25 years ago this week — 1999

After seeing the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston and county offices in Pendleton, three visiting emergency management officials from Russia finally got to do what they really wanted: ride a horse.

The Russian trio spent Wednesday touring Morrow and Umatilla counties with representatives of Oregon Emergency Management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and county emergency preparedness programs. They also received a warm reception from Umatilla County leaders during a luncheon at the Pendleton Convention Center.

“We are very pleased they are able to spend a few hours in Umatilla County and we hope their visit here will be beneficial,” Emile Holeman, chairman of the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners, said during a welcome speech.

Lt. Gen. Gennady Korotkin, regional chief for the Russian emergency management agency known as EMERCOM, said he appreciated the “extremely friendly people and magnificent looking farms” he ran into during his visit here.

He hopes the relationship developing between Russia and the United States can expand, Korotkin said, speaking through this interpreter, Jeff Julum of Salem.

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It wasn’t exactly whitewater rafting, but with the Umatilla River running high, Pendleton’s Main Street Bridge rapids added a little excitement as three members of a group studying the river’s water rafted through town Thursday.

The group– the TMDL (Total maximum Daily Load) Committee and related work groups – is developing a water quality management plan for the entire Umatilla River basin. That document will include individual plans for cities within the basin.

Umatilla Basin Watershed Council coordinator Tracy Bosen and watershed council chair Sue Lawrence organized the raft trip to locate and document discharge pipes and other sources of water entering the river in the Pendleton area, as well as irrigation withdrawal pipes. Lawrence is Pendleton’s wastewater treatment plant supervisor. Also along on the trip was John McCullogh, one of the treatment plant operators.

The monitoring trip was made at the direction of the TMDL urban and industrial work group, Bosen said. That work group is helping cities in the river basin to develop individual waterquality management plans as part of the basin-wide project.

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After 87 years of life, the existing Umatilla High School building is about to be put to rest — permanently. This means that the class of 1999 will be the last to graduate from the old high school.

Only a few weeks after the graduates receive their diplomas, the school they nearly lived in for four years will come tumbling down to make way for a new, state-of-the-art high school.

So how does it feel, to be the last class to graduate from the old school?

“It’s kind of weird,” said Stewart Saunders. “I started there my freshman year and I thought (the old school) was pretty good.”

Norberto Garcilazo will be the last of the last — the last student to receive his diploma today. And to leave behind his friends and a building full of memories is understandably intimidating.

“It feels kind of scary,” Norberto said. “I’m going to miss everybody.”

Like others, Norberto said he would likely come visit the new school to see what it looks like. Some students even though it might be fun to have a chance to use the new school.

However, not everyone was impressed enough by the new school to want to stay. Jennifer Tuel, the class salutatorian, said the imminent destruction of the old high school doesn’t bother her. But, she added, “I’ll come back to see (the new school), I know that.”

The original high school building, known as “The Castle,” was erected in 1912. It was just outside the city limits and served city and farm children.

50 years ago this week— 1974

Eleven persons have died in Oregon in Memorial Day weekend traffic accidents.

Teresa Marie Campo, 21, of Enterprise dies in a freak accident Sunday night on Highway 350 east of Joseph in northeastern Oregon. She was a passenger in a vehicle that was being towed. She was thrown from the car when it struck a tree after the tow chain broke.

Jack Lee Nelson, 33, of Milton-Freewater, drowned Saturday night when the motorcycle he was riding left a forest service trail and plunged into the Imnaha River.

Bary Wesley Thomas, 29, La Grande, died Sunday just west of Wallowa.

Randal B. Stokes, 17, Springfield, was killed Sunday night in downtown Eugene when the car he was in swerved to miss another and hit a post. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Howard Calvin, 53, Meridian, Idaho, died Saturday when his car left a country road 115 miles south of Burns near Andrews. State police said he was thrown from the car.

A car-pickup collision on Oakville Road near Albany Sunday killed two Albany teen-agers.

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Victor Atiyeh, the Oregon Senate’s minority leader in his first state-wide race, has won the Republican nomination for governor in a smaching upset of Secretary of State Clay Myers.

Atiyeh will be matched in November against Robert Straub, former state treasurer, who is making his third try for the governor’s chair.

A few weeks ago, Atiyeh, 51, was unknown outside his home territory of Washington County. A shy, reserved man, he served in the legislature for 15 years and was an authority on taxation and education.

