100 YEARS AGO

Sept. 26, 1920

Lettie, the far-famed Round-Up buffalo, is wild no longer. She wears a ribbon on her horn and eats from the hand of Miss Helen Irving, Los Angeles girl who is a Pendleton visitor. Miss Irving, who has for many years been in the movies, became interested in the buffalo and began efforts to tame her. Using kindness and tact, Miss Irving soon trained Lettie to come when called and to do simple tricks. This is Miss Irving’s first experience training wild animals. She thinks her next pupil will be Sharkey, the Round-Up bull, for he already has shown signs of repentance and Miss Irving believes he can be coaxed from his wild and wooly ways.

50 YEARS AGO

Sept. 26, 1970

It isn’t summer yet in Australia, so Joe Allison decided not to return there immediately after Round-Up. He has been the guest of Duff Severe during his stay in Pendleton, and this was not his first Round-Up. His home is in the state of Victoria, in the southern part of the continent near Melbourne. He lives on a 10-acre place where he raises horses. Lately his interest has been focused on quarter horses, which are very popular in Australia now. “Last year one stud sold for $20,000,” he said. He said Jimmy Dix, an Australian who was a judge at the Round-Up, has bought an Appaloosa stud and a quarter horse stud to take back to Australia. Allison will be taking home his third Severe Brothers saddle. He said he had heard about their saddles before he ever came to Pendleton.

25 YEARS AGO

Sept. 26, 1995

The residents of Meacham joke that their sparsely populated mountain village is a refuge for oddballs, thieves and outlaws. Really it’s just a place for hardscrabble folks who don’t mind dressing in layers. A mere half hour’s drive away in Pendleton, memories of a hot, dusty Round-Up aren’t yet two weeks old, but up here in the thin, crisp air there is foreshadowing of the sort of mind-numbing cold that comes every winter. It’s only a few days into autumn and the mercury has already made several trips into the 20s. Meacham has achieved the dubious honor of recording the nation’s overnight low seven times in the last two months. For residents, it helps to have a sense of humor and be of hearty stock. Nearly everyone who lives here has some sort of cold weather story to tell. Like how it got to 52 below last January, and how one time it took 45 minutes to boil water.