I think that I shall never see

A billboard lovely as a tree.

Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,

Ill never see a tree at all.

Ogden Nash

When American poet Nash wrote those lines, he wasnt thinking about a sign painted on a rock in Central Oregon.

Today, the old sign for the American Bakery, an institution in Bend in the early 20th century, has survived seasons and snowstorms, only to be mostly hidden by two large junipers. The trees shroud the roughly 5-by-5 sign, tucked under an overhanging rock that has shaded and sheltered it for 80 years or more.

Perhaps, unless the two trees fall, drivers on O.B. Riley Road will never see the sign at all.

Descendants of Robert Augustus Puett, who opened the American Bakery in Bend in 1911 and homesteaded nearby, wouldnt have it any other way.

Going to Bend

Phil and Betty Puett moved to Bend from the Bay Area in 2004. Soon after, Betty became a volunteer at the Des Chutes Historical Museum in Bend. One day, she mentioned that her husbands grandfather used to own the American Bakery in Bend.

John Frye, a museum volunteer and Deschutes County Historical Society board member, replied, Hey, did you ever see that sign that says American Bakery out by Tumalo? Betty recalls. I went home and told my husband about it.

He said hed seen it years ago and thought it might still be there, adds husband Phil. (Frye is traveling and could not be reached for comment.)

They went looking for it, and sure as Fryes word, the sign was still there, only it was painted on a rock.

We were thinking it might be a wooden sign, because John didnt say it would be on a boulder, Betty says, laughing.

The Puetts hope that the sign remains for years to come and therefore requested The Bulletin not reveal its specific location. Suffice it to say, its roughly a stones throw from O.B. Riley Road and Tumalo State Park.

American Bakery

According to a historical timeline put together by the Puetts son-in-law, Mark Smith, of Bend, Robert Augustus Puett was born in North Carolina in 1876. In May 1898, during the Spanish-American War, he enlisted, joining the 2nd North Carolina Regiment Company C, mustering out that November.

At age 23, he left North Carolina for California, sailing by ship around the horn of South America. The 1900 U.S. Census listed him, at age 24, as living in Stockton, Calif.

At some point between June 1900 and May 1902, he moved to Ellensburg, Wash., where he ran the first American Bakery. In April 1903, he married Ella Nora Burk; later that year, their first child was born, one week before Christmas.

During the first week of April 1905, he moved his family to Bend. The second week of April, he purchased a bakery from Mrs. Eva Steele, which he closed just a month later to concentrate on homesteading.

The rest of the timeline shows Robert Augustus Puett living in Bend, where he bought and sold property and worked as a farmer. In 1946, he moved to McKenzie Bridge. In 1958, at age 82, he died of a stroke in Medford.

A 1948 Bulletin obituary for his wife, Ella Nora, deemed the couple Bend pioneers: Mr. and Mrs. Puett came to Bend in 1905 in a covered wagon, and filed on a homestead a mile west of the present Shevlin park, on Tumalo creek. In 1911, Puett built the first brick-oven bakery in Bend. In 1914, he sold the bakery and purchased a farm six miles east of town, where Mr. and Mrs. Puett made their home for many years. The obituary also mentioned the 10 grandchildren who survived her. An 11th grandchild was born after her death.

Its amazing

On Tuesday, seven of Robert Augustus Puetts grandchildren visited the site of the rock for a family portrait, coming from all over Oregon and from as far away as Southern California.

Most of these people grew up here, says Phil, 68. They didnt know about this.

Phil was born in Bend, but his family left during World War II so his father could work in a shipping yard. He worked as a driver for the San Francisco Chronicle before retiring to Bend.

Though he didnt grow up in Central Oregon, as a child, Phil occasionally visited his grandfather, who was among Oregons early RVing enthusiasts and spent much of his time fishing at Paulina Lake. He was known for hiking up the trail to the fire tower to offer fish to forest workers. He also wrote poetry about Bends early days.

Granddaughter Darlene Michelson, of Pleasant Hill, was among the Puett clan who visited the sign Tuesday.

Its amazing. Were flabbergasted, she said. For several family members, it was their first time there, but Michelson had visited it two years ago during an Easter visit. It was amazing.

According to the chronology supplied to The Bulletin, Robert Augustus sold the bakery in 1914 because the baking flour was making him ill. But family members knew of their grandfathers bakery while they were growing up.

Grandpa would come to the house and bake for us, Michelson said. He always had cream puffs.

Others remembered that he always had pineapple ice cream and lemon drops.

Her son, Robert Augustus Puetts great-grandson Bill Michelson, also of Pleasant Hill, had never seen the sign before.

Thats amazing that its still here, he said. I was looking, and it almost looks like there were some other ones around here, and they just didnt last like this one did.

That would jibe with what Frye told Phil and Betty Puett, that painting on rocks was a common way to advertise in the era before billboards. According to Kelly Cannon-Miller of the Des Chutes Historical Museum, an undated Oregon Inventory of Historic Properties: Historic Resource Survey Form on file at the museum puts the rock signs date of origin in 1928 more than a decade after Robert sold his business to Fred Huey and G.W. Shriner in order to go into ranching.

The Puetts says that revelation wont dampen their enthusiasm for the sign advertising the business founded by Robert Augustus Puett.

Someone said were gonna meet here again in 50 years, Darlene Michelson said, drawing laughs from other members of the family.

Phil Puett doesnt boast about his grandfathers small role baking bread for Bends early citizens.

He wasnt an important guy or anything, he says.

However, adds Betty, He always called himself a pioneer. And he was a pioneer.