The Community of Odell

Mid Valley Elementary School (MVES) is in Odell, a small community in the heart of the fruit industry of Hood River County. It has a rich history of immigration, as people were drawn to the valley’s  landscape and opportunities for a better life. European pioneers first established apple orchards in the early 1900s. As pears and cherries replaced the apple orchards from the 1920s to 1960s, Japanese immigrants were a new labor force, before and after the government seizure of land, rights, and internment during World War II. After 1965, many Mexican farmworkers arrived to work in the pear orchards and have since become the backbone of the Odell community (Myron, 2020).