In 1992, whispers of Costco’s coming to Central Oregon

Published 6:18 am Monday, August 21, 2017

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

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug. 19, 1917

Crescent on booze (editorial)

From the comparatively drought-stricken regions of Crescent, shoots a double-barrelled editorial our way, much of which is reprinted, as follows:

“The Bend Bulletin; the staid, serious old Bulletin, which has for years devoted its energies to building a city and country; a clean, moral city with happy homes and a prosperous people, has after years of endeavor, been compelled to admit that Old John Barleycorn has it and all the county, state and federal officers licked to a frazzle; and that prohibition don’t mean ‘bone dry,’ and ‘bone dry’ has nothing to do with getting a ‘jag on.’

“And in speaking of Bend and booze and bitters, it is well to remember that the criminal often rides in the easy seat. Even in Crescent where a ‘clean up’ is in progress, the ‘poorest devil in the bunch’ looks like ‘the goat’ just now. The others are all ‘tourists.’

“Bend thinks all its booze comes from California through Klamath County. Crescent gets its supply through Bend from Portland. With Bend looking this way for the criminal it appears to us like they were ‘turning their back on crime.’ And after all, we would like to ask the good Bend Bulletin if, in its opinion, it believes prohibition actually prohibits.”

No, indeed, Brother Jolly, to the contrary notwithstanding. The Bulletin does not admit that prohibition is a failure here or anywhere else. In fact, we think it a decided success. It does not entirely prohibit, for few laws are airtight. But it works in the right direction.

The following comment on the subject in hand from the Culver paper, to the north of us, is better fitted to the facts, we think, than the Crescent News casting up the sponge to John Barleycorn.

“Commitments to the penitentiary in Oregon have decreased within the past year nearly 50 percent and deposits in the banks have increased about 30 percent in the same time. Gov. James Withycombe credits the favorable showing to prohibition and most people will fully agree with him that prohibition is about the best thing that ever happened to the state,” so says the Culver Tribune.

And it’s simply a matter of time until Prohibition is nationwide, in which event all classes and conditions of men will be about on the same level, so far as concerns befuddling themselves with alcohol.

No war raise on Bend brick

The Bend Brick Company is proud of the fact that their products are among the few whose prices have not been increased, war or no war.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug. 19, 1942

Clark Gable signs up 
as a “real soldier”

No pink tea or bond selling military assignments for actor Clark Gable. He received orders to report to officers training school of the army air forces. Years ago, Gable worked in a Bend lumber mill and handled green Deschutes pine.

Editorial

While joining with all who honor Clark Gable for the self-effacing act of joining up as a private in the air corps when he might have found many a soft job where the army could use his talents we find ourselves entertained by a most human situation disclosed in the story of his enlistment. The he-man was afraid of the dentist. Gable, the story has it, “had been spending weeks on visits to the dentist and would have been in the army long ago, had his molars been in better condition.” How many of us are, or have been, in the boat with him. What appointments with the dentist have we failed to keep because we had to go out on location — to find a good trout hole — or to finish a scene in one of our own “Gone With the Wind” dramas!

Back of that devastating — to the women — smile and those good-looking incisors there were only stumps, cavities and of course aches. Hollywood is human after all and Clark Gable is to be honored for two great sacrifices, the one when he made up his mind to enlist where he could fight and the other when he telephoned the dentist and said, “Could you see me for about half an hour next Tuesday”?

Gable told he will 
shrink like uniform

Clark Gable, without his mustache and considerable hair, jumped out of his bunk at 5:15 today and began the grind of classes, drill and study that will make him an army officer and probably a gunner in a bombing plane.

As an officer candidate, he is making $66 a month. As one of Hollywood’s greatest stars, he was believed to have made $3,500 a week.

Gable was accepted as an officer candidate, in the Miami Beach army air force school yesterday without fanfare. When told he would have to shave his mustache, he grinned,

“Suits me. It’ll probably be a lot cooler anyway,” he said.

