Klaber, Washington

Indigenous history

The Boistfort Valley was settled by a distinct, isolated group of Athapaskans, the Kwalhioqua. The indigenous group arrived approximately 3,000 years before the Klaber community was formed. Known as "fierce mountain people", the Kwalhioqua's language and customs were noted to be much different than that of surrounding Native American tribes.^[2]

Despite being in an isolated environment that protected the Kwalhioqua from epidemics that decimated other native groups, the tribe was considered to have lost their separate identity, or to be extinct in the area, by the mid-1800s. The cause is theorized to be due to a combination of "venereal disease and intermarriage" and being grouped with other indigenous cultures during the early formations of the Chehalis Reservation.^[2]

Klaber settlement

The community of Klaber, known as the "Hops Capital of the World", was founded in 1906 by hops broker, Herman Klaber.^[3][4] Klaber, with the intent to grow hops, began buying up donation land claims in the Boistfort Valley near the South Fork Chehalis River; his initial purchase was 80 acres (32 ha) in 1903 from C.W. Maynard. He eventually obtained a total of 360 acres (150 ha) that included additional tracts from the Hogue and Roundtree families.^[3][5][4]

His last acquisitions were noted to have been finalized by June 1906 during which he submitted an application to create a post office named "Klaberville".^[6] He immediately began constructing a barn, home, and four kilns. Further investing $75,000, equivalent to $2,687,500 in 2025, to build a community he wished to initially call Klaberville, the hops merchant had 200 acres (81 ha) planted with hops on the land claim of the Hogue family. The hopyard, at its beginning, was considered the largest in the Pacific Northwest and perhaps in the United States. Klaber also ordered the planting of an orchard along with the build of a 920-square-foot (85 m²) general store that contained a barber shop, blacksmith shop, meeting hall, and the new post office.^[5][6]

The attempt to create a Klaberville post office was protested by residents of Boistfort in November 1906;^[7] the post office was moved and established in Klaberville in early December.^[8] In April 1907, the post office, which had existed and named for Boistfort for almost 50 years at the time, was renamed Klaber; government officials were convinced to do so by Herman Klaber.^[9]

The town had a small population, recording 80 residents in 1910, but the census grew to over 2,000 during the annual hop harvesting seasons.^[10] Described as a company town,^[3] Klaber also had a ten-room home for the manager of the hop field, and a two-story house for the assistant. Hot and cold water was provided by a gravity well and reservoir tank system, accessing a nearby spring.^[11] The telephone system in the town was privately owned and Klaber did not have a fire department; calls for emergencies used a special ring tone to alert other members of the community, all of whom could overhear telephone conversations on the single line.^[12] The service was upgraded to dial tone in 1956.^[13]

West Side School principal, Ira (Asa) Whittaker, died during the 1908 school year after accidentally shooting himself during a hunting trip at Klaber.^[14][15] Five children belonging to the Rhodes family in Klaber died in February 1922 after an accidental poisoning. The children, ranging between 3 and 10 years of age, had been given what was supposed to be epsom salts by Bessie Rhodes, their mother. Mrs. Rhodes was noted to suffer from anxiety over having further children after several miscarriages, as well as "female troubles", but was found innocent by a jury. The cause or responsibility of the poisoning remains unknown. The children were buried in separate coffins at the Boistfort cemetery.^{[16][17][18][a]}

Community withers

After the hop fields closed in 1945, the town "withered and died".^[3] The two-story, 40 ft × 100 ft (12 m × 30 m) Klaber Post Office ceased operations after it burned down in September 1958. The cause of fire, with an estimated loss more than $15,000 (equivalent to $167,388 in 2025), was undetermined.^[10][19][b] A fire district was created to cover the Curtis and Klaber area in 1962. The department was housed in a building donated by Weyerhaeuser located in Boistfort.^[21]

21st century

By 2001, the community's existence was reported to be noted only by a wooden historical sign located at the edge of the original hop field next to Boistfort Elementary School.^[3] The community of Klaber has sometimes been described in the intervening decades as a ghost town.^[22]

An alcoholic beverage known as Klaber Fair Beer has been manufactured by Dick's Brewing Company. The beer was named in honor of the community, Herman Klaber, and the extinct hop farm. It had been served at the Southwest Washington Fair beginning in 2009. A descendant Klaber hop that grows invasively in the region, and cultivated at the fairgrounds, was used in the brewing process.^[23]

Herman Klaber

Herman Klaber became known under several monikers including the "Hop King of Lewis County", "Hop King", or "King of Hops".^[24][25]

After beginning his career as a hops merchant, Klaber created the Herman Klaber Company, buying thousands of pounds of hops along the West Coast of the United States.^[26] He married Gertrude Ginsburg in February 1907.^[3][9] In addition to his field in "Klaberville", he also owned a hop farm approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of Chehalis.^[27]

During the picking season, Herman Klaber lived in a large, two-story bungalow featuring a wraparound porch situated upon a hillock that overlooked the hop field and community.^[11][3][c] Five cottages were built for his servants.^[11] By 2001, his house in Klaber remained; most of the original details were lost after it was remodeled to offset damage from prior renters. A bathroom and outhouse used by hop pickers was noted to remain and several artifacts have been found on the property.^[3]

