100 years ago

For the week ending Feb. 25, 1906

MANY FRUIT TREES PLANTED

Many orchards will be planted in Bend and vicinity this spring. Dwight Roberts, representing a large Salem nursery, has been spending the week here and reports very favorable business. He has received orders of greater or less magnitude from a large number of the settlers, and every one seems anxious to set out some fruit and see just what this country can do growing it. In many localities hereabouts orchards are bringing in money into their owners pockets each year. The numerous orders taken by Mr. Roberts show that interest is very high in this region also as a fruit producer.

Charles Reed, of the Johnston ranch, placed one of the largest orders. It included 517 trees besides a large number of berry bushes. These he will plant on his homestead. Cal Eaton also will plant a large number of trees on the Baldwin ranch.

75 years ago

For the week ending Feb. 25, 1931

NORDEEN WINS; LESSENS TIME FOR 42 MILES

Emil Nordeen, wearing the colors of the Skyliners, glided over the snow of ancient Mount Mazama Sunday to win the annual Fort Klamath – Crater Lake ski race and set a new record of five hours and 35 minutes for the 42 mile course. In establishing a new record Nordeen broke his own mark of five hours and 57 minutes, made in 1929 when the end of the 42 mile course was Fort Klamath, not the Anna Creek sawmill. More than 4000 persons watched the ski runners.

When Nordeen glided to the end of the long course and was greeted by Bend folk singing the victory song of the Norsemen, he was about five miles ahead of his old rival, Manfred Jacobsen, of McCloud, California, three times winner of the Klamath – Crater Lake ski run, longest race of its kind in the world. Jacobsen completed the final lap 36 minutes behind the Skyliner.

Not only did Nordeen set a new record for the annual race to Crater Lake and return, but he won permanent possession of the huge silver trophy known as ”The Klamath,” a cup donated by the Crater Lake Ski Club. The trophy, tall as a four-year-old boy, was first made a competitive award in 1929 and was won by Nordeen. Last year Jacobsen won the cup in that thrilling race when he crossed the tape 34 seconds ahead of Nordeen.

When Nordeen ended his last lap, he glided down a long lane of snow, lined by thousands of people. He was grinning broadley when he halted at the judges table and was surrounded by his Bend friends, who sang a Scandinavian song. It was formally announced by Tony Castell of the ski committee that the Skyliner had established a new record and had won permanent possession of the huge trophy.

50 years ago

For the week ending Feb. 25, 1956

TERRY SKJERSAA SEEKS U.S. SKI LAURELS AT JUNIOR MEET

A brown-eyed blond youth who wears No. 12 shoes will represent Bend next week in the Junior National Ski Championships at Franconia, New Hampshire.

He is Terry Skjersaa, 16, a Bend High School sophomore. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Olaf Skjersaa. Olaf was Oregon ski champion about 15 years ago. He is a man of many trophies. He won the first one when he was 5 years old in Norway.

Terry and Joan Saubert, 15, Bend’s girl entry will be in a group of juniors representing the Pacific Northwest Ski Assocaiation in the championship meet.

Joan is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Saubert, of Sweet Home. She has done all of her racing here and is Bend’s representative. She comes from a skiing family as does Terry.

Gene Gillis, ski instructor of the Bend recreation center, has coached both Terry and Joan and accompanied them on their prior trips. Gillis says the Bend pair may spring a surprise. He rates Terry pretty high.

The northwest group will compete with five other associations – Far West, Rocky Mountain, Inner Mountain, Central and Eastern. Gillis predicted the northwesterners would come out at the top or close to it.

25 years ago

For the week ending Feb. 25, 1981

BEND PAIR MAKES DARING RESCUE

”There was something spiritual going on out there.”

Those are the words of Bob Evans, the Mountain View High School speech teacher who, with bus driver Mark Stephenson, rescued a Beaverton woman and her two children from the icy flows of the north Santiam River. As they drove to a forensics tournament in Portland with teams of Bend and Mountain View High School speech students, a log truck driver stopped them. He pointed to a scene 50 feet below.

”My first feeling was one of horror when I saw a little Honda in the middle of the river with a mom and two kids clinging to it,” Evans said.

Night was falling, it was snowing and it was cold. Evans and Stephenson worked quickly. Unable to find a long piece of rope, they flagged down motorists until they found a 50-foot garden hose.

The mother, Linda Hurley, had her children on top of the car, which was full of water. Miraculously, it had landed right side up after its end-over-end plunge down the embankment, leaving them stranded but unharmed.

Stephenson held one end of the hose and painstakingly made his way to the car, to which he tied the hose. He and Evans then made a series of slow traverses of the treacherously swollen river, clinging to the hose.

Evans first came back with a relatively composed Jennifer, age 6, clutching his waist. Stephenson who fell once with a terrified Jacob, age 3, escaped drowning only by digging his heels into the river bottom to regain his balance. By the time Evans tried to rescue Linda, his adrenalin was sapped. ”Then a younger fellow came across the hose, grabbed Linda off the top of the car, literally wrapped her body around his and brought her over. I never got the guys name,” said Evans.

Cheering onlookers lifted the victims, who were in shock and close to hypothermia, up the steep embankment to a school van where students wrapped them in dry clothing and sleeping bags. Minutes later, an ambulance from Detroit, whisked them to Salem Memorial Hospital where they were examined and released.

The next day, Evans and Stephenson visited the family in their home to make sure they were all right.

Linda said ”I didn’t think we were going to survive” as she described her frantic waving with the hope someone would see them before dark. ”We send our thanks to everyone who helped us. We’ll never forget them.”

Late Saturday night the speech teams returned to Bend. They didn’t make the finals but they know they have returned victorious.