25 years ago this week — 1999

A group of local residents wants to create a “virtual museum” that remembers Umatilla in the days before the McNary Dam.

A small group gathered Thursday at a workshop to start creating a web site of local history. The group is part of a larger project focusing on the effects on the Umatilla area following the construction of the John Day and McNary dams. Conversations bounced between those who have seen the changes and those who have only read about them. The McNary Dam was completed in 1957 and John Day was finished in 1971.

The Columbia Communities project is being headed by Donna Sinclair, a Portland State University graduate student. She hopes to have a web site on Umatilla established, if not finished, by May.

However, she said creating the web sites is a slow process. “There are a lot of little quirks that go into creating a web site … especially when we’re historians, not technicians,” she joked.

She didn’t refer to the project as a web site, but rather a “virtual exhibit,” a museum without walls. The current model, using Moses Lake, Wash., includes text, photographs and audio clips from residents of all ages.

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Having coped with wild fires last fall and dust storms this winter, emergency personnel might do well to prepare for pestilence this spring. After all, preparation has been the key to successfully combating nature’s fur for local police and fire departments.

However, the dust storm that shut down Interstate 84 for five hours on a recent Saturday taxed emergency personnel throughout Umatilla Country to the limit.

Cpl. Stuart Roberts was patrol supervisor for the Pendleton Police Department Feb. 6 when the first storm call came in around 11:30 a.m.

“It was the busiest Saturday I’ve experienced in the five years I’ve worked here,” Roberts said. “All the calls were coming down at once. It seemed like it would never end.”

Referring to the dispatcher’s job as typical “high stress,” Roberts, who helped the dispatcher that Saturday, described the afternoon as “total chaos.”

Hermiston police chief Andy Anderson said Hermiston was swamped with calls during the wind storm, but the situation was nothing unusual.

“People call us all the time for all sorts of things,” Anderson said. “There is really nothing we can do to stop it. People end up calling us first to see who they should call.”

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A north-south freeway in Eastern Oregon linking Interstate 82 near Umatilla with Klamath Falls and the California border may be more than a mirage if a coalition of rural and urban legislators get their way.

After two legislative sessions loaded with rhetoric about the need to share some of the Willamette Valley’s high tech jobs, economic prosperity and growth with rural areas of the state, it took a west side lawmaker, Rep. Jerry Krummel, R-Wilsonville, to put two and two together and come up with House Bill 2692.

He said the measure simply takes the first step toward planning for a north-south freeway in Eastern Oregon by directing the Oregon Department of Transportation to begin a feasibility study and planning for extension of Interstate-82 from Umatilla to the California border.

With Reps. Bob Jenson, I-Pendleton; Lynn Lundquist, R-Powell Butte; Ben Westlund, R-Bend; Tom Butler, R-Ontario; and Mark Simmons, R-Elgin; signed on as co-sponsors, Krummel said the measure is picking up support even though it hasn’t been scheduled for a legislative hearing yet.

50 years ago this week — 1974

A fund for 9-year-old Michaele Boylen, Pendleton, who underwent a bone marrow transplant at Seattle Friday, has grown to $14,800. There was no major change in the condition of the girl. Who responded well to the transplant.

Among contributions to the fund was $10 sent by Milton-Freewater students.

“This money is sent by Mrs. Iverson’s sixth grade homeroom at Central School,” We are given this money to the Michaele Boylen Fund. We decided to do something nice for somebody else instead of having a Valentine’s party. We hope this money could help her with her bone disease.”

Michaele, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Boylen, has been at the Adult Leukemia Research Center in Providence Hospital at Seattle since Nov. 8.

Aplastic anemia, which the girl has, afflicts one in 10,000 people.

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Jack Edward Leach, 31, Milton-Freeater, pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of manslaughter in the shooting death of Robert Lee Kidd, 44.

Umatilla County Circuit Judge Henry Kaye sentenced Leach to a maximum term of 10 years in the custody of the State Corrections Division.

