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

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Oct. 4, 1914

Railroad man William McMurray has words of praise for Bend

Coming into the Valley of the Deschutes and to the city of Bend, one cannot fail to note the progress in settlement on the land and the substantial improvement in the cities as compared with conditions less than three years ago, when railroad operation began. Cultivated fields, dairy cattle, swine and poultry are seen from the canyon south to your city. The smaller towns look business-like, and Bend has made remarkable progress. Talking with W.D. Cheney, he voiced the opinion that Central Oregon was destined to have one large city and that Bend was the logical place for its building.

Located in the midst of a country where diversified farming is possible, where dairying and stock-raising are an assured success, close to vast forests of merchantable timber, on the banks of one of the greatest power-producing streams on the Continent, with your pure air, 300 days of sunshine, Bend has every prospect of becoming a metropolitan city — the supply point for an empire and the distributing point for its products, it is already a sanitarium. Pure invigorating air, water unpolluted and fresh from the melting snows of nearby mountains, and the grateful sunshine are medicinal remedies better and more lasting than any physician may prescribe.

It has been my good fortune to see some of your surrounding country and it is appealing in quiet beauty and natural attractiveness. Within a radius of a few miles are some of the most delightful spots for a summer home imaginable. There is wild game in abundance, no better fishing can be found anywhere and the equitable climate makes this an ideal place for an outing. It is a mystery to me why you have not advertised your attractive city and picturesque surroundings more generally.

From observation and in conversation with residents of this section, it is learned that you are in line with the remainder of the Pacific Northwest and that your crops have been good. America is fortunate in having a bounty of products and the Northwest is one of the leading localities in its plentitude of grains, fruits and vegetables. Central Oregon, under intensive cultivation, will swell the output. There is demand for land at reasonable prices and your uncultivated areas should appeal to the homesteader.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Oct. 4, 1939

Russia joins Germany in warning Allied Powers to make peace now — or else

Communist Russia and Nazi Germany concluded agreements today to partition Poland permanently, to attempt to end the war now and to consult on “necessary measures” if the attempt fails.

The implicit threat was held plainly over Great Britain and France that if they refused to recognize the annihilation of the Polish state and stop the war, Russia would throw her 160,000,000 citizens into the war in alliance with Germany’s 80,000,000.

Premier-Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotav and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop reached the agreements in an all night conference.

Shortly after the meeting started, Russia announced the conclusion of a treaty of “mutual assistance” with Esthonia, under which Russia gets the use of the Esthonian islands at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland and the Port of Paldiski, as naval and air bases.

The fruits of the Russian-German agreements were:

1 — The signature by Molotov and Ribbentrop of a treaty of amity in which the frontiers of Russia and Germany — in what a month ago was Poland — were fixed.

2 — Joint declaration by Molotov and Ribbentrop announcing that peace would be sought, with the aid of friendly nations, on the basis of the present status, and that if Britain and France refused, and hereby “assumed responsibility,” Russia and Germany would consult on measures to be taken then.

3 — An exchange of letters between Molotov and Ribbentrop on economic questions, providing that Russia would send Germany raw materials in exchange for industrial products.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Oct. 4, 1964

Fire razes historic Silvertooth building

The Silvertooth building, holding one of the best known museums in up-state Oregon, was destroyed this morning by a fire that started from a trailer parked adjacent to the historic structure.

Nothing was saved from the museum, which held relics of stage coach days dating to the era when Antelope was a stopping place on the Canyon City gold trail. The museum held one of the best known mineral collections in the state.

John Silvertooth, owner of the museum, estimates the building and content loss at around $20,000 — but, he stressed, the actual historic value of articles lost cannot be estimated. No insurance was carried.

The Silvertooth building dates to 1898, when it was constructed by the late F.W. Silvertooth, father of John Silvertooth, following the fire that started at 2:30 a.m. on the morning of July 11, 1898, and destroyed virtually the entire town.

