Taylor Shellfish Company in Shelton , Washington is the United States ' largest producer of aquaculture ( farmed ) shellfish . The Taylor family started raising Olympia oysters in the 1920s . In the current form , the company , privately held , was started in 1969 as Taylor United by brothers Edwin and Justin Taylor , grandsons of James Y. Waldrip , an early Washingtonian who came to Seattle to work rebuilding after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 before moving south and founding the Olympia Oyster Company in the 1890s . Waldrip 's company farmed the Olympia oyster found only in South Puget Sound . Justin Taylor , born 1921 , the oldest oyster farmer on Puget Sound in the early 2000s , died in 2011
Great Seattle Fire
Great Seattle Fire
Taylor Shellfish Company