Compiled by the Deschutes County Historical Society from archived copies of the Bulletin at the Deschutes Historical Museum.

100 Years Ago

For the week ending

March 9, 1919

Letter threatens chief of police

Enforcement of law peeves violators of city code

Because of his activity in enforcing the law in Bend, Chief of Police L.A.W. Nixon yesterday received an anonymous letter threatening his life if he does not discontinue making arrests. The letter bore the initials “C.A.”

Chief Nixon was highly indignant over the affair, declaring that it was the second communication of the kind, which he had received within the last month. “I’ll give $200 to the fellow that wrote that letter if he has courage enough to make himself known,” he declared. “The arrests of vagrants and ‘tinhorns’ is going to continue right along until Bend is cleaned up, and such letters as I received yesterday will not make it any easier for people of that class, you may be sure.”

Governor of Oregon dies at capital

Heart failure ends useful career — was pioneer of ‘71

SALEM, March 4,—- James Withycombe, governor of Oregon, died suddenly last night of heart failure. Secretary of State Ben Olcott automatically succeeds him as the state’s chief executive, at the same time retaining his own office.

Born in England, James Withycombe came to Oregon in 1871, and resided in the state for the rest of his life. At the time of his election as governor, he had been in charge of the Oregon agricultural experiment station for 16 years, and is generally conceded to have done more than any other citizen in Oregon to introduce scientific methods into agriculture, horticulture, dairying and stock raising.

When a candidate for the nomination on the Republican ticket in the spring of 1914, it was not believed that he had any chance for the nomination. His wide acquaintance, however among the graduates of the Oregon Agricultural College, who had known him and studied under him while in school, gave him a consistently good vote all over the state, thereby winning the nomination for him. At the fall election, he easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Dr. C.J. Smith.

Shevlin-Hixon wins in indoor baseball

By a score of 23 to 14, the Shevlin-Hixon team won last night at the Bend Amateur Athletic Club gymnasium from the business men in the indoor baseball league.

Classified

WANTED — Position by returned soldier as truck driver or teamster or carpentry work. Inquire Miss Markel, City Rest Room, Sphier Building

FOR SALE —- Five-room house, Kenwood, $500 Mrs. V. A. Forbes

FOR SALE —- Four-room cottage, $750 see C.V. Silvis, corner Wall and Oregon

LOST— Between Aubrey Heights and Weistoria, on Monday, a baby pillow, letter F embroidered on case. Inquire Bulletin.

STRAYED — From Shevlin-Hixon Camp 8, Feb. 23, black and white female fox terrier, answers to the name of Toots. Phone any information to Red 1511. Mrs. W.K. Roney

Homing pigeons to aid fire fighters

A number of homing pigeons are being brought to Bend from Portland by William Sprout, a member of the supervisor’s office force, and will be used this summer in transmitting messages from fire fighting parties to Bend.

In some of the more widespread conflagrations, it frequently happens that communication with the home office by telephone is cut off, and because of this, each detail of firefighters will take a pigeon with them on leaving for the timber. The high rate of speed at which the birds fly will make it possible to send messages by air with very little loss of time.

75 Years ago

For week ending

March 9, 1944

Three cab operators agree on service

Avoiding action by the office of defense transportation, Bend’s three taxicab operators today had settled among themselves the matter of a central stand and 24-hour service for the city, it was learned. And as a result the stand has been located in front of the Downing hotel, with a telephone and office in the lobby.

The cab operators informed City Manager C.G. Reiter that round-the-clock service would be provided, with one cab being on duty from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and another from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., while a third will operate between noon and midnight, thus providing two cabs between those hours.

At the last meeting of the city commission it was decided to ask the ODT to step in yesterday unless the operators reached an agreement and complied with the ODT’s demands for better service.

Bend hen lays Rising Sun egg

Discovery of the second egg in recent weeks bearing a perfect replica of the Japanese Rising Sun on one side, today caused some chicken owners of Bend to wonder whether the sinister influence of the enemy has actually penetrated local chicken coops.

Flowers in bloom

Another sign of spring was reported today by recent visitors to the Horace Richards dairy ranch, just east of town. Mrs. Richards’ snow drops are in bloom.

Franklin D. Roosevelt starts 12th year as U.S. President

WASHINGTON — Franklin D. Roosevelt began his 12th year as president today by attending divine services at which prayers were voiced that the nations of the world soon would be guided into the ways of justice, truth and peace.

