You do not need to enter the property to locate this cache. It's
accessible from the road. The property now is used for farming.
There are a few buildings on the property and the locals I've
checked with are divided on whether any of the structures were
actually used by Blue Bird or whether they were built after the
facility ceased operating. Other local research in publications has
said that the company operation here was primarily as an orchard
and fruit processing facility. The processed fruit was then shipped
to the company's nearby bakeries in Indianapolis and Louisville.
They processed local apples, strawberries, pumpkins and peaches.
Fruit was also brought in from Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. At
the height of it's operation, the facility was processing over 2
million pounds of apples each year.
**Special thanks to my good friends Jacqui Taylor at the
Mitchell Public Library and Jeff Routh from the Times Mail paper
for their help in research.
Please see below if you are interested in a more detailed
history of the company.
A DETAILED HISTORY OF THE BLUE BIRD BAKING COMPANY
All info is from research at this web site:
http://home.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/GreekPhotos/GrSeriesIIIl.html
Louis Preonas was born in 1897 in Klivonos, Thessaly,
Greece.
After completing the 4th grade, he was apprenticed to a
baker.
Louis came to this country in 1911, to Kalamazoo, Michigan.
He
worked as a baker in several Midwestern cities, finally settling
in
Dayton, Ohio, where he founded the Blue Bird Baking Company
in
1923.
Louis' first plant in Dayton was at 10 Horton Street. In 1928,
a
new building was erected at 521 Kiser Street, and this building
was
added onto in 1948, 1955, and 1961. In 1931, Blue Bird
expanded
sales into Columbus, Ohio and soon more Ohioans were eating
Blue
Bird pies. In 1932, a bakery was added in Cincinnati and sales
were
expanded into that city. Eventually sales spread to
neighboring
states. Blue Bird owned its own fruit orchards, and in 1945
the
company built a quick-freeze and storage plant in Mitchell,
Indiana. The company built and bought out more bakeries,
built
garages for its delivery trucks, and increasingly mechanized
its
production. Neatly wrapped in individual packages, Blue Bird
pies
were delivered by fleets of streamlined trucks.
Blue Bird's rapid growth is attributed to Preonas' philosophy
of
work and management. During the Great Depression Mr. Preonas
went
to his restaurateur customers and promised that they would
have
fresh pies every day, taking back all the day-old pies. He
then
opened a day-old pie store at 335 E. Fifth Street. This helped
him
as well as the restaurateurs.
He loved the Greek ideal of democracy and thought of his
employees as co-workers, as family. The company began publishing
a
company magazine called 'Blue Bird Briefs' in 1941. The old
issues
of the magazine are quite revealing of the atmosphere Preonas
worked to create in his business; the very existence of the
magazine is significant. There are many articles about
company
personnel, with their photographs, written in a friendly,
folksy
style. There are also many photos of employees at work and at
play,
and photos of children of workers. There are philosophical
and
inspirational essays and poems, jokes, stories and news of
company
parties. The company had, at one time, 500 families employed,
including children. Mr. Preonas sponsored many Greek
immigrants,
and his policy was not to deny any of them the chance to work
in
his company.