He campaigned much harder than Myers, who became secretary of state eight years ago by appointment to Gov. Tom McCall. He was elected twice and has 31 months left to serve.

Myers, 46, says he lost the election by almost a 2-1 vote because Atiyeh advertised more, because Myers conducted a low profile campaign, and because of the Jack Thompson incident.

Myers fired Thompson, assistant secretary of state in charge of elections, for accepting Voters’ Pamphlet material after the deadline.

A hearing officer for the Public Employes Relations Board has ruled in favor of Myers, however.

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Nobody asked Lee Hemmer, 31, a Del Rio, Wash., wheat farmer, about buying his land or getting an easement for a bombing range corridor. He said in an interview with the East Oregonian this week that he first learned that the Navy’s bombing range might be moved to his community and his land in a newspaper article.

He learned from the article that a meeting was being held that night to discuss locating the bombing range in the Del Rio area of Douglas County. He said he “crashed” the meeting as the president of the county wheat growers’ league.

Publisher Jack Hilson of the Grand Coulee Star says several young farmers in the area might have favored selling or trading their land if an original “inflated” offer came from Portland General Electric Co. or the Navy. To be taken by surprise with the word they might be moved off their land by the Navy, especially in peace time, did not win support among the landowners and other residents of that section of the state.

Hilson isn’t promoting a bombing range for his country, but thinks the half dozen farmers, all in their early 30s, might listen to an offer for their land or a trade for Oregon or Washington land.

100 years ago this week — 1924

The work of 150 pupils of St. Joseph’s Academy, which will with this year’s commencement exercises round out thirty seven years of service and which is the oldest academy in Eastern Oregon, was viewed by scores of people who yesterday and Sunday called at the school building.

The work ranges from that done by the little ones in the first grade, to the seniors who are to be graduated from the high school division on June 6. In the exhibit was shown writing, English composition, music, French exercise, mechanical drawing, may making, physics manuals, grammar, botany, Latin, physiology, history, geometry, arithmetic, painting and needlework. The Palmer method is used by the pupils and their writing is noteworthy. Their work has been made into booklets, with the covers adorned with pen and ink or water color designs, showing graceful lettering.

Teachers’ writing certificated have been awarded by the Palmer company to Myrtle Enbysk, Mary Edith Winter, Helen Bradle and Mary Doherty, Interesting, indeed, were the original melodies written by Myrtle Enbysk and Mary Edith Winter, attractively bound and decorated with pen and ink and water colors.

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The Buckaroos will be in the best condition for a game that they have been for weeks when they clash with the Walla Walla Bears at Round-Up park tomorrow afternoon, according to a statement by Manager Walt Lehman this morning.

Intensive practice all during the week has been the schedule of the outfit, and some of the weak spots are pretty well erased, Lehman thinks. Practically the same lineup that was used last Sunday when the Prune Pickers were met at Milton will face the Bears tomorrow.

The game will be called promptly at 2:45. John Dickson, former player who has done quite a lot of officiating will be the official umps for the contest. Hayes, a husky catcher, who hails from Ontario, is in town and wants a chance at a receiving job. He may be given an opportunity to show his stuff against the Bears for a part of the game.

The La Grande Pirates, league leaders, will be here Sunday to play the Bucks. Tomorrow’s game is an extra and will not count in the season’s percentage column for regular games.

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Clara Trendholm, 17 year old Philomath girl, was killed instantly and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. D. P. Trendholm and two younger sisters were brought to a local hospital with injuries resulting from a train-automobile crash at the LaFayette avenue crossing just outside the city limits last night.

The girl’s head struck a railway danger post when she was thrown from the car driven by her father as it was hit by an inbound Southern Pacific electric train. Clara was in the back seat of the machine with her two sisters, 10 and 15 years old, both of whom suffered painful injuries. Hospital attendants said today that the younger girl’s injuries might prove fatal.

Mrs. Trendholm, riding with her husband in the front seat, was cut with flying class, but her husband’s injuries were slight.

An inquest will be held Saturday Coroner Glen Macy announced. Trendhold declared he neither heard the train whistle nor saw it approaching until it was upon the car. A large signboard, it is said, obstructs the view of the track somewhat.

P. M. Theobald, engineer of the electric train, told the coroner he saw the automobile when it was a quarter of a mile from the track, but thought the driver was slowing up as he neared the crossing and would stop. The car, demolished in the crash, was almost across the track before the impact.