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

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 20, 1914

Almost shot as spy in Germany

Mr. and Mrs. A.M. Drake, formerly of Bend, who were in Germany when the war broke out, recently arrived in New York after passing through somewhat strenuous times in getting out of the war zone. In a letter to J.M. Lawrence, who was with them abroad earlier in the summer some of their experiences are given.

They were at a health resort at the beginning of the conflict and it became necessary for Mr. Drake to go to Frankfurt to obtain a passport for his chauffeur. While on this trip according to his account, he narrowly escaped being shot as a spy.

Later a start was made for the Holland frontier. It was down the Rhine through the military lines and there were innumerable haltings and inspections, and frequently armed guards would insist on riding in the car. Conflicting orders caused much delay, and uninformed officials caused more. Several times the party were searched and their letters and papers read and the greatest care was taken to see that they did not get away with anything that Germany did not want to get out and yet a day-by-day record, embracing comments not at all flattering to the Germans, was overlooked. At last neutral Holland was reached.

The Drakes got out of Europe with their handbags, the bulky baggage having been left behind. Their chauffeur went to get the trunks out of Paris and has not been heard from.

They arrived in New York from Rotterdam in late September.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 20, 1939

Donkey football slated for Bend

Donkey football, termed the “greatest gridiron burlesque” will be brought to Bend on September 19 and 20, presenting a new and unique form of entertainment.

According to C.M. Davis, advance and publicity agent, the European war was directly responsible for the troop coming to Bend.

Following an appearance in Philadelphia, the long-eared footballists were to return to New York City thence embark for London, England. While in Philadelphia, the management received a wire from London cancelling the appearance and advising them to head toward the Pacific coast. A letter was immediately posted to the Bend Twenty-Thirty Club requesting a date.

Donkey football is produced with trained donkeys managed by Jack Bartlett, originator of donkey softball and donkey polo. The official rules for six-man football will be used when they do not conflict with the rules set forth by the management for donkey football.

Each team is composed of six players each mounted on a specially trained donkey. On passes, laterals, kickoffs and in receiving the ball, the players will make the play then mount the animal and proceed through the play.

The donkeys which will be used have appeared in the Ringling Brothers circus and have been used by university teams on gridirons at Northwestern University, Ohio State and the University of Southern California.

The game will open at 8 o’clock at O’Donnell field under a flood lighting system brought here by the donkey football management under the supervision of Jack Bartlett.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 20, 1964

Ski run work on Pilot Butte gets underway

Installation of a ski run on Pilot Butte — a development which will provide Bend with the only in-town ski facility in the Pacific Northwest — was announced today by Dr. Richard Ettinger, chairman of the executive committee of the Pilot Butte Ski Association.

Work started today on a compressor and a rope tow. The facility is expected to be in operation by November 1. Artificial snow will be made by a “snowmaker” machine, which will force compressed air over water droplets at freezing temperatures.

Pilot Butte’s ski run will measure 150 feet wide and 750 feet long. The rope tow will run 250 yards. A 50 meter jump will be constructed. It will be used in the United States Junior National Championships which will come to Bend in March of 1965.

Lights will be installed for night skiing. The project is being constructed at a cost of about $10,000.

Local contributions of time, money and materials have made the development feasible. Funding is being accomplished by procuring 100 interest-free, unsecured $100 loans. About $7,000 already has been contributed Dr. Ettinger said.

Denny Reese, Sisters, has been appointed manager of the Pilot Butte Ski Area.

Reese has been skiing for 12 years at Bachelor Butte, Hoodoo Bowl and in Europe. As a senior at the University of Oregon he has raced for the university’s ski team and possesses a Class A racing card.

Reese currently is practice teaching at Bend High School and will receive a Bachelor’s Degree from the university in December. His experience is not limited to skiing and teaching. Reese has worked on construction with Murray Brothers and Duncan Brothers construction companies in Bend.

The Pilot Butte ski facility is being constructed under a land use permit issued to the Bend Skyliners by the State of Oregon.

Members of the executive committee are, Jack Wetle, Dr. Ettinger, Dr. H.M. Kemple, Jack Meissner, Doug Gaines, Dr. Robert Cutter, Harvey Watt and Gordon Robberson.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 20, 1989

College turns 40 with a look back at rich history

Forty years ago this month, Oregon’s first community college opened its doors to 27 full-time students.

Along with another 80 part-timers, they attended classes thanks to an $8,000 operating budget approved by the Bend school district. And with no campus to call their own that fall of 1949, college students and their instructors set up shop at 4 p.m. each day in the old Bend High School building on Wall Street — occupying classrooms their younger colleagues had vacated minutes earlier.

By the time Ron Bryant enrolled at the fledgling school six years later, Central Oregon College had done little to offset its reputation as a rinky-dinky junior college,

If you took French, you may have had a dozen students in class,” recalled Bryant, who lived in Madras at the time. “When I graduated in 1956, I think it was six of us that got degrees.”

Bryant who served as one of the first editors of the student newspaper, The Broadside, went on to graduate from law school and set up a legal practice in Redmond in 1964, but his relationship with what had become Central Oregon Community College was far from over.

Eventually, Bryant would become a member of the COCC Foundation, the college’s fund raising arm, serve six years on COCC’s board of directors, including a year as chairman, and spend the past dozen years as the board’s legal counsel.

As Oregon’s oldest community college celebrates its 40th anniversary, Bryant’s long association with COCC in a variety of roles gives him a unique perspective on a school that now boasts a teaching staff of 72 full-time instructors, a 17-building campus and an annual operating budget of nearly $13 million.

“If you compare campuses, buildings, facilities, or aesthetics, it has to be one of the finest anyplace, not just in Oregon,” he said. “And I’d stand our staff up against any community college in the country.”

Bob Powell, a science professor at COCC since fall of 1967, attributes COCC’s reputation to the priority that instructors have always placed on teaching — and teaching well.

But as a student new to COCC in fall of 1957, Powell, who admits he was still “wet behind the ears,” wasn’t making any long-range predictions on his future alma mater’s longevity.

“We knew it was an experiment,” he said. “We were the only community college in the state and nobody had done anything like this before. I wasn’t quite sure the school would continue.”