Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at Deschutes County Historical Society.

100 Years ago

For the week ending

Jan. 20, 1918

Woman’s suffrage debate is opened

Debate on the universal woman suffrage amendment was opened today by Jeanette Rankin. It is expected to pass before night. The speaker pleaded for equal rights for women as a war measure, holding that the women have “the right to vote needed to make this a true democracy.”

Women packed the galleries and cheered her speech. Miss Rankin led the Republican suffragists, and Representative Raker, the Democrats. Meeker led the Republican, and congressman Clark, the Democratic opposition. Representative Cordon attacked the measure, saying it was treason to a representative government.

Kenyon says need more men at front

Senator Kenyon, just back from the battlefront, today told the Senate that America must put 2 million men on the French front and have 1 million held in reserve.

He also said that this country must refuse to heed the German efforts to patch up peace, until Prussian militarism is crushed. He urged the United States to concentrate on ships, aircraft and artillery.

He said in regard to ending the war, “Everyone wants peace, but you can’t make it with a mad dog.”

U.S. is bluffing say lectures in German trenches

Germans armed with lectures, pamphlets and moving pictures are attempting to restore to the Teuton armies the belief that they are invincible. These men are ceaselessly ridiculing the Americans and say that the United States army is “contemptible” and that this country is putting up a big bluff and that the Americans are “windbags.”

Captured prisoners believe the war will be finished before the Sammies enter it. They are confident that the proposed western drive will end with an allied victory.

Motion pictures bring home need for U.S. tobacco

Aside from all the remarkable things seen in the pictures shown at the Grand Theatre last night of “The Tanks,” the most noticeable was the smoking of cigarettes by the soldiers. Waiting for the order to go “over the top” the Tommies were smoking, and smoking cigarettes.

Those who have already sent in their subscription to The Bulletin tobacco fund felt a good deal of satisfaction in realizing that they had done something toward providing smokes for the American soldiers who are getting ready to do the same things they saw the Tommies do last night, the things they want a cigarette with, just as the Tommies had theirs. Those who have not subscribed should sent their money along at once. Twenty-five cents will pay for a generous lot of tobacco, and with it will go a stamped postcard with the name of the donor on which the soldier receiving the gift may make acknowledgment.

Send your money now, and give your soldiers a smoke.

75 Years ago

For the week ending

Jan. 20, 1943

Guadalcanal fighters get new division

American forces on Guadalcanal were believed today to be preparing for a large scale drive to wipe out the virtually isolated Japanese troops still on the island.

Observers here considered current operations against enemy outposts scattered around American positions to be a prelude to a major offensive. The elimination of minor elements is essential in order to permit unhampered movement of material and other supplies for a sustained drive.

Recent dispatches from the southwest Pacific revealed the reinforcement of the American garrison on Guadalcanal by another division of army troops. It indicated the determination of the Americans to take full control of the island, a necessary stepping stone to seizure of the rest of the Solomons.

Bend scrap pile sold to O’Day

The huge pile of scrap metals which has been rusting on the Bond street lot since it was donated by the people of Bend and picked up by a fire department crew last September and November, is being sold.

According to a contract between the five members of the scrap disposal committee and Melvin L. O’Day, scrap dealer of Redmond, the pile will be sold for $1,100, with the amount being turned over to the Deschutes County civilian defense treasury for purchase of emergency equipment or use for recreational facilities.

The material is to be shipped in the name of the Deschutes County defense council, with all payments being made to the council until $1,000 is received. Payments received from shipments after the $1,100 has been received by the council will go to O’Day.

The sale of the scrap pile does not include rubber items. Plans for disposal of the rubber have not been made yet.

No definite figure on the weight of the pile has ever been announced because the pile has not been weighed. It is estimated, however, that there are several hundred tons of scrap metals in the pile.

O’Day has started sorting the pile today and it is probable that a carload will be shipped from here to a processing factory this week.

50 Years ago

For the week ending

Jan. 20, 1968

Williamson now official owner of Pilot Butte Inn

Old-style justice prevailed, and E.W. “Eddie” Williamson, Bend garage owner, today was proclaimed the official owner of the Pilot Butte Inn. His bid of $89,000 at a public auction December 15 was uncontested at a confirmation hearing this morning in Portland.

The usual austerity of a court hearing was missing as judge and client bantered good-naturedly. Rumors that the court had a buyer who would pay $100,000 for the historic hostelry failed to materialize.

