WASHOUGAL, Wash. — If you ever spend time in Washougal, Washington you may hear a steam whistle sound off around noon. It's blown four times a day here for more than a century. Because this is one of the mills where Pendleton has been making wool blankets and textiles since 1912. It's one of only four remaining wool mills left in the United States. Pendleton owns two of them, one here, and one in Pendleton, Oregon.
The Washougal mill welcomes visitors weekdays for free behind-the-scenes tours.
"They’re very popular. We get people from all over to see them,” said Katie Carnes, store manager and tour guide.
The legacy of this Pendleton factory is as long as the rolls of colorful yarn it spins up daily.
It stretches from the antique machines still working hard on the factory floor spinning raw wool into yarn, to the workers like Carnes, who go back generations. Carnes' father worked for Pendleton, and she’s been with the company 15 years, and knows this factory down to these details:
“The wools going to come off that beam and hit the rollers, and then be wound onto the wooden bobbin. These machines spin at a speed of five thousand rotations per minute,” Carnes explained during a tour of the factory.
This place moves to a constant rhythm. Just over one thousand blankets roll off the line a day. Blankets with patterns that represent beloved National Parks, Native American heroes and the history of the American West.
"Every blanket has a different story. Every design has a different story,” said Pendleton’s communications manager April Rodgers.
Every blanket is also hand finished, Lupe Rodriguez is one of the finishers.
"I've been working for Pendleton for 37 years,” Rodriguez said. She only has a rough estimate of how many blankets have passed through her hands during those years.
"Maybe thousands of them,” Rodriguez laughed.
"It really puts it into perspective how many different hands have touched them, all the steps that they've gone through,” Carnes said.
After it leaves this factory, a Pendleton blanket will likely pass through many more hands. And continue that colorful legacy.
"They're often passed down from generation to generation,” Rodgers said.
Carnes added: "I just think they're cozy and soft and timeless and they last forever."
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