A sergeant threw him his uniform. Gable held the trousers up to his hips and noted that they were somewhat large.

“They’ll shrink a little bit and so will you,” the sergeant said.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug. 19, 1967

Oregon pioneer’s descendants hold 
reunion in Bend

Descendants of James Officer, native of Tennessee, who was a member of the Lost Wagon Train of 1845 in its crossing of the High Desert, gathered in Bend Saturday for their first reunion.

Present for the picnic and program at Pioneer Park were 83 people, not including a number of youngsters. Arrangements for the reunion were made by Reubon A. Long,of Fort Rock, a great-grandson of Officer. His grandmother was Nancy Wyland, whose descendants shared honors with members of the Officer family at the reunion.

Honored were two senior members of the clan, Viola Craddock of Boise, Idaho, and Bertha Collins of La Grande. They are aunts of the Fort Rock man. Presiding at the reunion program was Murel Long, Malin rancher.

Officer was born in 1800, and was 45 years old when he joined the wagon train that “found,” then lost the Blue Bucket mine in its wanderings over the High Desert between Burns, Prineville and Bend,

Officer spent most of his life in Clackamas County. He died in 1895.

They’re rolling out 
the black carpet

Driving in downtown Bend will be a bit confusing for the next few days while portions of Wall and Bond streets and Franklin and Greenwood avenues are being resurfaced. State resident engineer W.W. Robertson said no definite schedule can be followed in the resurfacing. He said crews began work at 5 a.m. and continue “until traffic gets heavy enough to interfere. Doing the paving is R.L. Coates,a Bend contractor.

No relief seen 
from heat wave

Any relief from the record hot weather in sight?

Weather forecasts indicate there is none — in fact the predictions say, Bend tomorrow faces its hottest day of the year, unless scattered thunder storms spread clouds over a torrid sun.

The forecast for the Bend area call for temperatures of from 100 to 105 degrees. Hottest weather ever recorded here in August was 100 degrees. Bend’s hottest weather for any month in the 65-year-history of the station was 104 degrees in July of two different years.

The 104 degree temperatures were 129 degrees above the lowest marks recorded at the Bend station — 25 below on two different wintry nights years ago.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Aug.19, 1992

Site plan fuels Costco reports

A Bend development company has proposed a massive discount department store off U.S. Highway 20 on the east edge of town. The company refused to name the prospective tenant, but there were strong indications that it is Costco Wholesale, a northwest-based wholesale membership chain reported for months to be eying expansion into Bend.

Owner Mel Getz had no comment on the possible involvement of Costco, a discounter headquartered in Kirkland, Wash. He said he’s contractually bound not to identify possible tenants.

“This thing isn’t that far away,” Getz said. “It’s just a little premature.”

Costco operates more than 80 wholesale warehouse stores in the United States and Canada. It announced plans to open 10 more stores during this current fiscal year.

House rescuers face 
new hurdles

Efforts to save a piece of history and create an artistic attraction in downtown Bend ran headlong into concerns over funding, cash flow and parking before city commissioners Wednesday night. The Rademacher/Allen House Preservation Project presented its plans to commissioners meeting as the Bend Development Board.

The group claims it raised more than $10,000 in “pledges and real dollars” in the past three weeks. It has drawn-up plans for the 84-year-old home, which would be moved southwest to align with a public plaza that is a part of the city’s “Riverfront Connection” plans.

The group estimates the cost of renovating the house at $150,000 and proposes that the city donate one-third of that amount. The group also has identified the Bend Art Association as a prospective tenant to lease the city-owned building, to include a gallery, classroom space, a tea room and catering kitchen.

A Bend development company has proposed a massive discount department store off U.S. Highway 20 on the east edge of town. The company refused to name the prospective tenant, but there were strong indications that it is Costco Wholesale, a northwest-based wholesale membership chain reported for months to be eying expansion into Bend.