25 years ago this week — 1999

PENDLETON — If pioneers on the Oregon Trail had hired Gerald Saggart to lead their wagon trains to the Pacific Northwest, they would have been hard pressed to find a better leader. At the very least, they would have had one heck of a good time.

So claim the members of the recent wagon team Swaggart led on a week-long excursion into the Blue Mountains. They were the 19th such team that Swaggart has guided in as many years.

Circled around a campfire on their last night of the week-long trek in the Blue Mountains, the team presented Swaggart with a plaque thanking the wagonmaster for his “tireless efforts.”

“Needless to say, I’m kind of proud of it,” Swaggart said.

This year’s team included a dozen wagons and nearly 150 people. Accompanying the wagons were hay trucks, horse trucks, water trucks, a caterer and beer trucks. It takes a meeting every month for a year to plan for each camp.

“We don’t go like the Rainbow people at all,” he added with a hearty laugh.

Porta potties are nestled behind the circled wagons. This year the group started out at North Flat Springs near Mt. Emily Road and traveled about 10 miles daily into the Blue Mountains, making their final camp at Meacham.

Swaggart, who turns 89 in August, has been around as long as the Pendleton Round-Up. Guiding the wagon trips has provided him with opportunity to make friends with “people from all over the world.”

———

PENDLETON — It’s the first weekend of July and guess what, there’s a chance of snow in the higher elevations of the Blue Mountains.

The forecast for the Fourth of July weekend calls for more of what we had this week: clouds and a chance of showers of thunderstorms, highs ranging from the lower 60s to the mid 70s, with lows in the upper 30s ro near 50.

Terry Ashby of the National Weather Service office in Pendleton said this year’s average daily temperature for this area in June wasn’t much different than last year, but the area experienced much cooler evening temperatures than normal.

“The average daily high for June is 79.5 degrees, with a low of 52.9 degrees,” Ashby said. “This year, the average daily was 72.2 with a low of 49.7. Last year, the average high was 78.8, so there was not that much difference. June is usually a transition month weather-wise and as we can wee, the temperature varies greatly.

Residents of Eastern Oregon have adapted to the sometimes unpredictable weather, but the cooler temperatures have put a crimp in some of the outdoor activities. Particularly in some of the summer recreational programs offered by various cities throughout the region.

———

Biologists and agency officials statewide are searching for ways to achieve the cooler river water temperatures the Environmental Protection Agency is demanding to help fish recovery efforts.

Nobody has any definite answers as to how to cool the rivers or how long it will take to get results. Proposals include planting trees along river banks to increase shade and requiring industries to cool the wastewater they pour into rivers.

But one local company, IRZ Consulting of Hermiston, is testing an innovative approach to cooling water in the Umatilla River between Echo and Stanfield. The six-year project, called the Echo Meadow Project, is in its second year.

“When you are working with something bigger than a creek, planting trees has not shown, in my mind, to have the positive impact in cooling a river – a river the size of the Umatilla,” said Fred Ziari, president of IRZ Consulting. “Planting trees and shrubs will help in stabilizing the channel and those are good, but for actually cooling the river, I don’t think they are as good as some people make it out to be. The date shows they are not.”

IRZ, which has been working on water conservation and quality issues on the Umatilla and Columbia rivers for nearly 20 years, uses a number of methods to monitor the river water temperatures including thermal infrared aerial photography.

50 years ago this week — 1974

UMATILLA — The body of a Hermiston woman was recovered Saturday night after she apparently leaped from the Umatilla Toll Bridge into the Columbia River about 8:45 p.m.

Police Saturday night identified the victim as Mrs. Del (Betty Jane Russell) Van Schoiack, 45, of 455 E. Newport, Hermiston. She was married within the past week, police said.

Mrs. Van Schoiack drove her car to the Washington side of the bridge, got out of the car, climbed over the railing and apparently jumped, according to Umatilla Police Chief Lon Reed.

The woman’s body was recovered about six miles downstream from the bridge near the Morrow-Umatilla County line on the Oregon side of the river.

As the incident occurred on the Washington side of the toll bridge it is being investigated by the Benton County, Wash., sheriff’s department.

The body was recovered by Hermiston Police Chief Bob Shannon and Officer Claude Pettey of the Hermiston Police Department.

Participating in the search and recovery of the body were the Umatilla County sheriff’s department, Umatilla ambulance, Oregon State Police, Umatilla and Hermiston police departments.

———

Now that American motorists can get gasoline without having to sit in long lines, they tend to forget the excessive power of the international oil cartel whose desires were felt during the shortages. But that power continues unchecked.