Last night’s fire started in a trailer in which Henry Spalinger, a pioneer resident of Antelope who only recently returned to the historic “ghost town,” was sleeping. The trailer had been parked between the museum and a vacant building.

Spalinger was awakened by flames, and suffered some burns. The few residents of the town rolled out an old hand operated hose cart, but were unable to curb the flames.

The Madras Fire Department made the run, but found the museum in embers.

Texan reveals his arrest as suspect in Kennedy death

To most people, the Warren Report is a distant, lengthy, formal document — a summary of a weekend when history tore their hearts out but did not touch their lives.

To Donald Wayne House it’s a reminder of four hours last Nov. 22 when he was jailed by mistake as the President’s killer.

His story has never been told before.

House hauls dynamite for a construction firm. He lived in Texas last fall and on Nov. 22 he came to Dallas to visit an old army buddy.

While he was in Dallas, he waited until he got a glimpse of President Kennedy, whom he greatly admired, and started back home via Fort Worth.

He did not know Kennedy was assassinated until he turned his car radio on well out of Dallas. He stopped in Grand Prairie for gas.

A woman asked him whether he had heard what the killer looked like. House gave her the description he had heard on the radio not realizing at the time that it also fitted him.

But if House didn’t note the similarity, she did and called the police, House heard a siren and saw a red light flashing and pulled to the side of the road. A policeman ordered him to get out of his car and stand with his hands against it.

“I looked up and there were a lot of policemen with shotguns and everything,” House said.

“What am I being arrested for?” House said.

“You are being arrested for the assassination of President Kennedy,” a policeman said.

“I was frightened at first,” House said. “But after I got to the police station, I wasn’t scared anymore. I had a clear conscience and I kept repeating, ‘I didn’t do it.’”

After three hours of denying he was the assassin, House was put in a cell. Finally a policeman came to the cell and said: “They’ve caught another boy, Lee Harvey Oswald. They are pretty sure he did it.”

House was released and the best apology he got was from a jail matron who ran up, kissed him and said, “I’m glad you didn’t do it.”

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Oct. 4, 1989

Injury couldn’t stop Cougars’ Corrigan

Chris Corrigan could charge people admission to look at the purplish, foot-long scar running over his left knee. It belongs in a freak show with the bearded lady and the two-headed calf. You can’t help but stare.

Corrigan was on the Mountain View football team last year and during a routine tackling drill early in the season, Corrigan tore three of the knee’s four ligaments. As painful as that sounds, it was even worse listening to the knee’s “pop” and Corrigan’s agonizing screams.

But this isn’t a story about an injury. It’s the story of an athlete.

Less than a year after the mishap, Corrigan is the Cougars starting quarterback.

“I wouldn’t have felt right with myself, not pushing myself to get back to where I was before,” said Corrigan, an “A” student.

“In my own thoughts, if he had chose not to play I would not have been surprised because of the extent of the injury,” M.V. Coach Clyde Powell said.

The injury not only ended his 1988 football season, but it kept Corrigan off the basketball court and wiped out his prep baseball season as well. Corrigan, younger brother of Cougar assistant coach Sean Corrigan, was on crutches for eight weeks. He began seven months of physical therapy six weeks after surgery.

During the school year, he worked at strengthening the knee three hours a day, every day. In the summer he toiled even more.

“I just had to get back into sports,” said the senior, who with his twin brother, Bill, is the youngest of a large sports-minded family. “Part of it was knowing I had to push myself to get back. If I didn’t push myself, I don’t know what I would be like right now.”

Powell said Corrigan’s decision to come back speaks volumes about his character.

“What he’s done since the injury is indicative of what kind of kid he is. He is a kid with self discipline, who can really make a commitment,” the coach said.

Corrigan credited Sean — 10 years his senior — for keeping his spirits up and for pushing him when therapy got difficult. Thanks to the encouragement, Chris believes he is as physically capable now as he was before the injury. The “big old brace” he wears gives him added confidence.