Nearly two miles long, Stackland Road near Cove provides more than a scenic foothill drive. It has a remarkable agricultural history, and once you’ve explored it in July, you just might come home with a bag of fresh cherries, flowers and a few jars of local honey.

This road is named after three brothers from Norway — Karl, Christopher and Gerhard Stakland, sons of Peder and Bertha Stakland. Peder died in Norway, after which his widow and their seven surviving children came to America in 1882, initially settling near relatives in Kansas. They tried to farm there, but due to repeated crop failures, the family gave up and migrated to Cove, Oregon, in the fall of 1891. In their new life here, their Norwegian name, Stakland, was rebranded as Stackland.

The Stackland brothers acquired their first 80 acres of land and started fruit farming. Their industriousness was rewarded with prosperity, and by 1898, the brothers received a railway car full of empty berry boxes to ship out their fruit. In 1902, they put in at least 2,000 new fruit trees, roughly half apples, half cherries. Christopher won the award at the La Grande carnival’s agricultural display for best exhibit of fruits of all kinds.

By 1904, the Stackland brothers had negotiated with fruit buyers in Norway to sell a carload of fancy graded apples.

This was their second shipment to the Norwegian buyers since they were so pleased with the quality of apples they were receiving from the Stackland farms.

Business was prospering so much that by 1912 the Stackland brothers were advertising for 50 pickers and packers that year. By then, Karl owned the Orcheim Fruit Farm, the Glendell Fruit Farm, the Pear Angou Fruit Farm and the Blue Mountain Fruit Farm at Cove. Christopher and Gerhard owned Grand View Fruit Farm and Park View Farm.

In mid-December of 1920, Karl left on a business tour of Europe, trying to find more buyers for his apples and dried fruit line. He visited Britain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and of course, Norway. The Stacklands were the earliest, if not the first agriculturalists, in Union County to develop an international market for their fruits.

Christopher and Gerhard were equally successful, being called “the cherry kings of the Cove region” in a 1921 issue of the La Grande Observer. In 1931, Karl Stackland became mayor of Cove and his son, Karl Jr., took over his farms.

All three Stackland brothers lived the remainder of their lives in Union County. They provided jobs for people in their orchards and packing houses, served in city government, and in 1946, Karl Jr. made a generous donation of a few hundred books to the Cove Public Library.

Today, Cove is still known as a fertile area for growing cherries and other fruits. Stackland Road is also home to two businesses on the Grande Ronde Farm Trail:

• Cove Cherry Farm, 61236 Stackland Road, grows Rainier cherries, which ripen on their 3-acre orchard in late June through July. People can pre-order custom-created floral arrangements in planters in time for special occasions. Please call Brian or Margie Lemke at 541-786-4621 or text before visiting.
• Cove Honey, 61022 Stackland Road, is a self-serve honey stand, where people can purchase honey in small gift jars in pints, quarts or half-gallon containers. Beeswax candles are also for sale. The owner is Maureen Kelly, 541-910-2444.

— Trish Yerges is the co-author of “Historical Guide to Union County, Oregon Roads” at weframe@eoni.com