This feature is compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at the Des Chutes Historical Museum.

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 14, 1912

Merrymakers bring out newlyweds with pepper

Noise produced by beating on tin cans, plowshares and like din-makers failing to bring out the bride and groom in a charivari given Mr. and Mrs. Edward Street at the Millican ranch on the Bend-Burns road last Wednesday night, the merrymakers found that cayenne pepper worked excellently. The newlyweds were smoked out in a few minutes.

Mr. and Mrs. Street were married here last Wednesday and on the way to their home at Fife lodged for the night at the Millican Inn. A number of other travelers were there and decided to have some fun. Getting together all the implements that would make a noise, they proceeded to serenade the couple, who occupied an upper room. When the bridegroom refused to show himself, the pepper treatment was suggested. A ladder was placed up to the window, the pepper sprinkled on a shovel-full of live coals and the smoke blown into the bridal chamber. Soon sneezing and coughing was heard inside and in a short time the bride and groom came forth and the crowd was “treated” to cigars and candy.

Incidentally, this was the first charivari in that part of the county. According to reports reaching here, there is to be a wedding in the valley not many moons hence.

Rail rates delay action

Accompanied by Dr. Thomas S. McDavitt, a noted St. Paul eye and ear specialist, and J.E. Hurd, a logging expert, Dr. D.F. Brooks, president of The Bend Company, head of Central Oregon timber-holding organizations and one of the best known lumber and timbermen in the West, arrived Monday night.

While admitting that the purpose of his visit, in addition to a general survey of the field, was chiefly to look into matters connected with the establishment of a large lumber mill here. Dr. Brooks would commit himself to little that was definite in the way of mill announcements.

“It would not be fair to make any statements that I am not absolutely certain would be carried out,” said Dr. Brooks, “But this much I will say and gladly: Bend need have no fears regarding the mill situation. There is every physical reason why a plant, and a big one, should be established here. The town is the key for the milling of an enormous body of timber.”

It is understood that the peg upon which now hangs local manufacturing upon a large scale is that of eastern freight rates.

When these rates are satisfactory, the last serious obstacle will be removed and the mills built.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 14, 1937

The desert’s story

Members of the Bend delegation who drove to Burns recently for the conference with Governor Charles H. Martin and his highway commission found the so-called high desert across juniper covered hills and sage plateaus, in an unusual array.

Light rain was falling above the 4,000-foot level; low, dark clouds just grassed the high summits of Pine Mountain, Hampton and Glass Buttes, and over the vast region, reaching to a distance of 70 miles, was a strange coloring. Under the rain clouds, the subdued coloring brought into striking relief topographical details that gave a clue to the ancient history of the region.

Under the customary glaring light of the high plateau, the desert generally hides away its old secrets guarding them as treasures of age that reach into that primeval past when semi-tropical forests covered the Hampton highlands. But such is not the case when dark clouds drift over the region. Elevations scarcely noticed in brilliant light come into view, old lava flows whose margins have been eroded by the storms of centuries are noticeable and vast depressions once occupied by huge lakes are brought into relief.

One of the most striking of these old lake beds is in the vicinity of Hampton, and members of the Bend group who made the recent trip to Burns under the heavy storm clouds were amazed to discover that even the shorelines of Lake Hampton were visible and that a nearly perpendicular rim of basalt to the northeast graphically told the story of the manner that ancient lake came into existence: A great earth fault developed, the old drainage system was blocked by the rock barrier and runoff from the Hampton uplift filled the depression to a depth of probably 60 feet.

Lake Hampton, on whose ancient shoreline the ghost town of Imperial stood some 20 years ago, was probably 20 miles long in its flush days. It disappeared long ago, probably when the vast lakes of south-central Oregon started shrinking.

The dull light of rainy days on the generally dry plateau also distinctly outline the vents of old volcanoes — thundering cones of the remote past from which lava flowed to build the misstate highlands and cover for eternities the underlying sedimentary formations that hold records of sequoia forests.

Nazis call upon German hens to aid fatherland

“We request that every hen lay between 130 and 140 eggs a year,” announced the Nazi party news agency today. Present production is 90 eggs a hen.

In making its “request” the agency advised farmers to get hens of the Aryan sort.

