100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 21, 1924

Car is saved by girl’s wit

Flames which broke out from around the storage battery of an automobile which Ocla E. White was driving toward Bend from the head of the Metolius river Sunday afternoon, threatened to destroy the automobile until strategy employed by Miss Bessie Smith, White’s companion, resulted in the extinguishing of the blaze. Both occupants of the car were burned about the hands and wrists in putting out the fire.

White had tried unsuccessfully to beat out the blaze with his coat, when Miss Smith discovered that pouring dirt on the fire was effective. White followed her example, and as a result the damage was confined to the destruction of the insulation, scorching of the floor mat and upholstering and the cracking of the water jacket of the engine. The car was insured. The fire was discovered 14 miles north of Sisters.

Masons will open new home tonight

Opening of the Masonic building, formerly the Emblem club, for social use by the Masonic bodies, will be marked with a house warming party tonight, beginning at 8:30 o’clock. Cards and dancing will be the diversions of the evening. Paul Hosmer’s orchestra will furnish music.

The building has been thoroughly renovated, and new electric wiring has been installed. Two large dormer windows have been added on the second floor.

Members sign for golf club

Members are now being signed up for a golf club which will purchase land and lay out a course near Bend, it was made public today. Already 49 members have been signed up. The initiation fee at present is $100, but this will be increased to $150 after 90 members are signed up, those in charge of the project have agreed. Not all of the fee need be paid at once, as terms may be arranged.

Those who wish to take out membership should apply to R.M. Wood, B.A. Stover, J.M. Herbert, H.E. Allen or T. H. Foley.

The movement to organize a golf club was begun here early in the summer. Shortly after the first meetings were held, the Deschutes course was laid out, and a large number of local people have taken up the game.

The object of organizing at present is to secure a course near the city, and to provide means for improving it.

Rabid horse attacks

Report that a rabid horse is terrorizing the district between Grange Hall and Alfalfa on the Alfalfa road was brought to Bend today by H.E. Davis of Alfalfa. Davis’ sons were driving toward town this morning when the horse, frothing at the mouth, attempted to attack their team. The attack occurred near the C. W. Hoech ranch. The boys drove the horse away by throwing rocks at it, Davis reported.

Residents of that vicinity were being notified this afternoon, and a hunt for the dangerous animal was planned.

A number of rabid coyotes and other animals have been reported east of Prineville, Davis told Sheriff S.E. Roberts, to whom he made the report.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 21, 1949

Bend drive-in theater plans announced

Construction of a drive-in theater, first of its type in this section of the state, will get under way next spring on an eight-acre tract just north of Bend, it was announced today by William and Albert Forman, owners of the Tower, Capital, and Liberty theaters in Bend, and a string of theaters in other cities.

Announcement of the proposed construction was made today, following completion of the deal to purchase the property on the west side of highway 97, one-half mile north of the city. The land was bought from Ivan Farr, a Bend resident for about 19 years, who moved to the acreage five months ago after selling city property. The Farrs retained three acres of ground, where their home is located.

The new theater, to be known as the Bend Drive-In Theater, will be a $75,000 installation to serve the entire central Oregon area. The parking area will cover most of the eight-acre area, and will accommodate 500 automobiles. A huge screen about 60 feet square will be visible from all parking locations and individual speakers, which may be adjusted by the patrons to the desired volume, will be supplied.

A building about 60 feet long and 40 feet deep, will be constructed about 200 feet from the screen tower to house projection rooms, restrooms and a large concession bar and restaurant.

Manager of the new out-door theater will be Charles F. Clark.

New Kingston School takes shape

Bend’s newest grade school, Kingston, located in the western part of the city at Kingston and 12th, is rapidly taking shape, and plans call for its occupancy about December 1, when 100 first and second grade pupils will be moved in. These pupils are now being cared for in overflow class rooms. The building will be of pumice block construction, and the interior will be similar to the new J. Alton Thompson grade school. Henry Nelson is the contractor.

Bing Crosby stops at Bend Golf Club

Bing Crosby, famed Hollywood crooner and motion picture star, stopped briefly in Bend yesterday. He was accompanied by George Coleman, also a Hollywood personage. Crosby and Coleman were returning to Hollywood after a vacation trip to Jasper national park. In the Jasper golf tournament, which was won by Coleman, with Crosby as runner-up, Crosby met Woody Lamb, bend Golf club professional. Lamb invited them to stop at the Bend club on their return to Hollywood.

