Central Oregon’s Most Important Crop for Over 50 Years
Learn about when potato was king with the Redmond Historical Society.
The Greater Redmond Historical Society discusses the history of the Potato Show and what the Hoedecker family meant to potato farming in Central Oregon. Learn about how Central Oregon almost became the potato capital of the United States.
About the Redmond Historical Society:
The Greater Redmond Historical Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing, preserving and discovering historical information of Redmond, Washington. The Redmond Historical Society was founded in 1999. A small group of citizens – seeing a tremendous growth in Redmond – realized no one was documenting and preserving the history and heritage of Redmond. The historical society was created to collect, maintain, and safeguard articles and records of historical information in the greater Redmond area. Through staff, volunteers, and programs, the Greater Redmond Historical Society serves the community by providing primary sources such as historical documents, pictures, artifacts, and oral histories that all show the development, growth, and narrative about the Redmond we know today. With over 30,000 records of photographs and scanned data, the Greater Redmond Historical Society has grown into one of the largest civic organizations in the city.
2026 A Novel Idea Book Selection:
Supersonic charts the rise of a boomtown city in the American West where ambition outpaces memory. In the present day, PTA president Sami Hasegawa-Stalworth is determined to rename her daughter’s elementary school after her late grandmother—a beloved music teacher and Japanese internment survivor. What begins as a symbolic family gesture spirals into a kaleidoscopic, multi-generational story of struggle—for and against change, and over who gets to define the future.
Through interwoven lives—an opioid-addicted 19th-century conman, a disgraced Navy seaman building a jet that will fly faster than sound, a stay-at-home dad turned weed entrepreneur, and a family haunted by the ghosts of progress—Supersonic reveals how each era tries to remake the same ground beneath its feet. At once intimate and panoramic, the story channels the restless energy that propels the West.
About the Author:
Thomas Kohnstamm was born and raised in Seattle. He still lives in the same house he grew up in—now with his wife and two children. A freelance writer for over twenty years, he’s been a Spanish & Portuguese translator, travel writer, video & animation producer and has covered subjects ranging from rainforest conservation to quantum computing to backcountry skiing. Supersonic is his third book.
