Curly’s Dairy

2310 Mission Street

Salem, Or 97302

Phone: (503) 362-2401

Curly’s Dairy Goodies and Ice Cream Shop, Salem Public Library, SJ941

Curly’s Diary was originally built in 1925, in the old part of Salem on Hood Street. There, Mr. Hans (Curly) Hofstetter converted an old garage into a milk processing plant. A larger addition was built onto it prior to World War II.

In the late 1950s, Curly’s took over the Timber Valley facility, located 50 miles south of Salem in Lebanon, Oregon. It still serves as a warehouse and distribution center.

Curly’s moved to their present Mission Street location in 1960. It is an ideal location for them, accessible to a highway running north and south, and another one running east and west.

Curly’s gets their milk from Wilcox Family Farms in Roy, Washington. They package approximately 80-100,000 gallons of milk during each four-day week. And they are one of the few dairy facilities left still offering home delivery. During World War II years, when gas was being rationed, Curly’s took the engines out of their small fleet of delivery trucks and used horses to pull them instead. Today, a fleet of 16 home-delivery trucks distributes milk to 7,000 homes twice a week.

Curly’s Dairy boasts a large product line – including pizza, steaks, frozen food products, etc. They also bottle and distribute juice. But their main focus is still milk.

Although Curly’s is best known for their home-delivery service, this only reflects 20% of the total milk business. Most of the business remains wholesale to grocery stores.

Curly’s products are well-known for their quality. On all Curly’s products is the statement “Quality Checked.” Quality Checked is a recognition out of Naperville, Illinois. They have a quality assurance laboratory there that tests and assures that Curly’s products are meeting their highest standards. This organization was started back in the late 1940s. Curly’s products are inspected by them since Curly’s Dairy is a family-run establishment that is an integral part of Salem.

Written by William Glennen

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Bibliography:

Kirk Hofstetter was interviewed by William Glennen for this story on 12/4/2002

This article originally appeared on the original Salem Online History site and has not been updated since 2006.