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Author's Personal Collection

This plaque apparently refers to a tree dedication at Cowell’s Big Trees for E. Clemens Horst. The dedication took place on December 25, 1914 by none other than Samuel H. (Harry) Cowell, the last surviving descendant of lime baron Henry Cowell.

Emil Clemens Horst (1867-1940) was a major figure in the cultivation, harvest, and sale of hops in the United States. Horst was the largest West Coast producer of this essential beer ingredient.

Pasadena Post, February 27, 1932

Horst was born in 1867 in Tuttlingen, Germany and arrived in the United States with his parents in 1871. He grew up in New York state and there entered the hop business. In the mid-1880s Horst purchased a small plot of land along the Bear River, near Wheatland in the Sacramento Valley. He moved to San Francisco in 1902 where he established a company which boasted ownership of twelve hop ranches from California to Canada. By 1904 he was supplying hops to the Guinness Brewery in Ireland. By 1912, Horst owned the largest number of acres of hops under cultivation in the world with offices in Chicago, New York, and London. Prior to World War II, Horst was reportedly the only exporter of hops to Germany.

Hop harvesting was originally a labor-intensive business. The Horst family revolutionized the processing of hops with over a dozen new inventions including hop driers and the mechanical hop separator which harvested the hops while discarding the leaves and vines.

Horst passed away in 1940. The connection between Horst and Samuel Cowell is not known but both did do business in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, the exact location of the E. Clemens Horst Tree within the old Cowell’s Big Trees resort is not known.

Sources: “Horst, Famous Hop Expert is Dead in S.F.,” Santa Rosa Republican, May 24, 1940; A History of Hoptopia: The Local and Global Roots of a Willamette Valley Specialty Crop by Peter A. Kopp, 2012. University of Nevada, Reno, Doctor of Philosophy dissertation. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/859b/de041bbe1f2e048f6abf9fb97d9633328048.pdf