100 years ago — 1922

Beginning Friday morning a branch office of the Oregon Tourists’ and information bureau for Eastern Oregon will be established here. The office will be on the first floor of the Elks building and will be in the charge of Miss Mellie Parker, assistant to Secretary C. I. Barr of the Pendleton Commercial Association. The property of the old Eastern Oregon Auto club has been taken over by the new office, and will be used in giving service. Maps and folders will be used for the accommodation of tourists and local people. Information on the condition of roads will be kept in as up-to-date a manner as possible, and this service will be strengthened by the practice of cooperation with other similar organizations. The room has been appropriately decorated with pictures, etc., in preparation for its opening.

50 years ago — 1972

The Hermiston plant of Mayflower Farms that has been processing half a million pounds of milk a week is closing its processing plant, and the plant will be used as a depot for Darigold Products, manager Herman Plass announced this week. Plass, who has managed the plant since 1941, will retire the first of the month, and Ben Coombes, 15-year employee, will manage the plant. The plant employs 17 people. Under the depot executives are studying the possibility of converting the plant into a cheddar cheese operation. Plass says he can see a much larger dairy farm development in this region because of the increasing availability of feed. Eventually most of the state’s dairying will be carried on in the Hermiston and Tillamook County area, Plass said.

25 years ago — 1997

Kenn Evans calls the Boer the beef goat. He believes the Boer will do for the goat industry what the Charolais did for the cattle industry: put a tremendous amount of size into the animals. And that means more money to the producer. With some Boer pumped into the bloodline, kids at weaning age will weigh from 10 to 12 pounds more, bringing another $15 per kid back to the producer. But here’s the best part, Evans says: The market for goat meat is already established. And with the increase in the Northwest’s Hispanic and ethnic populations, it can only grow. Evans maintains about 150 head of Boers and sells everything he produces, meat animals and breeding stock, right off his ranch, Elite Boer Goats. He’s getting about $1.25 a pound live weight, less than the prices of the late 1980s and early 1990s when the first Boers came into this country from South Africa. “The whole thing boils down to one simple fact: The Boer goat industry is based on meat goat prices. With the meat market getting stronger every day, Boer goat demand is going to increase.”