Its Apple time again! The Chetco Valley Museum is preparing for its Annual “Cider On Sunday” event being held on Sunday, October 8th from 1 pm to 4 pm at the Chetco Valley Museum.
The Chetco Valley Historical Society came up with the idea of making cider the way the “pioneers did”when there was a bumper crop of apples about 19 years ago. It’s been one of the Museum’s largest fundraising events and fun for the whole family.
There will be at least 3 Cider presses on site. The oldest and largest press is a model from the late 1800’s and is hand cranked. Each family is encouraged to bring up to 10 gallons of clean, washed apples and also 1 or 2-gallon containers to hold the juice.
Another highlight of the event will be the Annual Apple Pie Baking Contest. There will be two divisions: Junior Bakers (Ages 18 and under) and Senior Bakers: (Ages 19 and older). The pies will need to be at the Museum annex by 2:15 pm on Sunday and the judging will begin at 2:30 pm. CASH Prizes will be awarded to the top three pies in each division. After the judging, the public will be able to purchase pieces of pie by the slice, with ice cream. “Apple Pie Ala’mode – does a Sunday afternoon get any better than that”?
And of course, there is always the annual bake sale, with all types of Fall harvest goodies available, a wonderful gift basket will be raffled off and also ‘hot’ apple fritters being cooked on site! It’s a great opportunity to visit the museum, stepping back into time, enjoying a small piece of our local history.
The Chetco Valley Historical Society Museum is housed in the historic Blake House, built in 1857, and is listed as the oldest dwelling in the Chetco Valley. The Blake House was once a stagecoach stop and trading post built on a hill overlooking the Chetco Valley and the Pacific Ocean.
The property on which it stands was originally a land grant to early pioneer Robert Johnson, who sold it to Harrison Blake in 1867. Blake and his wife, Mary (Geisel) operated a trading post and way station there.
Blake was Curry County’s first deputy sheriff in 1864 and the first representative from the area to the state legislature in 1874.
He and Mary lived on the property until Blake’s death in 1896. Mary sold the ranch to the Pedrioli Brothers in 1916 and lived elsewhere until her death in 1933.
The Stanley Colgrove family purchased the ranch in 1953 and donated the old house, built before Abraham Lincoln was president and the surrounding grounds to the Chetco Valley Historical Society.