Tillamook County Creamery Association facts for kids
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Tillamook Creamery in 2025
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| Agricultural cooperative | |
| Industry | Dairy products |
| Founded | 1909 |
| Headquarters |
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United States
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| Products | Cheese, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, butter, cream cheese spread |
The Tillamook County Creamery Association (often called TCCA or just Tillamook) is a special kind of business. It's owned by the farmers who produce the milk. This dairy company is based in Tillamook County, Oregon, in the United States.
Tillamook makes and sells many dairy products under its own "Tillamook" brand. Their main building is called the Tillamook Creamery. It's located near the city of Tillamook on Highway 101.
Tillamook is one of the biggest dairy companies in North America. It sells its products in all 50 states, but it's most popular on the West Coast. The company has nearly 900 employees in Oregon. It often wins awards for its delicious products, especially its cheese.
The company works with almost 60 dairy farms. Most of these farms are right there in Tillamook County. Tillamook sells many dairy items like cheese, ice cream, butter, sour cream, and yogurt. Some of these are made by Tillamook itself. Others are made by partner companies that use the Tillamook name.
Their most famous product is Tillamook cheese. The most popular type is Tillamook Cheddar. In 2010, Tillamook's Medium Cheddar cheese won a gold medal. It was at the World Cheese Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. It scored very high, beating many other cheeses.
How Tillamook Started
The Tillamook Valley was a great place for dairy cattle in the mid-1800s. But it was hard to get milk and butter over the mountains. In 1854, some farmers built a schooner (a type of boat) called the Morning Star. They used it to carry butter to Portland, Oregon. This boat is now part of the Tillamook company's logo. You can see a copy of the boat at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
The first cheese factory in the county was started in 1894. It was built by Peter McIntosh and T. S. Townsend. The Tillamook County Creamery Association itself began in 1909. Ten different creameries joined together to form it. By 1917, Tillamook started advertising its products in big cities.
In 1946, the company began making rindless cheese. The next year, they started bottling milk. In 1949, the Tillamook Cheese Factory was built. It was a bigger facility that included a storage area. This helped them make and store more cheese.
In 2001, Tillamook built a second cheese-making factory. It was located in Boardman, Oregon. This new factory doubled the amount of cheese Tillamook could make. In 2009, the Tillamook County Creamery Association celebrated 100 years of business.
Visiting the Tillamook Creamery
The Tillamook Cheese Factory is located at 4165 U.S. 101 North in Tillamook, Oregon. It's the original place where Tillamook makes its cheese. This factory also has a visitor center called the Tillamook Creamery. More than 1.3 million people visit it every year!
Visitors can watch how cheese is made and packaged. They can also see how ice cream is created. You can watch all this from a special viewing area above the main production floor. The tours are self-guided, so you can go at your own speed. There are videos and interactive screens to help you learn.
Tours that went inside the actual cheese-making area stopped in 1967. This was due to health and safety rules. A brand new visitor center opened in June 2018. It has a large space for exhibits and viewing. The center also has a dining area and a gift shop.
The Tillamook Cheese Factory makes a lot of cheese every day. It produces over 170,000 pounds of cheese daily. About one million pounds are packaged there each week. The factory's warehouse can store 50 million pounds of cheese for aging.
How Tillamook Advertises
Tillamook has used fun ways to advertise. They had a "Loaf Love Tour" with special Volkswagen buses. These buses, called "Baby Loafs," gave out cheese samples at stores and events.
Tillamook also has TV commercials. Some of their campaigns include "Food Loves Tillamook" and "Dairy Done Right." They also had a campaign called "Goodbye Big Food, Hello Real Food." Tillamook even sponsored a fun event called the Grilled Cheese Invitational in 2010 and 2011.