Ray Smith, Corvallis, who lost out to Williamson last month on the 24th bid, was present at the hearing. Williamson told The Bulletin that Smith is “definitely in the picture,” but declined to disclose details.

At the auction, after Williamson bid $87,000, Smith quipped, “Maybe we should be partners.” Williamson countered, “I’ll take you to lunch, if you shut up.”

Williamson joked with the few persons attending the hearing, and chided metropolitan reporters for quoting him as saying “the top two stories (of the inn) would have to go.”

“I hope to put the hotel back into operation and preserve the entire building, as much as possible,” he said. He indicated that he would engage the services of an architect, to work out details of the renovation. He had said earlier that he was prepared to go “all the way” to restore the hotel, and that he would ask the City Commission and the building inspector to tell him exactly what he could do.

Williamson resells inn to Corvallis purchaser

Bend automobile dealer E.W. “Eddie” Williamson owned the Pilot Butte Inn for a few hours Friday. Before the day was over he sold it to Ray Smith, retired Corvallis appliance dealer for $2,500 more than he paid for it.

Smith said today he will be in Bend next week to talk with civic leaders and others interested in the hotel, and that he would announce several alternative proposals for putting the inn back into operation. “It’s too big a job for one man,” he said. “I will need all the guidance I can get.” He said he would be looking over the property with an architect, and that one of his associates would accompany him to Bend.

“I’m an automobile dealer and I don’t know anything about the hotel business,” Williamson said today. “Mr and Mrs Smith can devote full time to the project. They are lovely people and they have the best interests of the community at heart.”

Smith said that he has been interested in The Pilot Inn since it was first offered for sale, after going into receivership in December, 1965. It was closed by the former owners after the top two stories were condemned by the state fire marshal.

Both Smith and Williamson were bidders at a federal tax sale last May, when the hotel was sold to Ramon C. Cooper, North Bend, for $169,000. Cooper paid $23,350 over a period of months and forfeited the amount when he was unable to come up with the balance.

25 Years ago

For the week ending

Jan. 20, 1993

Bend pokes fun: locusts ‘r’ us?

Bend is not going to change its name to “Locustville” but the unsavory label tacked on to recent California arrivals has been kept alive by two businessmen — one a new city commissioner.

Almost a year ago, free-lance writer Bob Woodward wrote a letter to the Oregonian’s editors. In it he called California’s recent expatriates “the locusts of our time.”

Woodward later joined three friends in deciding to run for the Bend City Commission. All four, banded together under the “Men Without Ties” moniker, took office last week.

Shortly before Christmas, Tom DeWolf, co-owner of Westside Video and Comics, began selling black T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned, “No Locusts Club, Bend, Oregon.”

With a “Ghostbusters style red line through a fluorescent green locust, the shirts proclaim a welcome to any new “club” members.

A few in the audience for last week’s swearing-in ceremony wore the shirts. DeWolf has sold them at $13 for the T-shirts and $18 for the sweatshirts, all profits going to charity. He said Monday that he’s almost sold out of the limited edition of about 40 shirts.

“They sold like crazy at Christmas,” he said. “But once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

DeWolf posted a note saying the shirts “were created purely for fun. They are not intended as a political statement or to offend anyone.”

“As a native Californian, and still a Lakers fan, it is my hope that we can make light of this silly controversy and move on to the important business of creating a healthy and prosperous Central Oregon for all,” he wrote.

If I sell them all, I’ll make a couple hundred bucks and give it to Biking for a Better Community or someone.

But there’s a serious point, too.

“What we talked about through our campaign is, if people want to move to Central Oregon for our lifestyle, for what this area offers, all 132,000 of them” — Bend’s future population — “are welcome.”

“What we do not want are people who will ruin Central Oregon and turn it into Aspen or Vail, where the rich are getting richer and longtime residents are getting forced out,” DeWolf said.

Meanwhile, travelers through Bend on Third Street see a sign, “Locusts Always Welcome,” in the window of Parfection Golf Co.

“I’ve had a very positive reaction,” said owner Larry Lummis, who moved to Bend from California five years ago. “A lot of my customers are people who moved here recently.”

Lummis said he doesn’t know of any customers the welcome sign has brought in — or kept out. “But the people who have mentioned it have been very vocal in favor of it,” he said.

Just one problem: The store’s windows face north, so the message isn’t seen by California arrivals.