Wine in the Bogue Valley: Peter Britt and the Beginnings In his authoritative A History of Wine in America: From the Beginnings to Prohibition, author Thomas Pinney states: In Oregon and Washington, the history of winegrowing is practically a reversal of what happened in most other states. Usually men tried to grow grapes in regions where they would not succeed; In Oregon, especially, but in Washington as well, Vitis Vinifera m\\ grow more or less unaided, but there were few who made the effort to grow it. Thus, though the possibility was always there and though it was pretty clearly recognized in theory, no significant commercial winemaking developed in the Pacific Northwest until the second half of the twentieth century. The story of the region before that time is an irregular chronicle of isolated experiment.1 In this work Pinney goes on to devote only one paragraph to the history of winegrowing in southern Oregon and writes nothing at all about the Rogue Valley. We will see however that one of the "isolated experiments" was being carried out by Peter Britt of Jacksonville who demonstrated that Vitis Vinifera could grow successfully there, and in so doing he gave impetus to a small but significant nineteenth and early twentieth century industry which anticipated the development of modern winegrowing in the area. The botanical genus Vitis includes the true grapes Euvitis and the Muscadiniae ? Both these subgenera include species of winegrapes. Vitis Vinifera, the old world species is native to Asia Minor south of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea in the vicinity of historic Armenia and from there it has been disseminated throughout the world in the temperate zones. 3Over ninety per cent of the world's wine and nearly all of the premium wines are from varieties of this species. The New World vines, predominately North American, are used in winemaking but with less success than with Vinifera, as we will see. Vitis Labrusca east of the Rocky Mountains and Vitis Californica in California and southern Oregon are two of many varieties. Hybrids of Vinifera with native grapes have become important in production in eastern America.4 Grapes are most successful between 34 degrees and 49 degrees north and south latitude but there are microclimatic exceptions.3 They are adaptable to a wide variety of soil types 6and are susceptible to a number of pests and microbial invasions.7 The history of wine making in America is that of trying to produce "Old World Wine"from Vinifera. Virtually all attempts were doomed to failure and it was not until it was recognized that native grape varieties could succeed best against the climate and the endemic diseases that there was a chance for winemaking in the East. With the colonization and development of California, the Vinifera grapes were seen to flourish and the foundations of a new industry were established.8 The Mission grape was the original variety of California, so named for having been planted and disseminated with the California Missions. The grape was a variety of Vinifera but the origin of it was unknown. The vine had been brought to the New World by the Spanish about two hundred fifty years earlier and its parentage was obscure. After secularization of the California Missions in 1833, cuttings of the old vines were used to propagate new vineyards in the vicinity of the old ones, thus the vine eventually spread to all of the regions of the state where viticulture was attempted. After the Phylloxera epidemic late in the century the Mission assumed a much diminished role, but by this time many European varieties had been imported and had adapted well to California conditions. 9The Zinfandel is another grape of mysterious origin whose arrival and development in California constitutes another history altogether. Following the decline of the Mission the Zinfandel assumed an importance it has yet to relinquish. Produced as a varietal and as generic Claret, it had replaced the Mission as the most widely planted red grape in the state.10 The discovery of gold in California in I 848 was a transforming event in the history of the state and for that of viticulture. As the population increased and the search for gold widened, the culture of the grape followed in lockstep.11 While the 49ers began to exhaust the mines of the Sacramento River and tributaries they began to move northward to other river valleys between California and Oregon.12 Oregon's Rogue Valley was not exactly undiscovered. It was thinly occupied by aboriginal indigenous peoples who were hostile to the intrusion of the whites. By I 846 it had been traversed by the Applegate Party, blazing a trail from the Willamette Valley to Fort Hall, Idaho.13 By I 850,a few families had settled in the Valley as a result of the Congressional Donation Claims Act of I 850 which granted citizens or