables - secchi disk water clarity (for which I posted data trends last week), phosphorus and chlorophyll-a.  This post will focus on phosphorus.  Following are charts plotting phosphorus measurements taken in both May and August for the years 2001 - 2017.

As you can see, measurements of phosphorus are taken at three different depths - 1 meter, 8 meters and 15 meters.  No data is available from King County for the year 2005 or for 2015 at a depth of 15 meters.  Because nearly a third of the lake's phosphorus loading is contained in sediment accumulated at lake bottom, this measure tends to be the most variable from year to year - depending mostly on water temperature, lake turnover and plant growth.  We see an inexplicable spike at 8 meters in 2016 falling back again to a significantly positive trend line.

We do no yet have data available for August 2017, but here is the data thru 2016.

Once again, we see lots of variability at 15 meters but still a generally downward trend.  With lake water levels back up to normal in 2017, it will be interesting to see what the data show.  Keep in mind that the mean depth of Lake Sawyer is only 25 feet or 7.6 meters and at the deepest spot is 58 feet or 17.7 meters. As low as lake water levels were in August 2015 and 2016, it's not surprising to see greater variability at this depth.   Except for 2016, phosphorus levels at 1 meter and 8 meters have been surprisingly stable during the 2001 - 2016 period even with the not insignificant level of residential development that occurred in Black Diamond during this 15 year period.   One last chart, I promise, comparing May and August data at 15 meters.

Next week, I'll post the data for chlorophyll-a along with any new data released by King County for secchi and phosphorus.

RV Camping Circa 1922

Judging from the number of RV's we see when crossing Snoqualmie Pass, the RV business must be booming.  Boomer retirements are certainly a factor but younger families too are enjoying camping out in comfort.  When did RV's first become popular? 

Photo courtesy Museum of History & Industry, 1983.10.PA22.19, Webster & Stevens photographers, circa 1922

As more and more people bought automobiles, car camping became the rage as a great way to enjoy the scenic beauty of Mt. Rainier National Park in comfort.  You could even rent car tents from the park or bring your own.  No need for roughing it.

How many RV's are there in the U.S. right now?  Would you believe an estimated 8.9 million units as of 2011 and growing every year?  Current RV sales are booming.  According to the RVIA, RV shipments reached an all time high of 430,691 units in 2016 .  For those who like data, following is a breakdown:

That's a whole lot of travel trailers and motorhomes, many being used in ways well beyond traditional recreation "travel".    How many "snow bunnies" do you know that winter over in Arizona or other warm clines?  Take a drive to the Green River gorge and you'll find a 100 unit RV park used primarily as affordable housing.  Pretty amazing vehicles with lots of uses.

However, I think I'll stick with my Big Agnes backpacking tent.  How could I give up what it feels like to sleep on a rock, get by with 3 hours sleep or feel in constant need of taking a shower?

 

Agriculture - Still Alive in the Puyallup Valley

Tis the season for harvesting hops and though the Puyallup Valley is no long Hop King of the World as it was in the late 1800's, I recall seeing a farm near the historic town of Alderton (between Sumner and Orting) that appeared to be growing these tiny "strobiles" used in brewing beer.  Could they still be growing hops in Alderton?  No, it must have been a senior moment for my memory but I took a short drive to Alderton anyway to see what's happening with agriculture just a few miles from where I grew up. 

My first impression is houses, houses and more houses and traffic, traffic, and more traffic.  Fortunately, however, thanks to the efforts of Forterra (formerly Cascade Land Conservancy) and local residents, a significant number of acres remain set aside only for agricultural use and cannot be built upon.  Only a small number of the acres continue to be used for growing daffodils but we do have a new king - rhubarb.  Over 50% of the world's production of this tasty vegetable is now grown in Pierce County and most of it near Alderton.  Because of it's semi-sweet tart taste and use primarily for making pies, most of us think of it as a fruit - but it's a vegetable.  Fortunately, the world's appetite for rhubarb is now in a growth spurt and we found lots of acres planted.  I also saw quite a few acres planted in corn no doubt being grown to feed local consumer demand for another vegetable that keeps getting sweeter by the year.

That said, agriculture in the valley is now a mere shadow of it's former self.  The following photos make the point.

Kind of like seeing an x-ray of my aging back.

Fortunately though, significant agriculture remains alive in the valley and Judy and I even have a fair number of high school friends that we grew up with still engaged in growing rhubarb and daffodils for us all to enjoy.  We remain hopeful that it can be sustainable long term.  There is something so beautiful about driving through farming country, including valley corn fields.

p.s.  I once worked in the rhubarb fields for my uncle, digging up rhubarb plants with often frozen roots around Thanksgiving and taking them to a hot house where the really tender and sweet rhubarb shoots grow.  Those root clusters are heavy.  No wonder my back looks a little crooked.