Hop picking once brought seasonal cash to families across Clark County, including the Hockinson area. Historical newspaper material from the 1970s looking back on the 1890s specifically connects hop fields and picking crews to Hockinson and the East Fork country.
Before mechanized harvesting, hop picking required large crews during a relatively short harvest window. Families could spend days or weeks in the fields, making the harvest both agricultural work and a temporary social world of its own.
For Hockinson, hops fit into a broader farm economy that also included dairying, general farming and other seasonal work. The surviving references are especially valuable because hop farming is far less visible in the modern landscape than some of the community's other agricultural traditions.
Explore our Hockinson Hop Country design, inspired by documented local agricultural history.
Historical sources
- The Reflector, Sept. 25, 1975, historic article on Clark County hop picking and Hockinson-area fields
- “HOPS,” historic clipping dated Apr. 8, 1976
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