Tillamook County Creamery Association processing exterior as seen from Hwy 101
The Tillamook County Creamery Association is a dairy co-operative headquartered in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. The association's main facility is the Tillamook Cheese Factory located two miles north of the city of Tillamook on U.S. Route 101; a second cheese-making facility was built in Boardman, Oregon in 2001. The Tillamook factory hosts over a million tourists each year. Visitors watch the production of cheese from a viewing gallery over the main production floor.
Inside the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
The co-operative includes 150 dairy farms, mostly within Tillamook County. Products produced by the co-operative include cheese, butter, ice cream, sour cream, yogurt and yogurt smoothies. Their most famous product is Tillamook Cheese, including the famous Tillamook Cheddar.
In 1854, several farmers from the county built a schooner named the Morning Star to transport butter to Portland, Oregon; the schooner is now featured as part of the co-op's logo, and a full-sized replica is on display on the creamery grounds. Peter McIntosh and T. S. Townsend established the county's first cheese factory in 1894. The association was founded by dairy farmers in 1909.
The creamery made news in February 2005 after the board asked all members to stop using bovine growth hormone on their dairy cows, in spite of pressures from the chemical company Monsanto.
Controversy[]
In 2000, the association bought the cheese co-operative in Bandon, Oregon, then closed and demolished its cheese-making facilities in that town a few years later, replacing them with a gravel parking lot.
The association has since gained more animosity from that community as well as others in its enforcement of the Tillamook Cheese and Bandon Cheese trademarks against local businesses such as Tillamook Country Smoker.[1][2]
External links[]
- Tillamook County Creamery Association (official website)
References[]
Tillamook plant small cheese block processing lines
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