WHEN

President Grover Cleveland signed the Hatch Act on March 2, 1887. It provided annual funds for agricultural experiment stations at land-grant colleges in each state and territory. The Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station was created the following year. The first director, Edgar Grimm, an agricultural chemist, was appointed on July 2, 1888.

WHERE

Oregon Governor Sylvester Pennoyer directed the Board of Regents of the State Agriculture College of the State of Oregon (the state’s land-grant college located in Corvallis, Oregon) to administer the Hatch Act grant of $15,000. The grant boosted the college’s entire budget by 50 percent! Today, the State Agricultural College is Oregon State University. In the beginning, the OAES consisted of a single laboratory and the college farm, 35 acres of land donated by citizens of Benton County, on what today is the lower OSU campus.

EXPANSION

The first branch station of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station was opened in 1901 at Union in Eastern Oregon, near La Grande. Today, the Agricultural Experiment Station has research facilities throughout the state, each doing studies tied to the conditions and needs of the area. They are headquartered at Aurora, Hood River, Hermiston, Pendleton, Ontario, Burns, Madras, Klamath Falls, Medford, Newport, Astoria, and Portland.

PERSONNEL

Today the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station is the research arm of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. It has more than 400 scientists in 28 academic units in four OSU colleges --- Agricultural Sciences, Public Health and Human Sciences, Science, and Veterinary Medicine. They work on projects related to food and fiber production, processing and marketing, wise use of natural resources, human nutrition, commercial fishing and other topics important to the economic and environmental well-being of Oregonians.

https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/home/research/oaes-history

+ Central Oregon Agricultural Research and Extension Center
+ Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station
+ Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center
+ Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center
+ Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center
+ Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center
+ Malheur Experiment Station
+ North Willamette Research and Extension Center
+ Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center
+ Seafood Research and Education Center
+ Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center

Banner image: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. "Early hay rake" Oregon Digital. Accessed 2024-01-18. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df739108d