In fact, the valley eventually came to produce 75% of the nation's canned peas. By 1913 the total pea acreage in the Gallatin Valley had risen to about 10,000 acres, peaking at 15,000 acres in the 1920s. But what would a pea industry be without the seed to plant the crop? This is where the Gallatin Valley Seed Company enters the picture.
Organized in 1912 as the William A. Davis Seed Company by William Davis, the precursor to the Gallatin Valley Seed Company built the present facility in 1917. After several profitable years Davis suddenly disappeared with the profits, leaving the company in such a financial state that, in 1921 it declared bankruptcy. Reorganized by Davis' former business partner Budge Parker, it became the Gallatin Valley Seed Company on September 22, 1922. At its peak in the late 1920s the plant would hire as many as 500 workers each fall to harvest, clean, sort and package the season's harvest.
Surviving the Dirty Thirties, the company was able to remain in business here until 1961. Gallatin Valley Seed Company left the Bozeman area in 1962 and moved its headquarters to Filer, Idaho. This would mean that the painted sign, "
GALLATIN VALLEY SEED COMPANY", would be between 56 and 100 years old. We tend to lean toward the former, as the sign remains in pretty good condition, possibly too good for a 100 year old sign.
In 1992 the company was consolidated into Rogers Brothers Seed Company, a subsidiary of Syngenta Seeds. In December of 2008 the Gallatin Valley Seed Company and the pea varieties developed there were purchased from Syngenta Seeds, Inc. by Ron Johnson. Thus, Gallatin Valley Seed Company remains a vibrant and successful part of the pea seed industry.
Due to the successful production of peas in the valley, a group of businessmen organized the Bozeman Canning Co. in 1917, which processes potatoes in addition to peas. This cannery remained an important industry in the valley until its bankruptcy in 1962.
The blight that brought the seed pea industry to the Gallatin Valley during the early 1910s also drove it away to new fields further west. By the 1930s, Caterial Blight had been introduced into the fields. This seed borne disease lives in the soil and migrates into the plants through any lesions caused by blowing sand, high wind, beating rains or hail. The Associated Seed Co. left Bozeman in 1948. The Gallatin Valley Seed Co. absorbed the Brotherton-Kirk Seed Co. in 1932 and remained in operation in Bozeman until 1961 in its
facilities at 209 South Wallace.
From the NRHP Architectural Inventory