25 years ago this week — 1999

UMATILLA — An evening jaunt in his cabin cruiser has turned into a logistical nightmare for an Irrigon man.

Ken Anderson was slowly checking out the water below McNary Dam in his 25-foot Starcraft at about 7 p.m. when he felt the boat hit some underwater rocks. He eased up on the throttle, but the heavy boat continued on and jammed itself on the rocks.

Now Anderson is looking for help. Dislodging the 20-year-old boat, which he guessed weighed more than 3,000 pounds when dry, will likely require a large crane. He said some companies in Portland could help him, but Anderson, who is disabled, can’t afford their fees.

“What I need is somebody to help me,” Anderson said Wednesday. Anderson requested that people with ideas contact the Umatilla Marina Park and leave a message for him there.

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HERMISTON — A 17-year-old bank robbery suspect panicked and cried out for help after accidentally locking himself in the trunk of a car following the robbery Friday afternoon at U.S. Bank.

Lucas Winters, reportedly a runaway from Klamath Falls, was taken into custody by Officer Daryl Jonson of the Hermiston Police Department at about 2:50 Friday afternoon. Johnson was one of the many officers from area police agencies who responded to a robbery call at the bank on Second and Newport streets, shortly after 2 p.m.

Winters allegedly entered the bank and handed the teller a note, demanding cash. The youth then is alleged to have fled the bank on foot with an undisclosed sum of money. Roberts said it was unknown whether Winters was armed at the time of the robbery.

Hermiston Police Lt. Jerry Roberts said officers were searching for the suspect in two directions based on eye-witness reports of the robbery.

Johnson was searching a parking lot at Third and Hurlburt streets, a block east of U.S. Bank, when he heard cries for help and pounding from the trunk of a car.

“We don’t know if he (the suspect) was hiding in the trunk or if he was changing clothes when he accidentally locked himself in,” Roberts said.

What was apparent is that Winters panicked while he was trapped in the trunk, according to police. Temperatures in Hermiston reached a high of 98 degrees Friday. Officials with the National Weather Service said temperatures inside an unprotected car would easily have reached 120 degrees.

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The Pendleton City Council will consider a new ordinance that requires landowners to clean up or rebuild property after it is destroyed or otherwise becomes unsafe.

The ordinance would declare certain structures public nuisances if they are damaged in whole or in part by fire, floods, earthquakes or other causes. Property owners will be required to take action to fix the property.

The council first will consider the ordinance at the regularly scheduled meeting Sept. 7. A second reading and possible adoption will take place at the Sept. 21 City Council meeting. If approved Sept. 21, the ordinance would go into effect 30 days later.

The ordinance is in response to several fires over the years that destroyed structures that still have not been repaired. City Attorney Pete Wells cited the Silver Saddle and 99 Cent Store as two examples of businesses that have been destroyed by fire in which the property owners have so far refused to fix the buildings.

He called both buildings eye-sores because they have not been returned to an economically healthy status.

Under the proposed ordinance, property owners whose structures sustain devastating damage have 120 days from the date of the damage to either begin rebuilding, or to level and landscape the property to be “made safe.”

50 years ago this week — 1974

When Umatilla County Judge James Sturgis decided more than two decades ago that Umatilla County should see to the building of a bridge across the Columbia River at Umatilla, “I got no encouragement from anybody. They all said I was crazy,” Sturgus says, and the bridge picked up a label, “Sturgis’s Folly.”

Today, with more than 10 million vehicles logged across the bridge and the bonds paid off years ahead of schedule, Sturgis has the last laugh.

Sturgis, 85, Pendleton, and his wife, Nell, are expected to be on hand at the bridge at 8 a.m. Friday when the last toll is collected. The bridge becomes toll free and by the end of the year will be transferred to the State Highway Division.

“There’s not a penny of government money in that bridge.” It’s a hell of an example of free enterprise,” Sturgis says.

Sturgus, county judge from 1947 through 1955 says that about 1950 he heard that a Columbia River Bridge was being built at The Dalles, “and I decided, why shouldn’t we have a bridge too?”

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Congratulations and praise were the order of the day at dedication ceremonies for Harris Park, Umatilla County’s first county park.

The 30 persons who attended the dedication picnic included county officials, members of the county parks and recreation commission and their families. Special guests were Mable Harris and Charles Nagele, president of Harris Pine Mills.

Mrs. Harris gave the county her riverfront country house for use as caretaker’s home at the park site 15 miles east of Milton-Freewater along the South Fork of the Walla Walla River.

“I’m sure my late husband (C.H. Harris) would appreciate all this,” Mrs. Harris said. “He loved the old Walla Walla River and spent many hours fishing it.”

