Fur trapping and trade with Native Americans drew the first Europeans to the upper Columbia River. Later, European settlers found the land and climate ideal for fruit farming. Orchards sprang up and flourished in the late 19th-century. The Old Apple Warehouse began as a fruit packing plant built adjacent to the rail line in 1908 by the local cooperative. Farmers drove produce-laden wagons into one end of the building, unloaded in the basement for transfer to rail cars, and drove out the other end, a process reflected in the building’s…