Eleven years ago, the president stood at the capitol, his head bared to March winds, and solemnly assured a nation that was reeling from a devastating depression, that it had “nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Today, dressed in a dark gray business suit, his head bowed, he sat in the East room of the White House — surrounded by members of his family, military and civilian aides, cabinet members, supreme court justices and congressional leaders — and sought guidance in overcoming his greatest challenge, the winning of the war.

50 Years ago

For the week ending

March 9, 1969

Filmmakers may come to Oregon

SALEM — Several movies and television specials may be produced in Oregon, Gov. Tom McCall said Thursday, including actor Paul Newman’s production of “Sometimes A Great Nation.”

McCall made the remarks after returning from a three-day business recruitment mission in Los Angeles. He was accompanied by 70 businessmen and civic leaders. McCall said the only competition is coming from Canada, which offers rebates from box office receipts to companies which shoot in that country. “The chances are excellent,” he said. “If it is filmed in the U.S., it will be done in Oregon.” The film is taken from the book by Ken Kesey, Springfield, Oregon. It concerns a logging family on the Southern Oregon coast.

McCall said the mission interested producers in filming three other major movies here. Industrial development scouts also reported interest in shooting three of the increasingly popular 100-minute television movies on location in Oregon.

Warning issued to kite fliers

The delight of children flying kites is one of the surest and most predictable signs of spring. With spring hopefully just around the corner, Pacific Power & Light Company has issued its safety message about the danger of flying kites near electric power lines. Metallic string or thread should never be substituted for kite string, the company cautions. Such substitutes — especially metallic crochet thread, with its nylon core and spun metal covering — are excellent conductors of electricity.

Power company spokesmen have issued five basic safety rules children and parents should keep in mind when flying kites: Always fly kites away from power lines, TV and radio aerials; never fly kites in wet weather as even damp string can conduct electricity; avoid using busy streets and highways while flying kites; never use metal wire or string with metallic strands and avoid kite frames with metal bracings or metallic tails. Youngsters are urged to fly kites in open fields away from power lines.

Backyard manufacturer has invented parts to make motorcycles go faster

Growing by leaps and bounds in a small concrete block building behind the home of Paul Olmstead, 1435 Cumberland, is an obscure little business, which specializes in manufacturing parts to make Honda motorcycles go faster.

No industrial giant, the business, known as Powroll Performance, has become known by “Honda crazies” the world over as the place to contact for relatively inexpensive kits to make their machines go faster and perform better. Olmstead, 32, who operates the business with some assistance from his wife, Wendy, takes orders by phone and mail from Honda owners in Sweden, England, South Africa, Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) and Canada, as well as all parts of the United States. “I can’t remember ever getting an order from Japan, though,” Olmstead quipped.

Inside the little shop behind his house, Olmstead manufactures over 50 different “big bore” kits to increase the displacement of the Japanese-built motorcycles ranging from the small 50cc motor bikes to the two cylinder 450cc machines that will do over 100 miles per hour. He also manufactures six kits to increase the stroke of the engines.

“Now that I can afford to do a little advertising in the motorcycle magazines, business has really begun to pick up,” said Olmstead. “When I first started out it was kind of rough because I didn’t have any capital other than a few dollars I managed to save.”

Olmstead’s business began in 1961 while he was stationed in Japan as an aircraft electrician with the U.S. Navy. “I bought a basket-case 50cc Honda, but putting it back together didn’t seem to be much of a challenge, so I attempted to hop it up a little.” Still dreaming up ways to make the Honda go faster, Olmstead sold his first kit in 1964 after being transferred to Moffitt Field Naval Air Station in California. “My parents were taking the orders for me here in Bend and shipping the customer’s parts to me in California by bus.” There, during off-duty hours, Olmstead would make the requested modifications and ship the parts back to the customer. “I’ll bet there were a lot of people wondering why their parts were being sent back from a naval air station,” he said.

In 1965, after ten years in the Navy, Olmstead’s “dream” had grown like “Baby Huey” and he left the Navy to go into business full time. At that time Olmstead already had two children and a third on the way. After using a building south of town for several months, Olmstead, plowing what profit he made back into the business, decided to cut his overhead and build his own shop. “It was tough row to hoe and things were pretty slim around here for a while,” he confessed, “but the picture looks pretty bright now.”

