25 years ago this week — 1999

CASCADE LOCKS (AP) — He only has nine days to do it, but if things go right for Clifford Shippentower, he’ll make half his annual income during the 1999 tribal salmon season hauling in fat fall chinook and steelhead.

The season opened Tuesday and Shippentower, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, hopes to pull 500 pounds of fish a day from the river and sell it at $2 a pound, working 18 hours a day.

His hoped-for $9,000 gross will be smaller if he can’t move everything he catches and has to sell to wholesale fish markets at less than a third of the road-side price.

“Chinook are key,” Shippentower said, removing his morning catch from the 25-foot-diameter dip net hanging from a rickety wood walkway suspended over the river.

Daylight hours will be spent checking dip nets not suspended from three specially constructed fishing platforms and nine 400-foot-long gill nets suspended at strategic locations in the river. Nights will be spent tending a drift net on the open river.

“When the fish are here, you’ve got to make the money,” Shippentower said. “You drink a lot of coffee.”

Shippentower is one of 200 to 300 tribal fishermen on the Columbia River exercising fishing rights under 1855 treaties with the U.S. government.

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HERMISTON — Workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot want the public to understand one thing: The facility is awash with safety precautions.

The depot, which stores about 23 percent of the nation’s chemical weapons, is soon going to shift roles. Where it previously stored chemical munitions, it now is making preparations to rid the nation of them.

Or, as employees say, precautions to safely rid the nation of the weapons.

About 1,250 people are working on the weapons incinerator complex. Only 190 civilians are employed to maintain the storage areas for the chemical munitions.

To destroy the munitions, the chemical weapons like M55 rockets and ton containers of mustard will be transported from the group of bunkers known as “K Block” to the incinerator.

But safety has been an issue before the incinerator was even dreamed of, officials say.

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PENDLETON — When time stood still at the Umatilla County Courthouse this spring people noticed.

And no, it wasn’t during one of those long, drawn-out commissioner meetings that time ceased. Time came to a grinding stop outside, under the graceful brick arches of the county’s clock tower.

“The county commissioners received several inquiries over the summer regarding the status of the old Seth Thimas clock housed in the courthouse’s clock tower,” said Emile Holeman, chairman of the board of commissioners.

“Earlier this summer the clock began to develop age problems, due to wear in the mechanism.”

When the clock stopped, the county called a local master clocksmith who examined the clock and determined that a number of the parts of the clock were worn out.

“Rather than allow possible further damage to occur, the clock was taken out of service and the weights were removed,” Holeman said. “Replacement gears and other parts had to be precision machines, because there are few sources of spare parts for this rare antique clock.”

The clock has been a part of Pendleton history for over 110 years.

50 years ago this week — 1974

Cowboys will not strike the Pendleton Round-Up, Rodeo Cowboys Association officials said over the weekend. The nation’s first rodeo strike since 1938 had been threatened Friday against the Sept. 11-14 show.

But Bob Ragsdale, president of the RCA, and Dave Stour, secretary-treasurer for the association, headquartered at Denver, said the RCA would honor its contract with the Round-Up.

Ragsdale said Sunday at Ellensburg, Wash., where the annual Ellensburg rodeo was under way, that a compromise has been reached.

He said Round-Up officials had promised to discuss a higher purse with the RCA for the 1975 Round-Up. The movement for the wildcat strike was over purse money. Some cowboys complained that the $15,guaranteed purse offered by the Round-Up was not enough.

Ragsdale said costs to cowboys have spiraled in the last 18 months and that the cowboys must share in greater percentage of gross receipts in order to meet the expenses of the professional rodeo tour.

But, said Ragsdale, the rodeo cowboys were committed to Pendleton this year, and discussions will be about the 1975 show.

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Pendleton Round-Up dans understandably may be confused by the boycott that was threatened by some cowboys over the amount of prize money they receive.

The threatened strike of the Round-Up was called off when it was determined a contract between the Round-Up Association and the Rodeo Cowboys Association for the 1974 could not be negotiated.

