A dried prune is wrinkled and purplish. It's a pretty dismal public image.

But at one time "dried prune" was synonymous with prosperity in Clark County. A prune festival, complete with prune queen and parades, was an annual affair in downtown Vancouver before the Great Depression.

"If you didn't have prunes you were nobody," recalls orchardist Arvo Louko, he raised prunes for 45 years. He said that by the late 20s. "There were prunes from Washougal to Ridgefield - everybody had prunes."

Widespread prune growing and drying began here in the 1880s and '90s when good prices were paid by Eastern and foreign markets. Before and after World War I, German and southern European markets insured enormous profits. Louko said that the price went as high as 25 cents per pound of dried fruit.

In 1888, the Vancouver Independent advised: "Put out an orchard. There is more money in it than in the average gold mine, and much more sure."

That year a thousand tons of dried fruit were produced and this was only about one-seventh of the subsequent peak production of the county.

As early as 1895 an enormous dryer was built in the county by C.H. Ricker. "The American Steam Fruit Evaporator," using a mile and a half of one-inch pipe, was highly automated and could dry 15,000 pounds of fruit daily.

For a while the crop was indeed a gold mine, but unlike a mine, the orchards needed fertilization and expert care, and were subject to adverce weather conditions, insects and disease. These factors separated the prospectors from the true orchardists shortly after World War I, and the best farmers had a secure and profitable living.

Then the Depression struck, and no amount of efficiency or care could make up for the fact that prices were plummeting. A small 1932 crop faced prices of 2 7/8 cents per pound due to surpluses in domestic and foreign markets. Canned fruit's appeal detracted from that of "old fashioned" dried prunes.

The improved Italian prune of Clark county was packed under the trade name of "purple plum," but canners' prices were low. In 1935, growers staged protests against the prevailing packing prices. That year Libby offered $12.50 per ton for top quality fresh prunes.

In 1938 one grower is quoted by The Columbian as saying that agents offered 1 1/2 cents for prunes which growers estimated cost 2 cents per pound to pick and process. It was about this time, according to one veteran prune grower, that many of the dryers began to mysteriously catch fire.

By 1939 prunes were on welfare. The federal Surplus Commodities Corp. announced it would buy $30,000 worth of Clark County dried prunes for distribution to the needy.

In 1973, very few of the old prune dryers were still in existence, and even fewer in operation. In fact, by this time only one dryer would be operating in the county, despite a good crop projection for the 70 to 100 acres of prunes in the county.