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

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

March 17, 1918

Treachery of Lenin shown

That Lenin deliberately attempted to deliver revolutionary Russia to Germany is the substance of highly important communications received from unquestionable and confidential sources. They show that Lenin at the same time was trying to arouse the Russians against the “militarism of the Allies.”

This latest development is significant in view of the Japanese threat in Siberia. Lenin holds that there must not be any opposition or agitation against German militarism but there must be agitation against the militarism of Germany’s opponents. The communication further states that Lenin wants the new peace terms regarding giving Germany a free hand obeyed.

The government now sees Lenin as the man behind the treachery to revolutionary Russia, but it is believed that Trotsky is the spirit trying to keep the revolution alive and worthy of respect from other nations. A statement of Lenin’s policy toward the invading Germans clears many things which had formerly perplexed the allied diplomats.

Officials believe that the Russian people will not submit to German militarism and Lenin will find himself in a difficult position. With his curse exposed, it is clear that the military expedition into Siberia, fostered by Japan and approved by America and the Allies would be a sword in the hands of Lenin.

Discuss wages for pine mills

Colonel Disque applied the basic eight-hour day with time and a half for overtime, to the eastern Oregon white pine industry, following a vote taken by the Oregon section of the White Pine Manufacturers association.

Colonel Brice P. Disque was in conference yesterday with Eastern Oregon pine lumbermen at the Portland hotel, relative to the eight-hour day ruling in the lumber mills and camps of the Northwest.

R.D. Brown, secretary of the West Coast Lumberman’s association of Seattle, and other prominent lumbermen, are in attendance.

The pine lumbermen have held out consistently against the eight-hour day in the Northwest unless the ruling were made general in the United States. They contend that the mills and camps in the territory of the Southern Pine association are given decided advantage in the matter of wages and hours by the application of the eight-hour rule to the lumber industry of the Northwest, while the lumbermen of the South are allowed to work on a 10- or 12-hour basis.

It is stated by prominent loggers and lumber manufacturers that the Eastern Oregon pine lumbermen will cooperate with Colonel Disque and line up with other lumber manufacturers in Oregon and Washington to comply with all plans of the government in the production of lumber for war purposes.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

March 17, 1943

Three German troop trains wrecked by French patriots

French patriots have wrecked three more Nazi troop trains and hundreds of thousands of French youths have fled to the mountains and woods to escape conscription in German slave legions or “anti-bolshevist” armies, European reports said today.

Seventy-three German officers and soldiers died in the train wreck, increasing the German army men killed by French patriots in street fights, raids or sabotage to nearly 600 in five days.

(“Authoritative” German quarters broadcast a denial that there had been any riots in France, charging that such reports had been “maliciously issued by countries hostile to the axis.”)

The sudden intensification of anti-Nazi sabotage and terrorism followed the announcement that 400,000 Frenchmen would be rounded up for deportation to Germany, where they would join slave labor from other occupied European countries in feeding Hitler’s war machine.

Two of the trains were wrecked in a collision engineered by patriot bands southwest of Lille in northern France, according to dispatches from the French frontier. Thirty-three of the dead were officers.

The other train, bound for Germany with troops on leave, was halted by guerrillas and then attacked with hand grenades, which killed 23 officers and men and wounded an even larger number.

A United Press dispatch from Madrid said hundreds of thousands of French youths have disappeared into the Pyrenees and the Alps, as well into the dense woodlands, since the compulsory labor decrees were issued.

Two Bend boys called to Army

Two Bend boys were among 52 University of Portland students in the first large group of army enlisted reserves to be called into active service Monday in Portland.

The boys were Pat Cashman, son of Mrs. M.P. Cashman, and Desmond Currie, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Currie.

The group was given an enthusiastic sendoff at the union station before 300 students of the university. The two local boys were sent to Fort Lewis for induction.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

March 17, 1968

Bears return Dartmouth Cup to Bend

Pete Smith’s Bend Lava Bear ski team returned the Dartmouth Cup to Bend Saturday as it swept the 36-gate giant slalom held at Bachelor Butte.

