Photos courtesy Deschutes County Historical Society

On the night of Jan. 4,1913, Bend’s mayor and Bend Bulletin publisher George Putnam hosted a party. In attendance were some of Bend’s most prominent figures, including William D. Cheney, Clyde McKay and James Overturf. Who would’ve thought that the result of that gathering would still be around today, more than 100 years later?

That cold January night was the official first meeting of the Bend Emblem Club. The name, “BEND” in a circle, began as the official logo of Cheney’s Bend Park Company and then was adopted by the Bend Emblem Club as the signature trademark of the city of Bend.

The original members swore an oath “to promote and display the logo until a time when the town of Bend reached a population of 100,000.”

The logo, prominently embedded in the historic O’Kane Building on the corner of Bond and Oregon streets in downtown Bend, is still considered to be the official logo of Bend.

Number 65 of the original Bend Emblem Club charter spells out a few guidelines of the logo.

“The Emblem of Bend — The word Bend in gold inlaid and fitted into a circular blue background. This may in certain cases be reversed to blue letters on a gold background.”

The Bend Emblem Club was the brainchild of Cheney, an independently wealthy developer who arrived from Seattle in 1911. As founder and president of the club, Cheney paid for most of the expenses and wrote most of the bylaws. In addition to the outlined personal appearance codes, desired acts of civic harmony and the promotion of Bend, the rules also included a interest in keeping members under the age of 30.

In his opening statement, Cheney declared the The Bend Emblem Club would be, “a body of men that, for average character, is not excelled by any Club in the world.” He continued, “the Emblem Club was to stand for morals. Not for can’t or hypocrisy, but for honest, human manhood.”

Besides the emblem itself, the Bend Emblem Club was known for many historical promotional activities. They held formal dances and lavish dinners, all paid for by Cheney.

A pioneering promotional event, called the “Great Train Robbery,” took place in 1913. Occurring just north of Bend, members of the Bend Emblem Club staged a fake hold-up of the first passenger train to come to Bend.

The Seattle visitors, once they stopped laughing from the hoax, were treated to fancy dinners and given tours of land being offered for sale in an area just west of Pilot Butte.

During the heyday of the Bend Emblem Club, Bend was a small town with a population hovering around 1,000. It wasn’t until 1920 that the Brooks Scanlon and the Shevlin Hixon sawmills helped the number of people grow to 5,000.

In 1919, Cheney moved to Oklahoma to pursue learned trade of petroleum engineer. By 1923, the Bend Emblem Club began to fade away as the members began to move or die. The club officially disbanded in 1924.

However, it was due to the early promotional efforts of the Cheney, the Bend Emblem Club, and the Bend Logo that pushed Bend into becoming the city as we know it today. In essence, the club was the precursor to what is now the Bend Chamber of Commerce.

It seems only fitting that the iconic Bend symbol, a logo that has survived for more than a century, was as a result of the Bend Emblem Club. “A club whose only bond of union is good will and love of Bend, a club whose only foundation is the integrity and chivalry of its members.”