Located in a fertile valley in the ecotone between the Willamette Valley and the Coast Range, what is today Boulder’s Farm started out as a homestead. In about 1852, a young couple named Alexander and Rebecca Gage carved 640 acres out of the wilderness of the Oregon Territory. Like many homesteaders, they sold the place a few years after proving their claim (for $2,500).
The farm then went through a series of owners, gradually being partitioned into smaller chunks, until 1917, when another young couple, Ren and Thera Womer (left), bought the now-227-acre farm.
Ren was a successful farmer and community leader, but was killed in a farm accident in 1930. Thera lived on the farm until her death in 1983.
Nola, the eldest child, never left the farm. She taught Sunday School at Pedee Church and wrote the weekly “Pedee News” column for the local paper for 62 years. She died in 2010 at the age of 95.
In December of 2016, longtime Salem, Oregon residents Michael and Kimberly Heggen purchased the farm, now down to 135 acres, and renamed it Boulder’s Farm in honor of Michael’s beloved first horse (the neighbors still refer to it as “Nola’s old place”, though).
The farm today consists of about 40 acres of fields, two acres of heirloom apples and pears, about 20 acres of wetlands along 1/3 mile of Pedee Creek, and about 70 acres of timber.
The Heggens—aided by their farmhands, family, friends, and neighbors—are slowly putting the place back to being a working farm once again. See the Boulder’s Farm blog for project updates, crop reports, and other news!