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

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

June 23, 1918

New gymnasium is open today

Today was the commencement of the formal opening of the new Bend Amateur Athletic club gymnasium. This afternoon at 2 o’clock the doors were thrown open to the public and tonight the opening exercises, consisting of a musical program and addresses, will be held. The attendance this afternoon was not great, due to the unsettled weather conditions, but it is expected that a large number will be in attendance at the program this evening. A quartet under the direction of O.A. Thorson will give several selections, together with a solo by Mrs. Thordarson. Opening addresses will also be made by Carl Johnson and H.A. Miller, officers of the club. There is no admission charge.

Tomorrow evening will see the opening of the carnival and dance depicting the days when everything goes and the roof is the limit. This will be continued on Friday night.

On Saturday night occurs the big double feature smoker, when Billie George of this city will meet Frank Street of Portland, and Fred Gilbert, another Bend man, will dispute honors with Billie Williams of Portland.

These will be preceded by two fast preliminaries, and the entire event gives promise of being one of the best attractions put on here for many months.

The building has been completed with the exception of some few minor details which are to be looked after as soon as material can be secured.

Million yanks in France by first of July

Shipments of troops to France have passed the 800,000 mark according to an announcement made by General March, who added that all four offensives of the Huns against the allied troops had been stopped.

The rushing of troops to France now is most important, the general declared, the offensive of the Huns having lengthened the fighting line 66 miles, and additional troops are needed to fill in the gaps, and to still keep the reserves of the French and British intact in case of an emergency.

The 800,000 troops now there include men in the fighting line, medical corps and the service at the rear.

The number of troops being sent Franceward at the present time is limited only by the capacity of the boats to carry them. More than one million men will be in France or on their way by the first of July. This announcement has been made by Senator Kirby of Arkansas, and issued by the council of war information.

General March declined to predict when the allied forces would have the numerical superiority, only making the statement that the objective of the Huns now was the channel ports with Paris as a secondary consideration. According to his ideas, the last advances made by the enemy were more military moves in an endeavor to straighten their lines than as an objective to reach Paris.

According to the report, the American forces are being put into the front lines in greater forces every week, and the mileage held by the American units independent of the allies is being lengthened each day.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

June 23, 1943

Bombing volcanoes (Editorial)

While the battle of Attu was in progress, news reached the outside world that the Kiska volcano was threatening to erupt and that American fliers had seen a plume of black smoke curling up from the crater of the snow-patched mountain. Jittery Japanese on the northern island were said to be worried by the volcano, and laymen wondered why the American airmen had not dropped a few bombs on the fire mountain to speed up the impending eruption.

Fireside generals have also suggested that Fujiyama be bombed, and that explosives be dropped on the smoking volcanoes of Italy and Sicily. Persons who make such suggestions have ignored what makes volcanoes “tick” and flyers who keep their bombs in place in circling fire mountains in enemy territory act wisely.

Volcanic eruptions just can’t be made to order. Forces that tear off the tops of volcanoes or blow away their sides are world shaking. Man-made bombs, even block busters are puny compared with these forces.

Generally the forces that start and continue a volcanic eruption have their origins deep in the earth — miles down, in some cases. The melted rock, or lava, that is such an important part of eruptions also starts from plutonic depths. Generally, the molten rock is pushed up in the pipe of the volcano to the crater.

When the eruption ends, this pipe of lava “freezes,” forming a vast plug. Then the volcano becomes inactive. If a trickle of lava escapes, or if hot gases come out of the partly closed vents, the volcano remains slightly active.

All the bombs Jimmy Doolittle’s airmen carried to Japan would have not aroused sleeping Fujiyama if they had been released on top of that gigantic cone. Even a block buster dropped on the Kiska volcano would have done little more than to splash lava around the crater.

Active volcanoes in enemy countries do, however, hold one major danger for nearby cities. They are beacons to guide night fliers to vital targets in nearby areas. These great fire mountains not only refuse to be bombed into activity, but they refuse to be blacked out.

Skiers report heavy snow on Bachelor

Snow on Bachelor Butte is the deepest in many years according to Olaf Skjersaa, Herb Riley and Merle Blann, who made a ski trip to the top last weekend.