Crosby and Coleman spent about 15 minutes at the local club yesterday afternoon.

City fire siren will be moved

In a step preliminary to construction of the new St. Charles hospital, the Bend fire department siren, now at the fire hall adjacent to the hospital grounds, will be moved to the city hall, on Wall street, it was announced over the week-end. The siren will be placed atop the city jail “penthouse,” on the city hall.

Wiring work is now under way, and city officials expect that the siren will be in its new location by the end of the week. Plans for the change of the siren location were announced earlier in the year.

Presence of the siren so near the hospital has been objected to by physicians over a long period. It was maintained that the siren disturbed patients, and at times resulted in actual harm.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 21, 1974

Good peppermint crop seen

In spite of a late season, this year’s peppermint crop for Central Oregon appears to be another good one.

The harvest in Deschutes and Jefferson counties is largely complete, but in Crook County, stills are operating at capacity to put the oil in the barrels. Marketing negotiations now underway indicate a price of $15 per pound for oil in the barrel, but this figure is likely to increase, a Jefferson County extension agent predicts.

Of the 15,500 acres of mint grown in Central Oregon, almost all of the land is in peppermint. This figure represents slightly less than half of the total acreage of peppermint harvested in Oregon, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates of Sept. 1.

Nationally, the peppermint for oil crop is forecast for 3.4 million pounds, up 8 per cent over last year’s 3.1 million pounds. Peppermint production for Oregon’s crop this year is placed at slightly over 2 million pounds, down 5 per cent from 1973, but 6 per cent above the 1972 harvest.

Peppermint oil, which is used largely as a flavoring in foods and pharmaceuticals, is distilled through a steam process where the chopped hay is subjected to hot steam under pressure. The oil, which has a lighter specific gravity than water, is treed from the fiber and carried off by the steam to be deposited in containers where it condenses in essence form, later to be stocked in barrels for marketing.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Sept. 21, 1999

All aboard for a ride to the Art Station

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men have put the old Bend train depot back together again. It is the Art Station, a local- and open to the public-art school. In case any of you have forgotten, the stone depot’s odyssey began several years ago when the Oregon Department of Transportation put a price on the building’s head. t its former location, the train station, which hadn’t seen a locomotive roll up to the platform since 1958, was sitting in the path of progress, or at least progress as defined by the new Bend Parkway. ODOT offered $300,000 toward the cost of moving the 87-year-old building. Otherwise it was to be demolished.

After much debate, Bill Smith, the wizard behind the curtain who is responsible for recreating the Old Mill District as a shopping/living/business/entertainment center, won the right to move the building and put it to good use.

Now it’s moved and rebuilt in its new home. The procedure involved disassembling 2,500 blocks of locally quarried volcanic stone, carting them two miles to the new site (just off of Colorado Avenue by the Bend Armory) and then jigsaw puzzling them back together. It took a lot of time, and according to Smith, a lot of money.

“It was more than I care to admit,” said the developer, who originally expected to spend around $200,000. “I could have probably built it from scratch for what it cost.” Still, he’s happy with the result and especially the building’s new purpose.

“It’s going to be an art education center for all levels staffed with professionals,” said Cate O’Hagan, executive director of the Central Oregon Arts Association (COAA). “We’ll do everything from clay, pastels, watercolors, oils, figure drawing, anything we can.”

The only downside to the building’s new lease on life is that it won’t open up as the Art Station until the fall of 2000.

In the interim, it’s fundraising time. The COAA needs to come up with $200,000 to get the pottery wheels turning. They had a $45-a-head event on Saturday that marked the first time

the depot has been used for anything other than office space since the last passenger train rolled into Bend.

“It’s really going to be a professional-quality institution, but it’s going to be really accessible to the public,” O’Hagan said. “I anticipate that we’ll be doing a lot of collaboration with the college.” She also said that COAA is talking with the High Desert Museum and the Museum at Warm Springs about holding classes in the facility.

The Art Station will offer a K-12 curriculum, a beginner through advanced adult curriculum, special workshops and visiting artists programs. In addition to visual arts, literary arts classes are planned.

Meanwhile, carpenters are busy finishing up the depot’s innards. The original structure is intact, with the old windows, doors and roof. The only new additions will be on the inside, things like a brand new restroom and walls to divide the space into classrooms.

To preserve the look of the historic depot, landscaping will be limited and a wooden platform, just like the one it had when trains made daily stops, is being constructed along the front.

More fund-raisers are planned for the art school.