100 years ago — 1922

The disbursement of fifteen million dollars, most of which will be paid out in Oregon and Washington during 1922, is one of the encouraging signs of returning prosperity. The Union Pacific System is to add largely to its equipment, to relay portions of its track with rails of greater weight, to ballast anew its roadbed, to replace wooden bridges with structures of steel, and construct a steel bridge across the Columbia River between Walla Walla and Kennewick, this one project to cost $1,500,000. An order for 4,500 new freight cars, to cost $10,000,000, and for 2,500 refrigerator cars at a cost of $8,750,000 was made public several weeks ago. Most of these millions will be expended in Oregon and Washington. The money paid for materials and labor will be put into general circulation. Service will be increased, labor in demand and business conditions improved by the millions to be spent by the great transcontinental railroad.

50 years — 1972

The Pendleton City Council decided Tuesday to appeal the city’s airport tax case to the Oregon Supreme Court. The Oregon Court of Appeals on March 23 affirmed a ruling of the Umatilla County Circuit Court that the city must pay property taxes on airport property leased to private individuals or businesses. The city had claimed the property was exempt because all the income went back into the operation of the airport. As of Jan. 1, the city owes Umatilla County more than $87,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest on the property. City Attorney John Walker said there are no precedents in the case. The motion to appeal by Councilman L. J. Feves was approved unanimously.

25 years ago — 1997

Thanks to a boost from a few humans, a great horned owl was reunited Wednesday with his three siblings in a cozy nest about 45 feet above the ground. The young bird was a victim of Sunday’s brief but ferocious wind storm that whipped through the region. The youngster was apparently blown from the nest high in a tree next to the home of Paul Daniello, who lives two miles past Holdman on Highway 37. Daniello spotted “a little fluffy thing” lying in his yard. It turned out to be a great horned owl with an injured eye. He called Lynn Tompkins, director of the Blue Mountain Raptor Rehabilitators in Pilot Rock. The owl’s scratched eye was treated by Pendleton veterinarian Dave Bowman. After a couple of days of rehabilitation, Tompkins, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, decided the owl was ready to return to the nest. That tricky maneuver was made possible by the Umatilla Electric Cooperative, which sent journeyman lineman John Carter and a large bucket truck to Daniello’s home. The young owl, snug in a kitten travel box, was placed in the bucket and returned to its nest 45 feet up.