“The Round-Up claims it’s a big time show but it’s small potatoes when it comes to prize money,” said Mike Ring of Toppenish, Wash., who was active in meetings at which a strike was discussed.

But figures don’t coincide with that statement.

The Round-Up, which this year offers a guaranteed $15,425 purse without entry fees included, was ranked 13th nationally in purse money and 12th in payoff money last year. Total prize money at the Round-Up last year was about $41,000.

Ring says the Calgary Stampede gives $16,000 per event and Cheyenne and Denver $8,000 for each event. Pendleton this year has a purse of $2,400 for each of the six major events. Pendleton is a four-afternoon show, Calgary has 10 performances, and Cheyenne and Denver have more performances than Pendleton.

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A fair, a parade and a festival are among weekend events scheduled in this region.

The Gilliam County Fair at Condon got under way Thursday and continues through SUnday. Jackpot rodeo performances will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dances are scheduled tonight and Saturday night.

The Dress-Up Parade, which signals the beginning of Round-Up week in Pendleton, will be at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Wes Gronemyer and Dale Ingle, parade co-chairmen, said 88 entries – 30 more than last year – had been received by Thursday and more were expected.

The annual Harvest Festival is being held at Boardman. Many activities, including boat races, are scheduled.

The first football game in the area this season will be tonight at Pendleton when the Buckaroos face Caldwell, Idaho.

Outdoorsmen will be in the Blue Mountains hunting blue and ruffed grouse, and archers will be pursuing deer and elk in designated hunting areas. A few dove hunters are expected to be afield, and some hunters will drive to Malheur and Harney counties to take part in a two-day hunt for sage grouse.

100 years ago this week — 1924

The long expected visit to Pendleton of Dr. Walter H. Brown, commonwealth fund representative of the American Child Health association, was made last Saturday. The visit to Umatilla county is nearly the last in a series of twenty-two communities applying for the five year health demonstration, which the physician has inspected. Dr. and Mrs. Brown were greeted upon their arrival here by Rev. G. L. Clark, N. D. Swearingen, Mrs. Fred Donert, Miss Purcelle Peck, and Miss Margery Mulheron. In order to study the social service and health work in this community, Dr. Brown interviewed, in the morning, Miss Purcelle Peck, local Red Cross secretary, George L. Clark, juvenile officer, and Miss Margery Mulheron, public health nurse, and several physicians. He also interviewed H. E. Inlow, city superintendent of schools, who escorted the doctor on a tour of inspection of the local schools.

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Local people who have Round-Up tickets reserved at the booth with a request that they be held until called for mist pay for the pasteboards within 48 hours, or they will be taken out of the reservation enveloped and put back on general sale. This statement was made today by George Baer.

The plan of holding tickets only 48 hours was initiated last year, and local people were slow in some cases to observe the rile. Some of them were disappointed when they found that their tickets had been sold.

“We want everyone to have an opportunity to pay for their tickets on this plan, but if they fail, they must expect to be disappointed. The demand for tickets is keen, and it is unfair to reserve tickets that have not been paid for when others are waiting to pay cash for them,” Mr. Baer said.

Accommodation headquarters have been opened in the room on Main street in the Bowman building, formerly occupied by Gillanders & Boroughs. The telephone number in the office is 1010, and those having rooms to list or who are seeking accommodations should call the office.

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To the Citizens of Pendleton:

Within the next two weeks the fifteenth annual presentation of our Round-Up will be staged in Pendleton to perhaps the largest crowd in the history of our big frontier show. Pendleton through this annual event of ours, has become nationally known, and our visitors this year will include representatives of practically every state in the Union.

In view of the growing national importance of the Round-Up, it behooves us as good citizens to maintain our reputation for hospitality. The first impression gained by a visitor is usually the most lasting one and for that reason we feel that no effort should be spared by the citizens of Pendleton in making our town as attractive as possible.

We respectfully urge that all merchandising establishments, owners of buildings and fraternal organizations decorate their places of business in a most attractive manner. It has been suggested that if the residents of West Court and West Alta streets would make some arrangements for small decorations, if nothing more than a display of flags, it would greatly add to the holiday appearance.