“The increase can not be achieved by the bastard hens which now populate the German farms,” said the agency. “Slaughter those undesirables and replace them with hens which the chicken farmers’ organization have found to be the most efficient.”

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 14, 1962

Belle delivers! Strain too much for zoo boss

A newly born 34-inch baby elephant wobbled around its mother, Belle, in Portland zoo this morning, while the zoo director rested in a hospital after collapsing from the strain. It was the first such birth in this country in 43 years.

Belle, a ten-year-old Siamese elephant, gave birth to the wee, grey baby this morning in the elephant house.

Three other female elephants were present, and one of them, Pet, tried to attack the baby.

Zoo director Jack Marks and other attendants grabbed hooks to steer the three to separate quarters. Then Marks, who has paced the floor with Belle for many days and nights during the past two months, collapsed and was rushed by ambulance to a hospital.

Hospital attendants said he probably would remain one day. They say he was exhausted and was suffering from a strained shoulder muscle.

Belle and the baby were doing fine. The baby estimated at 175 pounds, tottered to its feet within ten minutes and started nursing within a half hour.

Belle nuzzled it affectionately as it weaved through the straw and hid between her legs, wiggling its 18 inch trunk. Belle gave all signs of being a protective mother and zoo attendants kept their distance.

The last recorded elephant birth in this country was April 29, 1918 when the old circus elephant Princess Alice, gave birth to a baby at Salt Lake City.

That baby died. Its death was believed to be the result of its inability to digest cow’s milk after the mother refused to nurse it.

Belle two months ago sparked round-the-clock elephant house vigils when she started giving false birth alarms. She carried the baby for 633 days. Two of the elephants present at this mornings birth — Rosy and Tui Hoa — also are expecting.

Sex of the baby was not immediately known.

It was up to Belle’s owner, Morgan Berry of Seattle, when she and the baby would make their first public appearance. Berry, who raised Belle at his Seattle home, said he planned to raise the baby to adulthood. He did not say where.

Dr. Mathew Mayberry, Belle’s veterinarian was present for the birth.

Thonglaw, the ill-tempered father, remained in isolation for the time being. He has been kept away from the public because the male elephant has a temper and can be dangerous.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 14, 1987

Eager anglers find happiness fishing

Happiness is a warm, sunny day and a fishing hole where the fish are huge, hungry and nearly as enthusiastic as the fishermen.

Sixteen men and women, all developmentally disabled and clients of the Opportunity Center in Redmond, found their happiness Tuesday at the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery on the Metolius River.

The excited anglers lined up around a pond at the hatchery.

The skies were bright and clear, and dozens of large rainbow, brook and brown trout could be seen lurking in the shallow pond. A few lunkers looked as if they would weigh in at 7 or 8 pounds.

The scene was enough to make any angler lick his lips in anticipation, and Opportunity Center client Joe Matters was no exception.

“Let’s get those big fish!” shouted Matters. “C’mere, you big suckers!”

Four volunteers from the Redmond Fire Department had brought enough poles and fishing equipment to outfit the Opportunity Center’s anglers. A number of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife employees were also on hand.

The volunteer helped each of the fishermen get started, and predictably , the early action was hot and heavy.

A rainbow approaching five pounds nailed Matters’ bait, bending his rod nearly double as he hollered for help.

“I got one! I got one!” Matters yelled as he hung on to his arched fishing rod. A volunteer fireman finally netted the bright fish, but it was a few minutes before Matters was able to calm down enough to cast a second time.

Meanwhile most of the other anglers also were hooking fish, and within the first hour the group had caught several dozen, using barbless hooks. They were fishing in the so called “settling pond”, built at the hatchery to trap sediment and other wastes from the hatchery before the water is returned to the river.

The pond is chock full of semi-wild trout that escaped from the hatchery. The Opportunity Center clients were given the chance to fish there because the Redmond Fire Department had asked hatchery officials for about 100 trout to be stocked at “Fireman’s Lake,” a small pond in Redmond opened to fishing each year for children and the handicapped.

Rather than simply net the fish at the hatchery and take them to Fireman’s Lake, the fire department and ODFW officials decided to allow the Opportunity Center clients to catch the fish.