The Unlikely Rise of the Washington Hop King
How an accidental crop grown in a kitchen fire turned into a Pacific Northwest agricultural empire.
The first crop of hops grown in Washington Territory consisted of one bale in weight. It was the product of one-eighth of an acre of new hops set out in the Puyallup valley by E. Meeker in the spring of 1865. These hops were sold for 50 cents a pound after having been cured in a loft over the kitchen fire and sent to market in bags. From that single bale, weighing 180 pounds, sprang the business that culminated in the production of 50,000 bales in one year (1884), and which has not been exceeded since until the present year. The manner of picking, curing, and barreling that initial crop is now full of interest as it is instructive. The low temperature, light picking, and careful handling gave them a value and name not soon to be forgotten, which resulted in the planting of more the following year.
“From that single bale, weighing 180 pounds, sprang the business that culminated in the production of 50,000 bales in one year.”
Ezra Meeker’s hop boom turned the Puyallup Valley into a global agricultural powerhouse, mirroring the way Washington’s economy has often relied on a single, sudden specialty boom. Today, the rapid shift from rural farmland to sprawling distribution centers in the Puyallup corridor echoes the same tension between land use, speculative development, and the region's search for sustainable identity.
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