The origin and history of the Loganberry in the 1880's was the beginning of the use of breeding to obtain better commercial varieties. Judge J.H. Logan was an interested backyard plant breeder, who began experimenting with breeding small fruits in his home garden at Logan Heights near Santa Cruz, California. Unsatisfied with the many varieties of blackberries, Judge Logan tried to cross two varieties of blackberries and unwittingly planted next to an old variety of red raspberry which had been cultivated for years in the area. The canes of all three fruited and flowered together and Judge Logan gathered and planted the seed. The 50 seedlings grew and produced a plant which was similar to the blackberry parent Aughinbaugh variety, but much larger and stronger. This, of course, was the Loganberry; a cross between the blackberry and raspberry. The remaining 49 plants were the Mammoth Blackberry, the longest fruit of any variety ever grown. Since this time, viable crosses have been made between the cultivars of r

aspberry and blackberry producing offspring like the Logan to confirm it's parentage.

While the Logan proved to be productive and well adapted to western climatic conditions, the flavor was not popular with customers and marketing difficulties made it desirable to search further. The heritage of the Logan, being a blackberry by raspberry cross, stimulated interest in using it for breeding purposes and thus overshadowed the use of wild varieties for many years. Therefore, the Logan became a famous parent in the breeding of many cultivated varieties that are now commercially grown the in the Northwest. The Logan itself is grown mainly for juice, pies and wine.