Alpacas At Marquam Hill Ranch

Specialties

Alpacas at Marquam Hill Ranch is an 18 acre ranch on Hwy 213 in Molalla, Oregon. We are directly in between Molalla and Silverton. We have 80+ huacaya alpacas. We breed our animals for the fineness of their fiber, with a soft handle and good density. Our goal is to create a long term fineness in all animals that mimics the feel of cashmere or better. Presently more than half our herd is under 21 micron. We have white as well as a variety of other colors of alpacas. There are 22 natural colors of alpacas as defined by the Alpaca Registry. Bill is an AOBA Certified Fleece and Performance Judge. His education helps in the purchases and breeding of our alpacas. In the future we will be holding seminars on fleece evaluations, breeding selection, business plan write ups and fiber arts. If there is a topic you’d like to learn about, we’ll find the instructor and create the class. Or you can just stop by and we would be happy to answer your questions. We have a large fleece room dedicated for

History

Established in 1986.

It was ten years ago that I saw a huggable white baby alpaca in the Living Section of the local newspaper. There was an alpaca show at the Portland Expo Center that weekend. I wanted to go, my husband joined me. He really didn’t understand why, but he went. Once we got there, we asked questions and learned that some people made a living breeding and selling these cute animals.

Since our first investment of 5 girls 8 years ago, we now have an 18+ acre property. The property came with a mobile home on it and rows and rows of cane berries in Molalla, Oregon. We have a total of 70+ alpacas. Our family life has changed from city to country. Bill has resigned from the corporate world and is now a retired AOA Judge for Alpaca Fleece and Performance. I’m still just as excited about scooping poop and taking care of our herd, and the four kids have reconfirmed their thoughts… we really are nuts! After all of this, if you asked us now, would we do this again and we’d answer, «In a heartbeat!

Meet the Business Owner

Bill C.

Business Owner

Bill Cameron and his wife, Jennifer, purchased their first alpacas in 2005 and are the owners of Alpacas at Marquam Hill Ranch between Molalla and Silverton Oregon. The Ranch started out small and the day to day operations were overseen by Jennifer while Bill continued work at his other career in finance as a CFO and CPA. As the ranch grew and became more involved, Bill became more involved in the day to day operations and wanted to learn as much as he could. That led him to enroll in the AOBA Apprentice Judge Program where he has become an AOBA Certified Fleece and Performance Judge. Bill enjoys all aspects of the Alpaca industry from the husbandry, genetics, breeding, showing and the development of fleece into the end product. The ranch is presently home to 80 Hucauyas. They are a farm member of the Columbia Alpaca Breeders Association (CABA) and Bill serves CABA on the Board of Directors as Treasurer. Bill graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting