Tillamook Creamery - Oregon
- Cathy Curti
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
This might sound so "cheesey", but this place was really "Grate"!
Ok, ok... our jokes are bad, but Tillamook's cheeses were great! What a cool facility and setup they have going. You can read about the history of Tillamook, enjoy some eats, try the cheeses and ice cream, watch how it's made and packaged, and play make-believe cow farmer in thier farm exhibit room.
We spent a little time reading about Tillamook, which we didn't know has a little Candian history.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), currently called Tillamook Creamery, has its roots connected to Canadian cheesemaking knowledge, especially through Peter McIntosh, a Canadian cheesemaker who played a key role in founding the initial commercial cheese plant in Tillamook County in 1894.
T.S. Townsend, a local dairy businessman, employed Peter McIntosh to manage the county's inaugural commercial cheese factory. McIntosh brought in a traditional cheddar recipe that remains the foundation of the Tillamook cheddar recipe today.
In 1909, a group of cheesemakers established the Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), a marketing group aimed at ensuring uniform cheese quality.
The TCCA kept expanding and developing, eventually evolving into the Tillamook Creamery we recognize today, famous for its premium dairy products. The Tillamook Creamery continues to operate at the original location, featuring a visitor center, cafe, restaurant, and store, along with a viewing area for the cheesemaking process.
After taking their self-guided tour and watching how cheese is processed and packed, we made our way to the ice cream and enjoyed sharing a flight of ice cream... a little different for us than our usual sampling of a flight of beer. You get three picks. We had Rocky Road, Black Cherry, and Chocolate Chip Mint, and all were very good. We then headed for the store and cheese coolers to pick out some cheese. We purchased Tillamook mozzarella, some cheese curds, and a variety of pepper jellies, as well as a sticker for the rig, as we do with each fun and memorable place we visit.
We brought a cooler to keep our tasty snacks fresh for the return trip, as we intended to take the longer scenic route back to our RV site. The drive was beautiful and much better than the last time we traveled this way, as it was foggy then and obscured our views.
We made a few stops at various viewpoints before stopping for lunch at Pelican Brewing in Pacific City. We had a table overlooking the ocean and Haystack Rock—not to be confused with the Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.
Our timing could not have been more perfect as we were able to witness the puffins in flocks by the hundreds as they migrate back to the coast for nesting season.
Another wonderful day and experience on the Oregon coast!
Bill & Cat