In an interview printed recently, the president of Shell Oil said many of the major oil firms would probably cut back oil production just to hold prices at their currently high levels.

President Harry Bridges said his company was reluctant to build more refineries until it can be sure of enough crude oil to fill them. And he criticized federal policy in this country that the major oil firms sell their relatively cheap crude-oil supplies to independent refiners. He said such a policy would tend to discourage import of foreign oil and keep supplies down.

The remarks of Bridges could just as easily have been voiced six months ago in the midst of the shortages in this country. Nothing has changed.

Except for objections from Saudi Arabian officials and maybe some others, the oil giants still want to play with oil supplies to keep prices high. The reluctance of American firms to build more refineries has been blamed in the past on a desire to have more oil refined abroad, where it’s done more cheaply. At the same time, oil officials can complain that supplies are short in part because of a lack of refining capacity.

———

Pendleton mobile home park operators are balking at a proposal for a city-owned mobile home park.

The proposal is expected to be discussed at the July 16 city council meeting.

Representatives of the Umatilla chapter of the Oregon Mobile Home Park Association met with members of the airport commission and the chamber of commerce July 1 to oppose the city park. The municipal facility would be located on city airport property and is termed a “model park” by city developers because of large lots and landscaping.

But private park owners say the city park is not needed. There are enough spaces for mobile homes in Pendleton, the private operators say.

“We do not believe the city of Pendleton should build and operate a mobile home park in competition with private enterprise,” the park owners argued in a letter sent to the city airport commission.

“We feel that any further effort by the city of Pendleton to continue with this proposed mobile home park would be a flagrant misuse of municipal funds, labor and equipment.”

The city said in a June feasibility study prepared for the city council that the municipal park would not be in competition with private facilities.

“To avoid this problem becoming a reality, it is suggested that a higher renta l than other parks be established. This higher rental could be justified also if the park is developed on the larger lots as planned and the landscaping and other amenities are provided,” the study stated.

100 years ago this week — 1924

The mercury got about as thin in Pendleton today as it was yesterday when the peak of its climb showed a record for the year at the mark of 108 degrees, according to Major Lee Moorhouse. The official reading early this afternoon showed 105.

Notwithstanding the thermometer’s story is about the same as yesterday’s, Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton and sons and daughters were on the whole not so uncomfortable as they were on Monday. The chief difference was that yesterday’s hot wind has cooled off a bit today.

Some damage is thought to have been done to crops by the hot wind yesterday. Some winter wheat that was a trifle slow in ripening may have been shriveled, farmers said today, and spring wheat is thought to have been hurt. The sky was overcast for a time, but later the sky became clear, and indications of a rain to bring relief faded away.

A year ago Pendleton’s maximum was 100.

———

Harvesting of wheat will be earlier in Umatilla county this year than for many years, according to reports made by farmers. A great many fields around Weston are ripe enough to harvest now, and the Athena belt will be earlier than usual.

Earl Thompson started his outfit southeast of Pendleton yesterday. He is getting a fairly good yield and the quality of his wheat is excellent, he declared. Ordinarily harvest in the section where Mr. Thompson farms does not start until about the middle of July.

Harold Maloney said today that he expects to start by July 11 or 12. The earliest starting date for the Maloney place was July 17, and the latest, July 27, he said, so that the crop will probably be ready to thresh about a week earlier this year than ever before.

About one-third of the crews in the west end of the county are reported to be at work now. The hot weather that has prevailed since Sunday and the hot winds that prevailed on Monday have hastened the ripening of the crop materially.

———

Heavy damage was caused to an old landmark of Pendleton this morning by fire that burned for little more than one out on the old Faling building at the corner of Main and Water streets. The extent of the damage has not been estimated, but the upper part of the building was badly burned.

The fire is said by Fire Chief Ringold to have started in the back part of the cream station. It spread rapidly through the dry structure, was sucked into the attics of both sections of the building, and for a time threatened to get beyond control. Only fast work on the part of the fire department’s workers kept the flames under control.

The building is now owned by the First Church of Christ, Scientist. The north room was occupied by a cream and milk station. The south room has been vacant for several weeks but there was furniture stored in the vacant side.

This is the second blaze in the structure within less than one year, and a big crowd congregated this morning to see the might made against it. A heavy volume of smoke poured out of the building and hot into adjacent buildings. For a time the wind from the west threatened to cause a general fire.

The alarm was given at 9 o’clock and the fire department had the blaze out shortly after 10.