Pendleton National Park Blankets, 1916 to 2006

Pendleton Woolen Mill's series of National Park blankets are a celebration of the United States unique contribution to land use planning, the national park.  The strong simple design of these blankets derives from the early frontier days
of Indian fur
traders and mountain men.  Their labels from the 1920s to 1950s frequently were based on contemporary travel decals and luggage stickers used by the great national parks.  The points which appeared on these blankets from 1923 to 1938 came from early fur trading practices and, for Pendleton, identified the blanket's size and weight.  Their colors reflect chromatic fashion over time and provide a window into what our ancestors valued visually over the decades.

Functional and decorative, Pendleton's National Park blankets
please the eye, warm the body and lift the spirit, all at the same time.  Come explore with us these wonderful old threads of life.  

  -- The irony of railroads and Pendleton blankets.
  -- How Pendleton's first National Park blanket came to be.
  -- National Park blankets by year first introduced:

            --  Glacier Park (1916)
            --  Yellowstone Park (1923)
            --  Zion (1926)
            --  Redwoods (1926)
            --  Grand Canyon (1926)
            --  Rainier (1928)
            --  Santa Fe (1928) 
            --  Crater Park (1960) and Crater Lake (1999)
            --  Olympic (1963)
            --  Shasta (1963)
            --  Bryce Canyon (1992)
            --  Grand Teton (1992)
            --  Great Smoky Mountains (1997)
            --  Acadia (1999)
            --  Yosemite (2005)
            --  2006-2007 National Park blankets

     -- Contact the this web site's woolmaster.   
     -- Links to other relevant trade blanket web sites and Resource Materials.  
   -- Blanket terminology helps you distinguish the warp from the weft.    

Fine print:  This web site is not associated with and is independent of Pendleton Woolen Mills, Inc., Portland, Oregon.  Pendleton and many of its National Park blanket names are registered trademarks of Pendleton Woolen Mills, Inc, and are used here for identification purposes only.  The woolmaster thanks Pendleton Woolen Mills for its valuable assistance in helping me research these blankets  for an article that appears in the Winter/Spring 2007 issue of Airstream Life magazine (see Resource Materials).