A silver thaw softened Clark County’s prune business and endangered an economic resource for Clark County in 1916. The prune economy involved more than fruit growers. It included an infrastructure of pickers, packers, printers, marketers and distributors working to send thousands of tons of the fruit worldwide. Pickers could earn up to $30 in a season and receive a half-cent bonus a box if they worked the entire season.
World War I inflated prune prices. Three worried Vancouver businessmen started a booster club to buoy the flagging prune industry in 1918, the Prunarians. Their approach was hardly original. Already Salem and Newberg, Ore., had their Cherrians and Berrians.
From this humble start of three sprouted a club of 58, whose purpose was to create better communication among prune growers in Clark County by consistent advertising of the county being the greatest in the Italian prune business. Shortly after the Prunarians formed, they built a modern packing plant, the Washington Growers Packing Corporation.
The Prunarians went all out. They planned to have a parade, music, drinks, dancing and even a prune princess. During the first Royal Prune Festival in 1919, five torpedo boats arrived with their crews and went on shore leave, boosting interest in the event. Community groups provided free drinks, music and dancing for the sailors and locals. They also offered rides to local farms. The festival included three-legged races, sack and wheelbarrow races and pie, apple and prune eating contests.