According to Olmstead, Powroll Performances’ business volume doubled each year for the first three years. In 1967, he grossed $29,000. To those unknowledgeable about precision machine work and motorcycles, the inside of Olmstead’s shop presents the appearance of being a combination of professionalism mixed with some “Rube Goldberg” methods. It is small, and everywhere are pieces of Honda engines, tools and the pervading smell of machine oil. In his shop, however, Olmstead, who learned to do machine work “by asking questions, experimenting and reading a lot,” turns out exotic parts for Hondas, some of which are available from no other source in the world. “I use few specially made parts other than pistons and stick to Honda equipment, including as many of the factory specified tolerances as possible.” he said. “That gives a great deal of insurance that the kits won’t fail.” Olmstead says rarely ever is a kit returned because of a part failure.

Olmstead’s latest brain child, a stroker kit to increase the displacement and r.p.m. capabilities of the 250 and 305cc engines, is a project that took three years to develop and was something that was believed to be impossible. He not only managed to do it — by a process he won’t reveal — but has found the kit to be a hot seller. “I was amazed at how much in demand this particular kit is,” he said.

Like many inventors, Olmstead confesses to waking up in the middle of the night and going out to his shop “to try out an idea that comes to me in a dream. I’ll get up occasionally to write something down before I forget it,” he says. Sometimes Olmstead will use a drawing board to plan something out, but more often, the idea is worked out in his head. With the backyard business growing rapidly, Olmstead says he may have to find someone to help him in the shop. “It’s getting so that I’ve got more than I can handle.”

According to Olmstead, there are over 2000 Honda dealers in the United States alone. “If I can get a few more dealers I can afford to pay an extra man full time, “ Olmstead Said. “Then I can devote most of my time to development of my ideas.”

25 Years ago

For the week ending

March 9, 1994

Color printer taking over

HP off new “Inkjet”

PORTLAND — Just as color television forced the near extinction of black-and-white sets, Hewlett-Packard Co. is on the verge of exterminating the black-and-white computer printer.

The Palo Alto, California-based electronics maker introduced its latest color printer, which uses a device called an inkjet that sprays ink on a page in tiny droplets. The previous version of the printer has been one of the most popular products in Hewlett-Packard history, with sales more than doubling in just a year. The Vancouver, Washington, plant where it is built can barely keep pace with new orders. “We shipped 5 million in 1993,” said Russ Radom, worldwide product manager for inkjets. “Things are really taking off.”

Some analysts say the number could double again in 1994 to 10 million, surpassing the total number of the printers the company has sold since introducing them in 1988. “They really caught us by surprise with the numbers. I think they even caught themselves by surprise,” said Mark Boer, an analyst for International Data Corp. in Boston who follows the printer market.

The color version of the printer could mean the end of conventional computer printing. Inkjet prints are clear, relatively quick and cheap. Hewlett-Packard also has made its printer easier to use by fully automating the once-tricky task of mixing inks to produce the best result on paper.

Analysts feel that the color printer market is expected to quadruple in the next four years,” Radom said. “I would say it’s a revolution.” Inkjet printers already hold about 90 percent of the market for nonimpact printers, squeezing out laser printers.

One-horsepower non-rapid transit

An unusual sound joined the rumbles of heavy trucks and clatter of construction in Bend’s First Street industrial area last week — the clip-clop of horse hooves. The rhythmic noise came from Jesse, an 11-year-old Suffolk mare. C&G Farms brought Jesse to one of the noisiest, busiest sections of modern-day Bend to train her for something thoroughly old-fashioned, romantic carriage rides through town.

After 18 months of study and a $50,000 investment, C&G Farms launched its carriage ride business. The company, operated by Cindy Frederick and her fiancé, Gary Dale, is focusing now on providing rides for weddings, dinner dates, birthday parties and other special events. But the company plans to branch out soon, “We’re hoping to be in downtown Bend giving rides around the park on a day-to-day basis,” said Dale. With the help of a U.S. Small Business Administration loan and Western Bank, Frederick and Dale purchased Jesse, who weighs a ton and stands 17 hands, or 5½ feet.

Jesse pulls a “vis-à-vis” carriage, so named because the seats face each other. Oxbow Trade Co. of Canyon City made the carriage, with some of its parts produced by Amish crafts persons. The carriage is not without modern touches, however, like hydraulic brakes and a diaper that catches Jesse’s droppings. After consulting with other carriage ride businesses from British Columbia to New Orleans, Frederick and Dale set prices at $120 per hour for special events. Prices for the half-hour to 40 minute rides to the general public would be $10 per person, once that service begins.

Future plans call for expanding the business to include buckboards for hay rides and sleighs for snow tours.