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The people of the Yakima Valley have always depended upon the area’s natural resources to exist and prosper.
The Yakama Indians developed tools and techniques to secure, prepare, and preserve adequate food from the natural bounty of the local environment. Cattlemen who moved into the Yakima Valley in the 1800s used the native grasses to feed their livestock, but also made some of the first attempts to change the natural landscape by installing barbed wire fencing. And settlers arriving from other parts of North America quickly learned how irrigation made modern agriculture possible.
La gente del Valle de Yakima siempre dependieron de los recursos naturals para subsistir y prosperar.
La tribu indígena Yakamas, desarrollaron herramientas y técnica para asegurar, preparar y preservar suficiente alimento de la amplia abundancia natural que existia en su medio ambiente. Los ganaderos que emigraron al Valle de Yakima en los 1800s se sirvieron de las pasturas para alimentar su ganado, pero tambien intentaron cambiar el medio ambiente natural instalando cercados de alambre. Los colonos que llegaron de otras partes de Norte América pronto aprendieron como la irrigación permitia que la argricultura moderna se llevara a cabo. |
Yakima Grows
This area in the museum is currently being prepared. |
The Yakima Valley–"Fruitbowl of the Nation"–is a fertile land.
Yakima Grows will survey the history and development of agriculture in the Yakima Valley. From the irrigated garden of Chief Kamiakin and the first cattle ranches to the vital and ever-changing agricultural economy that is the backbone of our valley, these exhibits will be a historical tour of the valley's farms and orchards.
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We will show more than just apple orchards. You will see how irrigation has turned a desert into a garden oasis. You will visit vineyards, cherry orchards, hop fields, mint fields, and potato farms. You will see pears, apricots, asparagus, alfalfa, sugar beets, and many more crops that have earned Yakima Valley the title "Fruitbowl of the Nation." |
An authentic apple-packing line will announce Yakima Grows. This amazing piece of machinery, originally made in Yakima, was salvaged from a collapsed barn in Omak, Washington. After restoration, the conveyors will carry fruit through the entire packing process, from the washer to the box. "Hidden" behind the 75-foot packing line will be exhibits on all Yakima Valley agricultural products and the unprecedented irrigation projects that make agriculture possible in this desert valley.
The "Journey of the Apple" exhibit represents a prototype of one component of Yakima Grows. High-tech components and computer stations in Yakima Grows will allow visitors to browse the museum's collection of over 3,000 fruit box labels. Interactive games will let visitors create and control irrigation systems, explore the complex relationships of climate and agriculture, and take video tours of the Valley's farms and orchards. |
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