Vintage 1950s Mad River Brand Washington State Apples Crate Label 🍎 — Mad River Orchard Co., Entiat WA, Stecher-Traung

Who Packed Mad River Apples? 🍎 Mad River Brand Washington State Apples, Mad River Orchard Co., Entiat, Washington

Size: 10 1/4" x 8 3/4" ~ Little to no wear.

Stunning! This is a vintage 1950s Mad River Brand apple crate label, packed by the Mad River Orchard Co. out of Entiat, Washington. The company's apple box label features the rushing Mad River and the surrounding mountains, falls and trees: a broad white-water cascade breaking over dark boulders between mauve cliffs, evergreens on the banks, and three big red apples in the lower corner. MAD RIVER runs across the top in bold orange letters, with Washington State in yellow script and APPLES below.

🏷️ What's Printed on It

• MAD RIVER BRAND
• Washington State APPLES
• CONTENTS 1 U. S. BUSHEL BY VOLUME
• PRODUCE OF U.S.A.
• PACKED BY MAD RIVER ORCHARD CO., ENTIAT, WASH.
• © STECHER-TRAUNG S. F., CALIF. (the printer, in tiny type in the corner)

Stecher-Traung of San Francisco printed it. Stecher Lithograph opened in Rochester, New York in 1887, and the Traung company of San Francisco bought it in 1936, and the two ran together as Stecher-Traung until International Paper bought the company in 1966. Mad River labels came in more than one colorway over the years, and the company used the same design on its pears.

🌲 Mad River Orchard Company

The Mad River Orchard Company grew on a big scale. By the 1950s it had 240 acres of fruit trees, and it grew, packed, stored and shipped its own apples and pears. It was a packer-shipper right into the 1970s, when it was leasing controlled-atmosphere storage in Wenatchee,. Ardenvoir Merlin Harris, born in Wenatchee on June 17, 1920, is remembered as the company's manager and vice president.

🏞️ Entiat, the Town That Moved Three Times

Entiat takes its name from the Entiat people, from a Salishan word meaning "place of grassy water." The Mad River runs down out of the mountains into the Entiat River above town. Entiat has had a rough time staying put: its first town site was destroyed by fire in 1915, another fire razed it again in 1921, and the town moved to a second site. Then in 1960 Rocky Reach Dam went in downriver, the rising water covered much of the town, and the third Entiat officially opened on higher ground in 1961. Fruit was there early, with the Keystone Fruit Company opening in the valley in 1910.

🏡 Display

Crate Labels are a reminder of a bygone era but the amazing lithography process is unparalleled even to this day in my opinion. Museums and Art Institutes have galleries dedicated to them and more and more collectors are seeking these out to preserve their history. Once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries then they will be very difficult to acquire.

Imagine this amazing vintage advertising hanging as home decor in any room of your home instead of a museum! It's a natural for a cabin, a fishing lodge or a kitchen, and a perfect gift for anybody from Entiat, Wenatchee or Chelan County.