With a combined total of 3:54.3, the Lava Bears took the mythical state championship away from South Eugene, last year’s champion. Bend last held the cup in 1965.

Nearly 30 teams from 16 high schools were entered in the competition. More than 150 racers competed in the race.

Kent Towlerton was the top Bend racer with 76.1, followed by teammates Pete Nilsson with 78.3 and Jane Meissner 79.9. Jan Ettinger and Dean Guyer were the other members of the Lava Bear team.

“The course was in great shape,” Smith said, “and you couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was a great team effort and the kids did a beautiful job.”

Astor for sale (editorial)

Old hotels, no matter how favored in the past, often fall into disfavor for a variety of reasons.

The Pilot Butte Inn, once a great western hotel, is a good example. It was eventually closed and sold for taxes.

The same thing is happening to the once-popular, eight-story John Jacob Astor hotel in Astoria. Internal Revenue Service agents closed the huge old Astor a couple of months ago because the owners hadn’t paid their taxes. Now we see it goes on sale March 27.

The Pilot Butte Inn has had three owners, or at least, three purchasers, since it was closed by the federal government. The first, a young man from Coos Bay, put down over $25,000, then couldn’t meet the rest of his payments. Then Eddie Williamson, Bend auto dealer, owned it for a day before selling it to a retired Corvallis businessman, Ray Smith.

Smith is now trying to decide what he will do with the old hotel. The decision won’t be easy because renovation will be extremely costly.

The same problems will be faced by whomever purchases the Astor in Astoria.

In Bend, the Pilot Butte Inn had gotten so bad that only a few noticed when it was closed. Too, Bend at that time had more than enough motels to handle tourist trade. Astoria may be in the same situation. The closing of once-great hotels might have been traumatic some years back. Not any more.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

March 17, 1993

New window for an ancient culture

For years, Warm Springs tribes have drawn from the bounties of their reservations timber and hydroelectric interests and Kah-Nee-Ta Resort.

The industries have been good to the reservation, making it one of the richest Indian nations.

But for all their economic might, the tribes have gone without a cultural showcase.

Starting today, the Museum at Warm Springs changes that.

As the public looks for the first time at the treasures inside Oregon’s first tribal museum, tribal officials celebrate the beginning of a new era for the reservation.

“It’s one of those things we dreamed about 20 years ago,” said Ken Smith, the reservation’s CEO. “The museum reflects the long and proud history of the Warm Springs tribes.”

“It’s going to be important to the non-Indians to understand the history of Indians,” said Vic Atiyeh, a museum board member and former Oregon governor. “The story of the Warm Springs tribes is pretty much the story of the American Indian.”

It took a lot of fund raising and a lot of time to raise the millions required.

For their $7.6 million the tribes have a 25,000-square-foot building that is sure to make drivers along U.S. Highway 26 do double-takes.

To avoid architectural cliches of Indian designs, chief designer, Brian Burke of Portland has combined modern and ancient materials, such as metal and basalt, in a sometimes abstract, sometimes traditional structure. There are references to tee pees, but they take the form of metal frames. Basalt rocks taken from nearby hills acknowledge traditional Indian building materials, but the use of steel reflects the tribes’ ties to the modern world, he said.

Metallic and glass pyramids on the museums roof make “visual connections with the sky,” and the seemingly useless stanchions at each side of the building invite visitors to link the museum to the surrounding 10 acres, according to Burke.

“It’s a building that the tribes can be comfortable with,” he said. The tribes worked closely with Burke during the design phase. But if the architects had asked Mary Ann Meanus of Warm Springs her opinion, she would have told them to move the structure’s highway-side wall to the side facing the Shitike Creek.

“They should have put it on the other side, in case of high water from the creek,” she said with a laugh.

Despite her reservations about elements of the design, Meanus said she and other tribal members are proud to have a showcase for their culture and heritage.

“I’m glad we are finally going to have a place to store these treasures,” she said.

The museum may even help relations between Indians and non-Indians, according to Meanus.

“There’s a lot of prejudice on both sides. This might help bridge the gap.”