declared foreigners 320acres per person or 640 acres for a married couple.14 Gold was discovered at Rich Gulch near present day Jacksonville around January of 1852, and within several months over one thousand miners were at work in the vicinity. Jacksonville became a permanent settlement and for a short time was the largest and most prosperous city in Oregon.'' As in California the gold sources were eventually depleted but an agricultural infrastructure had emerged to replace it. The early history of farming in the valley was primarily that of wheat, due to local demand and geographical remoteness.16 The foundation of agriculture in the valley was favorable climate and fertile soil. The climate is midway between the wetness of the Willamette Valley and the dryness of California. The annual rainfall averaged twenty-eight inches in Medford, twenty in Ashland, and twenty- seven in Jacksonville, with a growing season of I 70-1 80 days.17 Temperature extremes were rare, thus the climate was similar to that of California, allowing for the differences in latitude.18 The soil was generally dark and alluvial derived from disintegrating sandstone and other rocks with organic material from decomposing vegetation. This loamy humus and alluvial material constituted soil of the richest kind for agriculture.19 Because of the equable and benevolent climate the Rogue Valley has been referred to as the Italy of America. When Peter Britt arrived in Jacksonville on November eighth, I 852,20 at the beginning of a severe winter, with snow already capping the surrounding hills, it seemed to him, more like his ancestral home in Switzerland.31 Peter Britt was thirty-three years old when he arrived in the Rogue Valley, and he was to remain there until his death in 1905. He became a prominent citizen and involved himself in a number of vocations and avocations including, miner, packer, civic leader, vintner, apiculturist, meteorologist, horticulturist, financier, and land investor. "Above all he was the Photographer of the Siskiyous and his legacy included the first photograph of Crater Lake 23and thousands of portraits and everyday scenes, which are a permanent part of the historical record of Jackson County and Southern Oregon. While his contributions as a photographer are permanent, his viticultural and enological efforts were important and he should be credited for his contributions to those fields. Peter Britt was born March 14th, I 8 19 in Obstalden, a village on the south shore of the Walensee, fifty kilometers southeast of Zurich in the German- speaking region of Switzerland. Raised in a farming family he rejected a career in agriculture and trained as an artist. 24Success in that profession was predicated upon obtaining portrait sittings and thus regional travel was a requisite. Britt was known to have traveled to Germany and Austria and possibly to France.23 It is likely that without leaving his village he would have been exposed to the culture of wine at an early age. Switzerland had a long and intense history of wine production, which reached a peak in I 884, prior to the epidemic of Phyloxera, the vine louse that decimated vineyards throughout Europe.26 By the I 830s,the Swiss economy was depressed and emigration, particularly to the United Stated was a fact of life. After the death of his mother, the Britt family prepared to leave for America and the Swiss Colony at Highland Illinois, arriving there in June I 845.27 The Highland Colony had been established in I 83 I as an agricultural community and once organized, artisans, skilled workers and professionals were solicited to immigrate and settle there. 2sUpon arrival, the Britt family was able to purchase farmland nearby. By the mid I 840s, the Swiss Colony had introduced commercial farming, penetrated the St. Louis market and become the largest in America.29At the same time grape growing and winemaking were flourishing in the Midwest, particularly in the German speaking settlements. The Highland Swiss had originally brought vines from Switzerland, Germany and France but all of the plantings had failed. Then in I 843, five acres were planted in Catawba grapes purchased from Cincinnati, and by I 847, "excellent wine was being produced."30 After arriving at Highland, Britt set about pursuing his career as a portrait artist and apparently was successful but as in Europe it was necessary to travel in the region to obtain commissions. In his travels it is quite likely that he would have came into contact with other German speaking settlements in the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys in the vicinity of St. Louis.31 Two of these were wine-growing communities. One at Belleville, Illinois, very near Highland, had been settled by German immigrants and had established vineyards and winemaking.32 Another was the Colony at Hermann, Missouri, west of St.