Leach had been charged with murder. Kiss was shot four times — twice in the head and twice in the torso — with a high-powered rifle, during the deer season last October near Tollgate.

Leach admitted before Judge Kaye Thursday that he had killed Kidd. Leach said he had shot a calf, then had second thoughts.

Leach said that about this time Kidd came out of the woods and accused him of killing the calf. An argument ensued.

“He kept giving me a bad time,” Leach said. He said he feared Kidd was going to shoot him. So Leach pulled the trigger of his rifle “by reflex action.”

Leach said he had no recollection of other shots being fired. He said the next thing he remembers, he found himself running through the woods about a half-mile away, carrying two rifles.

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The State Office of Energy Conservation and Allocation said at Salem today that two Umatilla County communities are among the 123 in Oregon that will share in the second allocation of 3.4 million gallons of gasoline this week.

Pendleton will receive 17,000 gallons and Umatilla will get 4,200.

Oil companies have been directed by the federal government to provide 6.8 million gallons of additional gasoline during February. The second allocation of 3.4 million gallons was announced Friday.

Jan Monroe of the State Energy Office was asked why Hermiston, Milton-Freewater, Stanfield, Heppner, Arlington and Condon did not share in the second allocation.

He said the needs of the other communities had been shown to be “significantly greater.” He said they possibly would share in the next month’s allocation if additional need were shown.

Devid Piper, director of the State Energy Office, sent telegrams Sunday to 16 oil companies advising them how the new allocation should be distributed.

100 years ago this week — 1924

With the championship of independent basketball teams of eastern Oregon at stake, the Helix Wheat Buckers expect to fight to the last men tomorrow night for a victory over the La Grande American Legion five when the Union county aggregation comes to Helix for a return game.

The teams played recently at la Grande and the la Grande team nosed out a victory by a score of 32 to 29. Newspaper accounts of the game published in La Grande created the impression in the minds of the Helix players that the Union county sportsmen did not take Helix very seriously as a basketball center. The result is that Helix will be out 100 per cent to try to make things interesting for the visitors.

The Helix team narrowly escaped a beating last night at Adams in a league game played there. The final score was 34 to 32, but during the second half the score see-sawed constantly with the first one team and then the other in the lead.

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After emerging from a winter feeding period that has been extremely favorable to them, with the lambing season far enough advanced that they seem assured of at least a normal crop of lambs with excellent chances that the crop will be heavier and better than normal, sheep men of eastern Oregon are permitting themselves to think about wool sales.

As far as is known no sales have been made in this part of the state, though wool growers and buyers have been paying a bit more attention to each other of late. The buyers, according to some well authenticated reports, are willing to start purchasing, but their sense of values does not coincide with what the sellers think they should have.

The statistical position of wool is admittedly very strong. The buyers admit that without quibbling, but they point out that sales of woolen goods have been slow during the mild winter, and they are taking the attitude that wool will not bring the price that its statistical position would seem to indicate.

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Raymond. W. Hatch, who for the past 10 years has engaged in architecture in Pendleton is leaving to reside in Portland. Mr. Hatch will leave tonight to make preliminary arrangements and he and Mrs. Hatch will shortly go to Portland to reside permanently.

Mr. Hatch, who came to Pendleton to act as architect for the building of Hotel Pendleton, was formerly engaged in architecture in Portland. During his residence here he has been the architect for number of important projects, among them the McLaughlin high school at Milton, the schools at Stanfield, Helix, Echo and Adam, the Milton library, the Milton Ice & Storage Co., the Bank of Echo, the Kern garage at Hermiston, the Inland Empire Bank and the Economy Drug Co., in Pendleton, and was associated with other architects in the building of the Athena school and the Umatilla county library here. Among the many local residences for which he was architect are those owned by L. L. Rogers, G. M. Rice and those formerly owned by Lyman Rice and Roland Oliver.