100 years ago in the East Oregonian

A hearing before the public service commission of Oregon will be held in the commission’s offices at Portland October 2 to investigate the present charges that the rates in force are too high, according to a notice from the commission on which has been received by City Recorder Thomas Fitz Gerald.

The rates now in effect were established March 1, 1921, according to the information in the complaint. In the notice sent out by the company the statement is made that the passage of 18 months during which period the rates have been in force should be a sufficient time to furnish some idea of whether the charges are just.

Attention is also called to the fact that the recall of two of the commissioners was made on the ground of dissatisfaction with the present rates.

50 years ago in the East Oregonian

The Happy Canyon casino is a noisy place — the click of chips, the rattle of dice, the whisper of the roulette wheel, the snap of the 21 decks, the shouts of winners, the groans of losers.

The gamblings is all in fun and all legal. Participants are limited to a maximum of $10 in chips and all winnings must be exchanged for goods that can be consumed on the premises.

Happy Canyon provides the games for the entertainment of its patrons and not to make money, Happy Canyon officials testified when the Oregon Legislature approved the legislation that allows the games to be conducted.

Viewers of the Happy Canyon pageant are allowed admission to the frontier village’s fun and frolic after the pageant, and others can gain admission by attending the nightly Happy Canyon dances.

25 years ago in the East Oregonian

Event greenhorns can tell it’s Round-Up time if they’re downwind.

And no, not just from the odors emanating from the stalls. Delectable smoke drifts up from dozens of food booths that have sprouted up along Court and Main streets and just inside the rodeo grounds. Together, they cook up a formidable argument for breaking one’s diet, at least for a week.

Want a burger? Pick between basic hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chili burgers, salmon burgers, burgers smothered with grilled onions, even Emu burgers.

“It’s going to be the healthy meat of the future,” said emu burger vendor Terry Swann.

“Most people like ‘em. We have to explain to ‘em (what emus are),” he said. “It’s kind of interesting. People think, ‘Oh they’re so cute,’ but pigs are cute. Cows are cute.”

Swann and his wife, Rose, brough their unusual brand of burger to the Round-Up this year for what he called “hopefully, the first of many, many years.”