Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence: Coming Home to Hood River

15. “Opening the Closets of History” : The Community Today

2 3 1 F i f t e e n “Opening the Closets of History” The Community Today M y dad used to say you could shoot a cannonball down the main drag and never hit anybody,” recalled Hood River native Howard Rice. “Now you have to be careful not to hit a ‘boardhead,’” he commented, referring to the influx of windsurfers, kiteboarders, and snowboarders. For sure, this tiny farm community in the Cascade foothills is on a fast track toward economic and demographic change that has eclipsed days past. It has, in fact, metamorphosed into what one land use planner has called the “funky capital of a premiere outdoor sports region.”1 Changes The wind that old-timers once cussed at, the water, and the mountains attracted 640,000 tourists during 2005 alone and has stimulated a 60 percent population surge in Hood River since the postwar days. In 2009, the percentage of visitors who came to the area for outdoor activities was nearly double the percentage for the rest of the state. Propelled by fiftymile -per-hour winds during the summer, colorful sailboards and kiteboards now scoot across the waters of the Columbia, while, farther inland, kayakers head upstream and cyclists hit the mountain trails. During winter months, skiers and snowboarders set off for snow-packed runs on the slopes of Mount Hood. The downtown core, bolstered by its reputation as 2 3 2 C h a p t e r F i f t e e n a tourist mecca, has been revitalized with upscale bistros and boutiques, windsurfing shops, galleries, and residential lofts. Businesses manufacture aerospace equipment, sports gear and clothing, liquor, beer, maritime products, and glass.2 Today a conglomerate of “boardheads” and active professionals rubs shoulders with locals, adding a new cultural and social dimension to this community in transition. The economic picture has shifted too. Logging and jobs in the wood products industry declined beginning in the 1970s. Pears and cherries have supplanted the once-favored Hood River apples as the area’s most lucrative local crops, and the valley leads the world in producing Anjou pears. Its fifteen thousand acres of orchards now produce nearly half the nation’s winter pears. Adding to its market appeal, the pear, Oregon’s top fruit crop, became the state fruit in 2006. Still, employment in the agriculture industry has dropped 8 percent since 1950, affected by more mechanized production, competition from cheaper foreign fruit, higher costs and lower prices, and a corresponding increase in food manufacturing. Now just one-fifth of valley jobs involve producing and packing crops,3 which have diversified to include nuts, berries, wine grapes, vegetables, and herbs. Among the local farmers are twenty or so Sansei,4 who continue the tradition their parents and grandparents began on family orchards. Several have added produce stands, increasingly popular along scenic roadsides. Others join in the community’s special events, which attract out-of-towners to such galas as the Hood River Blossom Festival, Harvest Fest, and Heirloom Apple Days.5 “Hood River is a microcosm of the state of Oregon,” county administrator David Meriwether stated, based on what he had discerned from the community’s cultural, philosophical, and political make-up. He noted that the valley’s span of rural and urban, agricultural, and forest communities mirrors the spectrum visible in the state. In town, the “more urbane, liberal constituency” contrasts with the “more conservative and agriculturally oriented” residents in the rural areas, he observed. This new range, according to historian and resident Eckard Toy, contributes to a tug-of-war between longtime residents who are mindful of preserving the small town’s roots and valley newcomers and their more politically liberal “new age sentiment.” As can be expected, those differences emerge in debates on such issues as environmentalism (including complaints about the use of pesticides on farms) as well as property development (from the prospect of subdivisions and businesses on farmland to Th e C o m m u n i t y T o d ay 2 3 3 increased commercialization of the nearby Mount Hood Meadows ski resort). Adding to the mix is a rise in ethnic diversity, for in 2000, a quarter of Hood River county’s populace was Hispanic, a fivefold increase over twenty years.6 These contract laborers who once returned to Mexico at the end of the seasonal harvest have, like the Issei before...