Benton County's Golden Harvest
Local farmers and producers sweep state and national competitions, proving the region's agricultural dominance in 1915.
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Benton County’s fast growing record as the home of progressive, enterprising farmers and superior farm products was given another boost last week when E. E. Starkey, of Prosser, carried off the big prize at the Walla Walla Corn Show. To date this county has a record for prize winnings at fairs and expositions in 1915 that cannot be duplicated by any other county in the state or the Northwest. These winnings have not been limited to county, district or state fairs but include some of the highest awards at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Church’s Grape Juice, manufactured at Kennewick, was awarded the gold medal against all competitors at the exposition. Don Bunn and Clarke Brothers, of Prosser, carried off most of the blue ribbons in the Berkshire hog competition. George Hartman, a Prosser boy, won a medal for the best corn grown by any boy in the country, and a collection of photographs from the Kennewick Studio was awarded a gold medal for the best collection of photographs depicting the varied resources of an agricultural and horticultural community. In the state competition Benton County for the second time took first prize for the best general display of farm products; Lewis Haxton, of this city, took first honors with a vegetable display that was judged the best produced by any boy in the state. Poston Sons, of Carley, cleaned up nearly all the first prizes offered at the Spokane Interstate fair on Duroc Jersey hogs and the Kennewick Model Hog Farm made a similar clean-up at the Walla Walla fair.
“These winnings show unmistakably that Benton county, although one of the youngest in the state, in point of agricultural development, has first, the soil and climatic conditions essential to the production of the very finest farm products.”
Benton County's agricultural identity was forged in these early booster years. While the crops have evolved, the regional pride in 'superior farm products' remains a cornerstone of the Mid-Columbia economy today.
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