Home Industry Now and Then: Pale Horse and Mission Mill Concert Series

Is "home industry" or "buy local" ever not a thing?

The economists talk about specialization and comparative advantage, the idea that if you make something well and make it more efficiently at a lower cost, in a money economy you can end up trading for a larger sum total of goods and services. They also talk about keeping it local.

Some of the economic arguments are easy, some of them are more complicated because of externalized costs. We don't know the answer.

But we do know that historically, supporting the home team has always been popular.

The small print in the Home Industry and Home Capital ad:

The Salem Brewery Association is Composed of Citizens of Salem who Spend Their money here. We are investing $35,000 in making this brewing and malting plant one of the most thoroughly up-to-date on the Pacific Coast, and propose to make the quality and reputation of Salem beer equal to any on the market. Within a few days our own beer will be on the market. After two weeks we will be running full capacity. We have added new vats, new cellars, new cooling apparatus, new brew house and new machinery throughout. No old apparatus re-modeled. We are rebuilding one of the latest improved malt houses. Our ice plant has been doubled in capacity. We deliver ice to any part of the city.

We like how the beer is "specifically made for family use."

Here's another one. "Patronize Home Industry." More interesting, perhaps, is the Hires Root Beer, "the Nation's Temperance Beverage."

Both ads are from 1903, and show the positioning of Salem beer as local, fresh, and wholesome.

Coming back to the current day, Mission Mill and Pale Horse Brewing are starting a summer concert series. In the Second Sunday Series, on June 13, July 11 and August 8 they'll host bands on the Mission Mill grounds. The shows run from 4 - 8pm or so. 5$ non-members, 3$ members. The blurbage:

This summer stop by Mission Mill Museum, part of the Willamette Heritage Center to listen to some great local bands and enjoy some summer evenings. A new concert series is starting this summer, Second Sundays, beginning at 4:15pm on the Second Sunday of each month starting June 13th and continuing through August. Food will be available from Mission Mill Café and Beer will be available from Pale Horse Brewing Co. Bring a blanket and enjoy an evening in the sun at this event.

Beer and history, keeping it local. We're down with that. Neither the beer nor the bands are cutting edge, but you know there are a lot worse ways to spend a summer afternoon!