Today a plaque was dedicated to Clendenen Cider Works in Fortuna by the Native Sons of the Golden West. The occasion was to commemorate 116 years of the Clendenen family legacy. The owner of Clendenen Cider Works, Clif Clendenen, spoke about the event.
“The Native Sons of the Golden West honor, historical buildings, historical businesses. And they picked us. So they’re dedicating a plaque here. And there was a really cool ceremony they do. And some of their members from around the state in their grand parlor were the officiants,” Clendenen said. “It’s an honor to be part of that.”
The ceremony before the plaque was revealed involved mixing cement, sand and water that were sourced from various regions and historical sites in california. Founded in 1875, the Native Sons of the Golden West are a nonprofit fraternity focused on historical preservation and charity. Grand President, Gary Padgett, explained what the Native Sons are about.
“Basically what we’re after is we’re trying to keep the history alive. We want to keep it what it was, right or wrong, and we want to keep what was there, what was done, what wasn’t done. We don’t want to change it,” Padgett said. “We just want everybody to know what it was.”
Clendenen Cider Works has played a role in the history of Humboldt County.
“The peak business of Clendenen Cider Works was actually during Prohibition. And we never produced alcohol, but we produced a large volume from the local orchards that were planted in Humboldt County during the settlement are and there were a lot of apples and there was no shipping really, of food to speak of other than by steamship in and out of Humboldt Bay,” Clendenen said. “So pretty much everybody produced local food. And, you know, this was one of the places to get local juice, both fresh and to be fermented.”
Several other plaques have been dedicated to historical sites in Humboldt County. Past Grand President of NSGW, Allan Baird, listed them.
“Here locally we have one on Lowes recognizing the historical building and one on Green’s Pharmacy, Victorian Inn in Ferndale, Fernbridge, Papa Joe’s, the gazebo,” Baird said. “And then we’ve got Clendenen’s rightly so.”
Clendenen Cider Works recently added onto their building, and they have lots more going on.
“We’ve expanded our building just this year and are working with a lot of schools in conjunction with a farm to school grant and, you know, trying to produce as many apples as we can out of our little five acres here and serve Fortuna,” Clendenen said.
Source: Redwoodnews.tv