HK5corner Hidden Gems: Milk Farm Restaurant Plate

My mother had a large collection of restaurant plates in her kitchen from the 80’s and onward. Her passion was to collect plates of places she had fond memories of eating at during her lifetime. From Ahwanee hotels, railway lines she rode as a child, even clubs her parents and grandparents frequented in the early 20th century like Bimbo’s, I’ll touch on that in another post. When my mother was out of her home, I took several of the restaurant plates and recently I pulled out the Milk Farm plate and put it up in the kitchen/dinning area.

The Milk Farm was a family restaurant that opened in the 1920’s, and if you drove to Lake Tahoe or even Sacramento on Route-40/Interstate 80 between the 20’s and 80’s, then you more than likely stopped there for a meal as you drove back to the bay area. Many dinning businesses had custom made dinnerware by companies like Wallace, Buffalo, Mayer and Tepco during the 20th century. Aptly called restaurant ware, the china was typically stoneware or ironstone. The Milk Farm plate was by Mayer.

The Milk Farm restaurant was originally named Hess Station, which opened in 1924 on Sievers Road along Route 40. Eventually the restaurant would move off Sievers Road along the frontage road of Route 40. The new location opened in 1939 by it’s new owners, the Hendersons who also owned a grocery store in downtown Dixon. The name of the restaurant changed it’s name from Hess Station to the Milk Farm after the restaurant was written up in the Saturday Evening Post called the restaurant The Milk Farm because of it’s special deal of 10¢ for all you can drink milk. Sadly the deal was abandoned during WWII due to rationing but the name stuck.

The Milk Faarm all lit up in the 1960’s

The Milk Farm was just a few miles down the road from The Nut Tree. Both interstate key travel stops and eats with their own clienteles. While the Nut Tree was the high end stop, the Milk Farm was for everyone. For our family, we did tend to stop at the Nut Tree more often, namely because it remained open until to the 2000’s. For my parents, the Milk Farm had a deeper connection. In 1963, the Milk Farm was expanding greatly, just like the Nut Tree. The famous cow jumping over the moon was already being used on gift shop items in the late 1940’s. The logo and name were trademarked in 1951. In 1963 Electric Products Company (EPCO) was hired to design and build the 100ft tall Milk Farm sign that still stands today.

The sign photographed in the 90s

In 1963, my great aunt, Vera Huemoeller Tejada was working with EPCO and worked on the design and construction of the sign. It was rumored that Vera even painted the cow/moon portion of the sign structure. The sign was illuminated by neon and the lights remained on, even years after the resultants, gas stations and stores that made up the Milk Farm were shuttered and eventually demolished. Recently the Milk Farm has been in the news, because the property was sold off to new owners with plans for redevelopment. While the sign was turned off in the 2000’s after demolition of the main restaurant building. The sign still stands today, in 2026. Over the past 20+ years, locals to Dixon have been caring for the sign, even giving it new paint jobs from time to time.

In January of this year, a local group is reported in talks with the new land owner, hoping to salvage or preserve the sign in some way. (SFgate Article) While the preservation is expected to cost at least $100K, the history behind this sign is great. Every time we drove past the sign or even stopped to eat at the Milk Farm, we were reminded of Auntie Vera’s contribution and the history of the sign. I believe my mom came across her Milk Farm plate on eBay back in the early 2000’s, shortly before the display shelves were constructed. My mother would from time to time, swap plates out, but the Milk Farm was certainly one that remained in place for 21 years on that display case. I returned the plate back to prominence and it’s a nice reminder of not only my parents and all the times we drove by the Milk Farm, but the family connection.

A sticker found on Etsy.

The Milk Farm does have it’s cult following still out there. While it may be small, the existence of the sign today, still has refular travelers of I-80 googling the name. Even on Etsy and eBay people are still selling Milk Farm memories and momentos. From stickers to art work and even old gift shop items purchase from the 20’s till the 80’s. My mom did say she never remembered the china being sold at the store. She did however remember her father buying on of their ashtrays, when my dad found one heavily used in her father’s garden shed after he passed away in the 80’s. We were all shocked by the number of coffee cans he had out there filled with cigaret butts. Today, I carry on the tradition everytime we drive by the Milk Farm signs, sharing the stories and memories. I truly hope the locals band together and truly save the sign from demolition. The sign is a lot more than a “we are halfway there” marker for bay area locals heading to Lake Tahoe.