“ There are those who call him a dreamer … ” No , these are not the words pen by a sure English rock player , but rather part of the 1940 paean of W.C. Dibble . Dibble ’s pipe dream ? To make the Salem area the center of commercial-grade bulb cultivation in the state , rivaling product in Holland . It may be difficult to glean from the grainy , bootleg - and - white range of a function of his companies ’ marketing textile , but he did gain national fame in the 1920s for operating the largest light bulb farm in the state , combining both product and agritourism in his business framework . This dream echoes today , in living color , as many Mid - Valley field of force picturesquely fill with blooms and eager photographers .
Wilson Colby Dibble , eulogized as the “ Father of the Church of Holland bulb grow in the Pacific Northwest , ” was born in New York State in the midst of the Civil War to a family known for their rearing of Hereford oxen . Despite this stock and relocating to a Nebraskan farm at a young age , Upon his return to Oregon , Dibble pack up farming in earnest . His farm in 1917 , if you may imagine , was situate on North Liberty street at about the website of today ’s new police installation . Dibble was a bill - carry member of the Marion County Potato Growers Association and lean as a grower and booster of loganberries .
Where the inspiration for tulip farming came from is a flake of mystery , but in about 1915 , Dibble teamed up with berry Fannie Merritt Farmer William C. Franklin and set out experiment with the commercial-grade finish of flower lightbulb with an initial investment of $ 20 for 500 bulb . After six years of efforts testing to see if the craw would be executable , they had put in six Akka of beds on the holding about a half a mile west of Willamette River Bridge on Wallace Road and became the largest tulip farm in the rural area .
In 1923 , the Oregon Bulb Company buy 18 additional Acre of acres 4 miles north of Salem near Chemawa for extra acquire playing area . This expansion , however , distinguish the beginning of the remainder for the partnership between Dibble and Franklin . Details are thin , but Franklin severs ties with the Oregon Bulb Company in fall of 1923 maintaining his own electric-light bulb farm in West Salem , and Dibble come out to have demand over the Pacific Highway web site northerly of Salem .
Salem may not have lived up to the prediction made in a 1923 Oregon Statesman article that it would “ always be the tulip center of the United states ; of North America . Nature has so decreed . ” But as many flock each spring to Schreiner ’s Iris Gardens or post selfies at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm , it seems that Mr. Dibble ’s dream live on .
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