History of Carnation Milk Company

Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company (later renamed the Carnation Milk Company) was established by Elbridge Amos Stuart at an existing factory located in King County, Washington, USA in August 1899. Stuart chose the Carnation name after seeing it used in conjunction with a display of cigars in a tobacco store in downtown Seattle.

The previous owners had been producing condensed milk – but when they went out of business Stuart took over the site. It made canned, evaporated milk for human consumption that was sold in grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1910 Elbridge Amos Stuart bought 350 acres of timber and brush near Tolt. He cleared the land, diked the Snoqualmie River to control its flooding, and bought a purebred bull and 84 registered Holstein cows as the basis for a research dairy herd.

By 1929, Stuart's was the largest herd of purebred Holsteins in the world numbering 700. Washington State produced 7,500 pounds of milk per cow per year which was the highest in the nation. Stuart's operation in the Snoqualmie Valley was a model dairy which employed 75 men year round. Stuart acquired the property of the Albers Milling Company and employed it to house the Carnation Farm research facility.

That was Cheese John who came up with the idea of sterilizing the milk by subjecting it to high temperatures, thereby creating the first commercially-produced evaporated milk. The Carnation made evaporated milk until October 1, 1954, when a switch was made to producing the Carnation Instant Milk that had been invented earlier in the year.

In 1985 the Carnation brand was purchased by Nestlé.
History of Carnation Milk Company