100 years ago — 1922

When it comes to lawlessness, men are usually given credit with being the worst offenders, but R. E. Turner, city traffic officer, says that he has a lot more trouble with members of the fair sex refusing to observe the signals than with men. “Conditions are better than they were, but there are some drivers who fail to make the arm signals at intersections,” Turner said today, “and from now on, those who fail to observe the regulations will make all excuses to the police judge. It might be interesting to the public to know that a state traffic officer will make his headquarters in Pendleton during the summer. He arrived yesterday. Observance of traffic laws undoubtedly will be good practice in the future.”

50 years ago — 1972

You never know where a litter bug will pop up. A spokesman for the Umatilla County Health Department told the Umatilla County Court on Wednesday that the Oregon State Parks Division has illegally dumped refuse at the closed Ukiah dump. The dump has been closed for more than a year. He also said that the Oregon Highway Department is burning roadside refuse illegally in a state gravel pit near Hermiston instead of hauling the refuse to an approved landfill. The county court told the health department spokesman, Evan Dillon, county sanitarian, to find out why. He said the U.S. Forest Service “has cooperated beautifully” with rules set out by the county’s new solid waste control ordinance. Dillon said the refuse dumped at the old Ukiah dump on the Log Springs road south of Battle Mountain came from Battle Mountain State Park. “And Hat Rock State Park is trying to dispose of its own refuse” instead of hauling it to the Hermiston area landfill a few miles away, Dillon said. Harry Oswald, Pendleton, district engineer for the highway department, said the open pit burning had been sanctioned by a state agency but he didn’t know which one.

25 years ago — 1997

Dirt is beginning to move on land south of Hermiston Foods. What has been a circle of irrigated farm land is on its way to becoming Hermiston’s largest private industrial development of the 1990s — the Wal-Mart Regional Distribution Center. The distribution center will employ 400 when it opens, probably at the end of this year. Within three years, between 100 and 200 more employees will be added. It will furnish goods to Wal-Mart retail outlets throughout the Northwest, Intermountain West and Alaska.