Dairy

Drawing of Mt. Hood with a giant spoon sticking out one side. Reads "Mt. Hood Ice Cream"
Mt. Hood Ice Cream - #1468, Mt. Hood Cream Company, Oregon, 1912
The dairy industry began in Tillamook County in the 1860's. By the 1870's there were large herds on the prairies and river bottoms. Farmers shipped sixty-pound kegs of butter to western Yamhill County on pack horses. By 1890, the dairy industry in Tillamook was second only to lumbering. That year, Tillamook County produced 100 tons of butter. Creameries were developed and in the 1890s, large cheese factories. Dairying spread to other regions of the state as it was settled.

Dairying has held firm as Oregon's first or second largest agricultural business. Many of the products of dairying - butter, ice cream, evaporated milk, cheese - are contained in the trademarks registered with the Secretary of State.