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Tim
Washburn
Tim Washburn is the co-curator of the Lions Heritage Museum in Lawton, Michigan. A large portion of the museum features artifacts and information on grape growing, wine making, and related industries.
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I have firsthand knowledge of life on the grape farm and in the asparagus field, and it’s just part of my heritage. I got involved with the museum because of the community center and my interest in history and in local history, in particular. I guess that’s my background.
There were several grape juice companies in the area like J. Hungerford Smith and Paw Paw Grape Juice Company. Basically, the only real juice company that’s left in the area is Welch’s. The rest are all wineries…We have other industries such as Honey Bear canning factory, which also did deal with grape juice, but they’re more into other fruits and vegetables now, like pears, asparagus, and cherries, apples, blueberries, etc.
I
was born and raised on a grape and vegetable farm in Paw Paw, and have been
farming here in
Initially growing grapes was very labor intensive. Everything was done by hand, starting out with some horse drawn equipment.
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WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY / FT. MIAMI HERITAGE SOCIETY OF MICHIGAN