Yesteryear: Mt. Jefferson patch yields no berries in 1924; They cover Bend’s letterfront … twice daily in 1949; Rechanneling of Deschutes proposed in 1974

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 10, 2024

By Compiled by the Deschutes County Historical Society

: Yesteryear

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Despite the fact that there was an unusual chill in the night air, a large audience heard the Shevlin-Hixon band concert in the city park last night. More than 75 automobiles were grouped around the bandstand at 8 o’clock when the concert started. The concert proved to be one of the best of the season. The large audience was not confined to the park, for many people living near the park and also west of the river moved chairs out on front porches and lawns and “listened in.”

Mt. Jefferson Patch Yields no Berries

Early summer frosts destroyed all the huckleberries in the famous Mount Jefferson huckleberry district, is the report of a party of Jefferson county people who passed through Bend on their way home after spending nearly a week on the east slope of Mount Jefferson. For more than 15 years Perry Road, pioneer of Central Oregon, who was a member of the party, has been making annual trips into this section to get berries and he says that in all that time he has never failed to secure plenty until this year.

He went to all the patches which he had visited before and with other members searched for new places and says he only found two berries. On their return trip they found two parties at the head of the Eagle Creek trail, going in, who turned back on hearing the report.

When postal authorities found that just one man used the box on the corner of Franklin and Wall for mailing letters, they took down the box and it was when the patron who clung to city ways of mailing protested their action that he learned that for weeks the box had been maintained for his sole benefit. Now he’ll walk a block and a half farther, and drop his mail at the post office.

”We had to send a collector up to the box daily to see if you had mailed any letters,” Assistant Postmaster Seeds explained to the one patron.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug. 17, 1949

They Cover Bend’s Letterfront … Twice Daily

Bend’s new letter delivery system, piloted by a skilled crew of eight, got off to a fast start this morning. With every man set on the starting line back of the post office a few minutes before scheduled departure time, of 8:45. Mail load was described as “lighter than usual” for today. Mail deliverers are: Russell Silvers, A.A. Hunter, Morris Clark, Henry Blackwell, Peter Alwinger, Thomas Larson, Paul Loree, and Tom Casey. Newest man on the force is Hunter, who received his appointment July 1. Veteran of the octet is Paul Loree, small but durable. Blue eyed Loree has braved winter storms and summer heat for almost 30 years. He started March 25, 1920. Clark is an auxiliary carrier, substituting for Ray Allen, hospitalized with a recurrent heart ailment.

Temperature Drops to 28 Degrees Here

The temperature in Bend dropped to 28 degrees last night, wilting potato vines, squash and other tender vegetables in various parts of town. It was one of the coldest early August nights known here in recent years.

Reports from different parts of Deschutes county this morning indicated that the frost was largely local, in “pockets” and it was not expected that any great damage to the county’s big potato crop would be suffered. John Bradetich, who has a large acreage east of Bend, said his field was not nipped by the August chill.

The 28 degree low of last night marked the second frost of the present month.

J.C. Penney Grand Reopening

Grand opening tomorrow of the J.C. Penny department store will disclose a new addition increasing the store’s selling space by nearly 2,000 square feet, as well as modern fixtures and lighting equipment of the latest design, Kenneth M. Longballa, manager announced today.

“We think our friends and customers are going to enjoy shopping in the new Penney’s,” Longballa said. “The additional space has permitted all departments to be enlarged and conveniently arranged for pleasant, easy shopping.”

New fixtures, designed to facilitate examination and selection of merchandise, have been installed on all floors, the Penney manager pointed out.

Adding to the attractive surroundings are modern back-lighted shadow boxes which serve to highlight merchandise displays. New headers — large wooden cutout letters set against a lighted background- will help shoppers find the departments they want.

“Fortunately, all work has been completed in time for us to help with customers’ fall shopping.” Longballa declared. “All departments are featuring a wide selection of seasonable merchandise for the entire family.”

The Penney store, which first opened here in 1916, is part of a nation-wide chain of over 1600.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug. 17, 1974

Rechanneling of Deschutes proposed

Brooks-Scanlon, Inc., is proposing to cut a new channel in the Deschutes River that would eliminate a wide loop in the river that currently provides the company’s Bend mill with its log pond.

