Made Local Magazine, July/Aug 2024

It was a bittersweet milestone for Manzana. Just two years after reaching its centennial, the North Bay’s last remaining apple cannery announced they’re relocating to Washington.

It’s said that the only constant is change. And that old facility along Atascadero Creek, with its big metal tanks, loading docks, and piles of wooden pallets, has seen a lot of change during its long run.

Started in 1922, husband and wife team Rudolph and Maude Oehlmann began Manzana with a focus on drying: not just apples but prunes, pears, and—the cash crop of their era—hops. In fact, a century ago, California was a leading hops producer and Sonoma County grew half the state’s crop. But after prohibition, the war, and a devastating mildew outbreak, hops would gradually disappear from the local scene. Prunes, their own booming industry around mid-century, would later meet the same fate.