The three men were able to take their car to within half a mile of Dutchman flat, and from there made it to the top in three hours. The descent was made in a mere matter of six minutes.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

June 23, 1968

Olympians, hopefuls training at Bachelor Butte

More than 120 Olympic and national caliber skiers are presently in training at Bachelor Butte in hopes of making the U.S. Olympic team at a future date.

Some of the prospective greats are being housed at the Mt. Bachelor Lodge while others are staying at the COCC dorm.

The practice sessions are rigorous. The mornings are devoted to skiing, either running a slalom or giant slalom course, and the afternoon to playing soccer and doing exercises at Harmon Field or Drake Park.

Skiers are selected for the camp on basis of ability. All Olympic and National team members plus the best expert skiers from all of the ski associations have been selected for this year’s camp. The women are training at Mammoth Mountain, California.

Five prospective skiers from Bend have been training with the team. They were selected by being the best expert skiers in the Pacific Northwest Ski Association.

They are Mark Ford, 17, Chris Wetle, 15, Larry Kite, 15, Mike Ward, 17 and Fred Duberow, 18.

“This is quite an experience,” Kite said. “I have always wanted to be a competitive skier and now I can ski against the best.”

Kite also said that the training has been tough, but it “has been worth it. It will help improve my skiing.”

The skiers are scheduled to train at Bachelor Butte until June 23.

Planner suggests possible need for Highway 97 Bypass

The growing need for a Highway 97 bypass to run east of Bend was described last night by Robert Grunwald, Crawford and Associates, the California-based planning firm hired to develop a comprehensive plan for Deschutes County.

His comments were made last night to representatives of Bend, Redmond and Sisters at the county courthouse.

The bypass envisioned by Grunwald would run approximately one mile east of Pilot Butte and northward to Redmond. This would curtail through traffic passing needlessly through Bend and would avoid traffic congestion.

“There should be little doubt,” he said “but that there would be a pressing need for the bypass in the next five to seven years.”

But getting such a project started is a much longer range process, he quickly added. The planning consultant said organized political pressure from the Central Oregon area must be put on the State Highway Commission to bring attention to the local need.

Grunwald denied the bypass would have an adverse effect upon tourist business located along Third Street. He pointed to the growing high level development on the present travel route as capable of drawing the serious tourist from the bypass.

Switching to land use in Deschutes County, he urged “reasonable standards” to be set for land development to reflect the real value of the land.

He called for plat requirements sensitive to both the short and long range public interest.

But there is danger in “pendulum action” he said, which would swing too far the other way creating unrealistic regulations.

“It is better to have no zoning ordinance at all,” he added, “than land regulations which regulate for their own sake regardless of the needs of a particular place at a particular time.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

June 23, 1993

Don’t look for ol’ T. rex

No one will laugh if you come here looking for the ancient remains of the brontosaurus or tyrannosaurus.

The National Park Service rangers have heard it all before, especially lately.

So for the record, the John Day Fossil Beds are not strewn with dinosaur bones. This national monument is, however, a treasure trove of plants and animals trapped in time millions of years ago when jungles and savannas and forests defined the landscape.

It’s here where scientists discovered the oldest true rhinoceros, the first evidence of elephants in North America and the last primate known to have existed on the continent.

And long before Spaniards brought back horses to the Americas, the hoofed mammals flourished here, leaving their most complete evolutionary record.

There’s enough here to amaze visitors of any age, even those fresh from a showing of a certain dinosaur flick, which needs no additional promotion here.

“A place like this is a view into the past, a spectacular view,” park paleontologist Ted Fremd said.

“This is not just a photograph of the past. This is a whole movie, a changing sequence of events over a long period of time.”

The fossil beds in Grant and Wheeler counties, represent one of the world’s greatest records of the imprints and remains of life from another time. Nearly 50 million years are documented by fossils uncovered by water and wind.

The dusty canyons and desert terrain conceal the tale of the Cenozoic period — the age of mammals — 15 million years after dinosaurs went extinct. It’s a story in serial format, with the characters battling for survival amid dramatic forces of change.

“There aren’t many places in the world where you can go to see such a remarkable sequence,” Fremd said. “It’s just lucky all those volcanoes were going off depositing ash that all these animals were trotting on and were later entombed in.”

The area’s rich diversity of preserved species has attracted worldwide attention for more than a century. In the 1860s, frontier minister and naturalist Thomas Condon was the first to recognize the significance of fossilized teeth and bones littering the John Day Valley as the world first debated Darwin’s theories of evolution.