Once the river is rechanneled, the log pond would be filled in and used in a new “dry loading” process for moving logs into the plant’s large sawmill.

Mill officials estimate cost of the project at more than $1 million. The project is the firm’s solution to a requirement by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality that Brooks Scanlon eliminate use of the river in log handling operations.

A hearing on the proposal has been scheduled by Oregon’s Division of State Lands in Bend on Tuesday, Aug. 20. It will be held in the commission room of city hall. Leo Hopper, Brooks-Scanlon’s vice president in charge of operations, said he has received an oral report from John Borden, district engineer for the DEQ, that the proposal has the approval of the DEQ at the state level.

Approval is also needed by the Division of State Lands, Hopper said because that agency has jurisdiction over inland waterways.

The new channel, which would eliminate the tip of the loop the river makes in the mill area, would be about 2,600 feet in length. Hopper said the project has been designed with the assistance of Aubrey E. Perry, former Deschutes County watermaster, and officials of the Oregon Wildlife Commission.

Included in the plans are provisions for creating a natural habitat along the new channel for the support and propagation of swans, ducks, geese and other wildlife that inhabit the area. Hopper estimated it will take about a year to complete the project. Under the present timetable, he said, the new channel would be dug during the winter. As the project nears the final phase the mill will convert to a “dry” process of feeding logs from the yard into the mill. Logs presently are fed directly from the mill pond into the mill.

Although tests have shown that the quality of water has been as chemically pure below as above the mill, DEQ objects to bark and other log debris that has been carried from the mill pond into the lower river.

Part of the old channel, just above the mill dam, will be used for a backwater that will provide water needed by the mill for various purposes including use inside the mill for processing and for fire protection and filling boilers.

A sizable portion of the remaining old channel will be filled in and used to increase the available area for log stacking and the new dry mill loading process.

In discussing the plan, Brooks-Scanlon President Michael P. Hollern said he did not quarrel with the DEQ’s statewide efforts to solve environmental problems. But, he noted, elimination of the present “wet” system of handling logs from the millpond will create some new problems and increase production costs. As an example of new problems, Hollern said he anticipated more trouble with dirt in the powerhouse, resulting from logs that have not been first washed in the millpond. He also mentioned additional dust and noise that will be created by “log stackers” used in the dry loading procedure.

Hollern said he has already received some reports of concern about additional noise and dust from residents living in the vicinity of the mill.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug. 17, 1999

Hero honored with overdue medals

Oregon’s only living recipient of the Medal of Honor received a half-dozen long-overdue World War II medals and badges today from U.S. Rep Greg Walden, R-Ore. At a Drake Park ceremony this morning attended by about 20 people, Robert Maxwell of Bend received the honors he had qualified for but never received, including the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal and the Combat Infantryman badge. “My generation and those to come owe Mr. Maxwell and his fellow World War II veterans a tremendous debt of gratitude for the freedom their brave actions have allowed us to enjoy,” Walden said Wednesday in a statement.

Maxwell was accompanied to the podium by a color guard and presented an arrangement of the new “Veterans’ Honor Rose,” created by a Medford flower grower. Maxwell is one of 158 living recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, given for instances of extreme valor.

He also earned two Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and a Bronze Star.

Maxwell, 78, said he had papers indicating he was eligible for some of the honors. He didn’t know of the others until someone told him in recent months, when his Medal of Honor heroism became more widely known.

“I should have had them sent in the mail,” said Maxwell, who appeared somewhat embarrassed by the attention. “I do feel honored, and I’m very glad to meet Mr. Walden. I guess the family is getting a big kick out of it.”

Maxwell was a technician 5th grade in the Army, serving as a telephone and telegraph line installer in the infantry. He served in North Africa and Italy as the Allied forces drove the Nazi army back toward Germany.

On Sept 7, 1945, at a home near Besancon, France, Maxwell and three other men from the Third Infantry awoke to find themselves surrounded by a larger German force and engaged in a furious firefight.

A grenade landed near Maxwell, who grabbed his blanket and used it and his body to cover the grenade and absorb the blast suffering serious injuries.