Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at the Des Chutes Historical Museum.

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 5, 1913

Why not tax old maids too?

“Tax bachelors? Absurd —”

That, minus the trimmings, was what State Representative Vernon A. Forbes said Monday when he read that a bill will be introduced in the Legislature placing a ban on celibacy and a premium on matrimony.

But Mr. Forbes goes further than simply branding the proposal absurd, and calling attention to the fact that it will drive many a lawyer into the ranks of the benedicts, for economy’s sake if for no other reason. If it goes through — as is improbable — he promises to devote the remainder of his political life and activities, (or something like that) to getting a law passed taxing old maids.

“Yes sir,” said he, “that’s but common justice. We’ll make a real suffrage law out of this, and make it work both ways. No class legislation!”

The details of the feminine law as yet have not been worked out. For instance, it is not known at just what age the citizeness would be obliged to choose between taking unto herself a husband or paying a special tax, for better or worse.

A battle scarred local bachelor endeavored to get the representative to pledge his support for an amendment to the bachelor bill, should its passage seem imminent. His proposal was that any bachelor should be exempt from the tax provided he made sufficient affidavit showing that he had honestly tried to get married.

For instance, three proposals and the same number of refusals might be considered an ample matrimonial alibi, so to speak. The bachelor in question intimated that he himself had suffered.

New year’s resolutions

Resolved:

By Bend: To at least double in population during 1913.

By Prineville: To try for another railroad, this time not of the Skewes variety.

By ex-Mayor Jones of Redmond: Never to play poker with any of Governor West’s experts.

By Doc Coe: Never to get out of patients (patience) during the year.

By the Priscilla Club: To work strenuously for the passage of the bill to tax bachelors.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 5, 1938

Skating rink ready for use

Providing there is no sudden change in Central Oregon weather, skating will be available tonight on the Skyliner rink at the old Tumalo trout hatchery just a few miles west of Bend. The road out to the rink is reported by Myron H. Symons, Skyliner president, to be in good shape.

The Tumalo rink, larger than even the Portland or Seattle indoor rinks, is to be maintained as a Skyliner activity and a caretaker, Leonard Ross will be in charge. Assisted by Symons up until midnight, Ross last night worked until nearly daylight sprinkling the ice surface. This morning, the new surface was glass like and smooth.

The dimensions of the rink are 100 by 220 feet. The outdoor rink is electrically lighted and there will be a warm fire for skaters. In Bend last night, the temperature dropped to 20 degrees, but an even lower temperature was reported from the old hatchery. Fine skating is promised by the Skyliners just as long as the present cold, clear weather conditions continue.

To care for the upkeep and illumination of the outdoor rink, Skyliners find it necessary to make a small charge, 10 cents, for all persons using the rink.

Navy is rushing plans for ships

Navy department officials rushed plans today for construction of the greatest peacetime navy this country has ever possessed.

President Roosevelt has expressed alarm over the unsettled international situation.

Navy officials prepared plans for a naval construction program above the present “replacement building” program authorized in the Vinson-Trammell act.

This additional construction will be asked in a supplemental bill to be introduced in Congress within the next few days. The bill will project the United States for the first time into the world rearmament race. It is calculated to give this country a navy “second to none” when completed.

It was understood that the naval construction will ask for two or more additional airplane carriers, several heavy cruisers, light cruisers and submarines; some naval auxiliary vessels, and possibly additional battleships over and above the Washington and the North Carolina, now on the ways at New York and Philadelphia navy yards and the two provided for in the 1938-39 budget estimates submitted to Congress yesterday.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 5, 1963

First baby of year gets to hospital just in time

First baby of 1963 born at St. Charles Memorial Hospital in Bend qualified by a mere six minutes for prizes that range from a complete layette to chicken or steak dinners for happy mother and father,

Jayne Lee Dieffenbach checked into the hospital and the world at 3:16 a.m. today. Her mother Mrs. Don H. Dieffenbach reached the hospital six minutes earlier.

It was a real race, the happy father, Don Dieffenbach, agreed.

Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba just four years ago

Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Havana in the grey, early morning hours of New Year’s day of 1959. Within hours, followers of Fidel Castro seized power for the young revolutionary.

In the four years that have elapsed since the beginning of the Castro government, the Cuban transition from democracy to dictatorship has been complete.

Cuba is today the first Soviet satellite in the Americas.

Cubans, plagued by nearly three years of civil strife and restricted civil liberties, hailed Batista’s flight. They welcomed Castro as a “liberator.”

Few of them anticipated the fate in store for themselves under Castro’s rule. Cuban organized labor has been stripped of its social gains, the people as a whole have been deprived of their civil rights.

In the four years that Castro has been in power, tens of thousands of privately owned businesses have been confiscated, more than a quarter of a million Cubans have been driven into exile and several billions of dollars in foreign assets and capital investment have been seized without compensation.

Castro has admitted the “execution” of more than 1,000 known enemies. His political foes in exile claim the list of firing squad victims actually exceeds the 3,000 mark.

Four years after his seizure of power, Castro is today — from the military sense — still the master of Cuba.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 5, 1938

Hoodoo’s golden year

The scene at Hoodoo Ski Bowl was like many others over the past 50 years — one that’s etched into the memories of many Willamette residents who learned to ski there, It was overcast and the summit was shrouded in fog.

Conditions could have been the same some 50 years ago when Bend resident Ed Thurston installed the first roe tow at Hoodoo, making it Oregon’s second commercial ski area.

In March, Hoodoo officials will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ski resort at the crest of Santiam Pass. Events will include races, contests, awards, movies, a buffet dinner and a dance.

This summer the resort installed a modern triple chair lift that’s a far cry from the old rope tow that Thurston opened with.

“For years we had to carry everything in,” said Thurston, referring to the roughly mile-long walk from U.S. Highway 20 to the ski area.

Looking through old photographs this week in his Bend home, Thurston recalled the expedition that resulted in Hoodoo.

Other than Timberline on Mount Hood, there were no commercial ski areas in Oregon in 1937, Thurston said,

The U.S. Forest Service, however, recognized the growing popularity of the sport and organized a team of pioneers from Eugene, Salem, Albany, Corvallis and Bend to survey the Central Oregon Cascades in search of a ski area.

Thurston, who operated a sawmill in Eugene, was an avid skier and owned a rope tow at White Branch, about 15 miles east of McKenzie Bridge.

“I enjoyed skiing as a kid,” he said. “For 11 years we’d spend winters skiing round the Three Sisters.”

So Thurston was asked to join the survey crew. Using a large snow cat, the crew set up a base camp at the Clear Lake cutoff and set out to survey the area.

The South Santiam highway wasn’t built when the survey crew set off on cross-country skies, so that was the first place they looked.

“We went to the top,” Thurston said. “We skied around the rim. It looked like a pretty good area but it wasn’t as high as where we are now (at Hoodoo).”

Next the crews skied around Three Fingered Jack, over to Mount Washington and finally ended up at Lost Lake near Hoodoo Butte.

“We skied an awful long way that day,” said Thurston, who once cross-country skied 35 miles over the Santiam Pass to enter a ski race in Bend.

The survey crew decided Hoodoo was the spot and the following winter Thurston opened the first rope tow there.