Herman Klaber, a first-class passenger on the Titanic, died during the sinking of the ocean liner on April 15, 1912; his remains were either not recovered or not identified.^[29][25][d]

His wife sold the Klaber home, and any personal property that remained, vowing never to return to the hop field company town. Gertrude Klaber, who never remarried, died on March 17, 1961.^[30]

Beginnings and success

Also known as the Klaber Hops Farm or Klaber Hop Yards, the Klaber Hop Fields once existed in the town, overlapping with the communities of Boistfort and Curtis. Recorded between 200 acres (81 ha) and up to 360 acres (150 ha),^[e] both the farm and drying kilns were considered among the largest in the world between 1912 and 1920.^{[31][2][12][32]} The Klaber name was individually spelled out on the kiln's six chimneys and was noted to be viewed for "miles around".^[3][5][f] The crop was known as "Klaber's Chehalis Hops".^[11]

At the community's peak, it was estimated to have a population of 2,000 during the hop-picking season; most residents worked at the hop fields.^[34] During the harvest, the town was considered a "miniature city".^[35] Herman Klaber ordered 400 homes built, which included wood floors, a wood-burning stove, and accessible water. The 144-square-foot (13.4 m²) homes were lined in two rows.^[11] Workers, using tents, set up camps based on racial or cultural backgrounds;^[g] laborers included indigenous workers, primarily people from the Upper Chehalis and Cowlitz tribes.^[11]

The opening of the local school season was often delayed until after the harvest. Stores in the valley and surrounding area accepted slips known as "hop tickets' in lieu of money.^[h] The $1 tickets were punched for every box a worker filled; the containers held 125 lb (57 kg) (or 25 US bushels (0.88 m³)).^[2][32][i] Before the 1910 harvesting season, Klaber created a temporary theater for "moving picture shows". The theater was meant to keep laborers in the community while providing entertainment to offset the workers from "becoming restless". The film industry publication, The Moving Picture World, stated that the "scheme meets with favor".^[37][38]

The dried hop cones were delivered to the "red depot" in Ceres where the crop was shipped on the Northern Pacific Railway line. On average, the hop farm yielded 1,500 bales,^[39] or between 300,000 pounds (140,000 kg) and 400,000 pounds (180,000 kg), annually.^[23] By 1910, approximately 900 acres (360 ha) in the Klaber Valley and the surrounding area were used to grow hops by various farmers.^[4]

Local pastors in Centralia and Chehalis demanded that members of their congregation not work at the Klaber farm due to hops being primarily used in the production of beer. In arguments against, laborers at the field, or those with a "thin conscience", stated the crop was also used to make yeast for bread and mostly ignored the demands, continuing to work at the hop yard.^[40]

Hop yard after Klaber's death

In 1912, a "downy, mildew fungus" began infecting the hop plants. After Klaber's death, financial losses and mismanagement, along with the spreading fungus, led to consistent struggles in hop production at the fields.^[2][30] Reports during the time and up until 1920, referred to the hop growing sector as a "growth industry";^[4] however, business losses at Klaber occurred during the onset of World War I as shipments to Germany were disrupted.^[2]

Approximately 35 acres (14 ha) of the Klaber yards were plowed in 1917 to grow oats; reports began mentioning the fields as "at one time" the largest of its type in the United States.^[41] By 1923, the widespread hop fields in Lewis County had diminished in numbers. The reduced 135-acre (55 ha) Klaber yards, as well as a 35-acre (14 ha) field in Ceres owned by James "Jim" Chamberlain, were the only such farms remaining in the county.^[42]

Pests, such as aphids and a lice known as red spider, along with hot summers that burned the tips of the hop plant, were a long-running concern. Engineered pump systems, operated under horse and machine power, had been implemented by the early 1920s and were used to spray the crop to protect it from insects.^[42]

During the beginning of the Prohibition era, the fields began to wane. Large yields in the late 1920s, including over 800 bales in 1927,^[43] did not lead to sales. Despite rising prices for hops, the 1929 yield remained unsold and over 1,300 bales were in storage before the 1931 harvest season due to "unsatisfactory market conditions".^[44][45] The persistent concerns of lice and mold continued into the 1930s and despite rising prices for hops, the 1929 yield remained unsold.^[44][30] European markets still purchased from the company during the time^[30] but ongoing mismanagement of the company began taking a toll.^[40]

Near the end of the Klaber Hop Field's active production, the yards produced a low of 150 bales.^[32]

Closure

In 1936, the Klaber hop fields were noted to have been in a state described as, "grown up to weeds". The Chamberlain hop farm was extinct and a 25-acre (10 ha) plot known as the Garbe yard near Chehalis was the only significantly remaining active hop field in the county.^[46][47]

The decline at the Klaber yards worsened after a large blaze in July 1940 destroyed a barn, dairy, and a hop kiln; the loss was estimated to be $10,000, equivalent to $229,810 in 2025.^[48] Gertrude Klaber still owned portions of the community by that year. The Klaber Hop Fields closed in 1945, unable to overcome the persistent issues of mildew, coupled with an ongoing lack of leadership after Herman's death.^[3]

Most hop production in Washington state began shifting to Benton and Yakima counties due to better weather for the crop.^[32] There were no known producing hop fields in Lewis County by 1975.^[32] The non-native hopbush from the Klaber fields have spread throughout the region, most notably at the Discovery Trail outside of Centralia.^[49]