The park was started in 1968, the same year the county parks commission was formed. A 47-acre tract of land was donated to the county that year by the Walla Walla Rotary Club.

Since that time the county has received the Harris home and property and additional property from the Bessie DeMaris family of Milton-Freewater.

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One of the toughest cowboys ever to compete in a rodeo, a former president of the Pendleton Round-Up and a blue roan have been elected to the Round-Up Hall of Fame.

Bob Crosby, who won many titles at the big Pendleton show; William Switzler, who was president of the Round-Up in 1939 and 1940 at the time of his death; and Blue Blazes, a spectacular bucker, were announced today as the 1974 selections by Hall of Fame chairman Les King, Helix.

They will be honored during the Sept. 12 performance of the Round-Up.

Crosby, though tough as rawhide in the arena, was nicknamed “The Deacon” and sometimes referred to by other cowboys as “Preacher Bob” because he always attended church on Sunday wherever he was performing.

He competed at the Round-Up from 1925 through 1936, except in 1930 and 1931 when he was injured. It had to be a severe injury to keep him from competition, because there were times he performed with badly broken limbs.

Crosby, from Kenna, N.M., won calf roping in 1928 and 1932, steer roping in 1927, 1933 and 1934, the Roosevelt Trophy three times for permanent possession, the Police Gazette Belt in 1927 and the Hamley & Co. Belt in 1928 and 1934.

100 years ago this week — 1924

The ole swimmin’ hole, picnics that require the whole of a week day and sundry other pleasures enjoyed by youth will be relegated to the background after Tuesday (September 2) because on that date the schools of Pendleton will resume their work for the school year of 1924-1925.

Teachers will begin their labors a day earlier, even though Monday is a holiday and Labor Day, and pupils will join their preceptors the day following.

Pupils in the high school who have not already registered may do so at any time this week, according to a statement from Supt. H. E. Inlow. Principal Austin Landreth will be in his office in the high school building every day this week and during the evening Saturday to aid students in registering.

In the high school Tuesday morning will be given over to completing the registration of pupils and assignment to classes, Mr. Inlow said. Class work will start in the afternoon session. In the grade schools, work will start Tuesday morning.

In the Lincoln, Hawthorne and Washington schools, eight grades will be accommodated again this year. Due to a falling off of attendance at the Field school, only two grades, the first and second, will be conducted there this year. Pupils in the third grade were taught in the Field building last year.

Three bus lines, more than ever been operated before, will carry children to the city schools this year. The buses will come from Riverside, Rieth and McKay dam. This is the first year that such conveyance has been furnished from the camp at the dam.

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It’s a holiday for everybody today, for the largest wild animal circus in the world is in town.

Thousands have come to see the great show unload from the long line of circus cars and coaches. And what a sight it is! Picturesque glistening trappings; 1200 wild educated animals from every jungle under the sun; hundreds of pretty girls from “sunkist” California; an equal number of fair equestrians with over a hundred handsome, gold-colored dancing horses; great steel-lunged calliopes, and three tribes of full-blooded American Indians from Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

Amid the trumpeting of elephants, roaring of lions, shrill cries of smaller wild animals and the stinging and chattering of various colored birds and monkeys of every species, the big show steamed into the city at dawn. The tumult increased in volume as the train came to a stop and the circus folk, 1080 of them, included performers, officials and workmen, began unloading equipment and animals.

Soon the huge, white billowy canvas circus tops began rising, silhouetted against the skyline at Tutuilla and Alta Street show grounds, and the Al G. Barnes greatest wild animal circus on earth hung out its “at home” card.

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While a guest of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce of Seattle Friday on the inspection trip to Sand Point in honor of the Honorable Curtis D. Wilbur, secretary of the U.S. Navy, Arthur S. Rudd, field man of the Round-Up was given an opportunity to extend an official invitation to the distinguished Naval chief and to Mayor Edwin J. Brown of Seattle.

Both gentlemen expressed interest in the show and sent best wishes to the civic organizations of Pendleton. Mayor Brown told the visitor from Pendleton that it is highly probable that he and Mrs. Brown will attend this year’s Round-Up.

One of the most definite results of the traveling Round-Up man’s work came to light Thursday night a few minutes after Mr. Rudd addressed a joint meeting of the Sales Association of Seattle, the Pacific Northwest Products Committee and the Wholesalers, Manufactures and Bankers Committee of Seattle. Mr. Rudd’s remarks were followed by expressions of good will toward Pendleton from representatives of each organization at the banquet and finally Mr. A B. Galloway, prominent Seattle business man, moved that special train may be agitated for by the group there assembled. Great applause greeted this motion and work is now going ahead to organize such a train.