25 years ago this week — 1999

Blue Mountain Nordic Club president Steve Antell went to the Umatilla County Commissioners Wednesday looking for financial support for one of his club’s projects, the Meacham Divide Nordic Ski Area.

He came away with a promise that the commissioners would consider his request.

The cross country area has been developed and run completely by volunteer labor, donations and grants over the past two years, Antell told the commissioners.

“But we need help now. It can’t be run any longer the way it is,” Antell said.

He said that about 900 volunteer hours go into the upkeep of the area every year, including 600 hours of his own time. He said the operation is getting too big for Nordic Club to manage by volunteer efforts alone.

Antell is proposing forming a new non-profit management body called the Meacham Divide Nordic Trails Association and hiring a part-time director. The yearly budget for the area is proposed to be $20,500.

Because the ski area increases tourism and enhances the quality of life in both Umatilla and Union counties, Antell said he is asking both county governments, the Umatilla National Forest Service and the cities of Pendleton and La Grande to donate to the operation of the ski area. He is asking both county governments for $2,500, each city for $1,000, and $2,5000 each from Walla Walla and La Grande offices of the forest services.

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Reality-based education may not be a new concept, but it’s rarely put into practice more successfully than in trades courses that give students skills for crafting useful products.

“The kids told me early on that this class makes more sense than building bird houses,” said Curt Thompson, Pendleton High School’s industrial technology instructor. “The focus of the class is residential construction. We start with a little bit of concrete and work all the way up to shingles.”

Under Thompson’s guidance, 13 Pendleton High School juniors and seniors have built a 16-foot by 24-foot building that will be used to store heavy construction materials, a 16-foot by 28-foot deck, and a number of other modest projects.

The building has a reinforced floor and a passive solar heating system. Built for a homeowner in Rice Addition, the deck was framed in such a way as to provide for a hot tub if the homeowner later decides to install one.

“These guys started with the basics of learning how to pull a nail,” Thompson said. “Now they are setting up the transit level, marking layout and framing floors in. Any one of these guys could go to work for a contractor and do just fine.”

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About 200 area farmers came to the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Station east of Pendleton yesterday looking for ideas and answers as to how to keep doing what they love, while making a living at it.

The annual Oregon State University Extension Service field day is a time to blend the results of the laboratory experiments with the real world of farming. In a time when farmers are struggling to stay financially afloat, there is a special affinity between them and the researchers who are experimenting with new crops and farming methods, to help them meet that goal.

Those who attended the field day were broken into five groups and rotated among six research plots in the morning and six in the afternoon. Researchers at each of the plots shared a wide range of topics from earthworms to plant pathology and barley for brewers.

Soil scientist Stuart Wuest admitted he didn’t know everything there was to know about earthworms, and said there were still a lot of questions as to whether an abundance of earthworms in the soul was a good thing for crops or not.

“We are looking at how different farming systems affect the earthworm population,” Quest said. “One thing that appears to make a difference is tillage. There haven’t been a lot of earthworms to study under conventional tillage, but now with alternative tillage, we’re starting to see more earthworms.”

50 years ago this week — 1974

In all the recent talk about economic development in this region, Pendleton has been mentioned less than Hermiston and Boardman. But economic growth is an important issue to Pendleton, nonetheless.

One of the reasons Pendleton is out of the economic limelight is the dramatic developments that have come in the western section of Umatilla County and in northern Morrow County. Construction of the Johns-Manville plant at Umatilla, the McNary Industrial Park, plans to explain Union Pacific’s facility at Hinkle, studies on the future of the Umatilla Army Depot, nuclear plant construction, the irrigated-farmland revolunation and a food-processing complex at Boardman are among the activities that have made that area so conspicuous.

Pendleton’s growth came more slowly and, therefore, less dramatically. A good deal of Pendleton’s economic strength is as a professional, retail business and governmental center. Additions to a medical staff or opening of a governmental office are not so noticeable as construction of a manufacturing or processing plant. And Pendletonians have been less hungry for economic growth than the faster changing communities to the West.

Pendleton hasn’t been asleep. But it looks laggardly in comparison to what has been happening to the west, and the fact that the city’s population isn’t increasing has worried some business people.

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An architectural firm probably will be chosen at the July meeting of the Pendleton School Board to plan additional elementary classrooms. The board decided Tuesday night that it and members of a long-range planning committee would interview architects at a meeting June 25.

The board was told that recommendations submitted last month by the committee had been found “quite logical and feasible” by the Oregon State Department of Education.

An election on a bond issue for the construction likely will not be until next February. Elementary principal Val Bates, who compiled much of the information for the committee, favored an election in November but admitted that might be too soon.

No action was taken on related studies. A feasibility study of locating the ninth grade in the high school has not been completed, and a feasibility study of remodeling John Murray Junior High had not been digested by board members.

No action was taken, either, on reports and recommendations of two other committees.

Board chairman Mike Boylen said the reports of the classload and disruptive student committees were so comprehensive that he thought they should be more thoroughly studied before action was taken.

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The Pendleton Foundation Trust has announced the recipients of the second half of its 1973 distributable income.

Trust secretary Raley F. Peterson said the money “will immediately be made available” to the recipients.

They are:

Pendleton Community Schools, $396 for the purchase of baseball standard, card table and office equipment.

Blue Mountain Council of Boy Scouts of America, $60 fee for scoutmaster to attend training class.

Rangers of Eastern Oregon, $225 for the purchase of bass baritone horn.

Pendleton Little League, $650 to assist in building of a concrete building.

Vert improvement committee, $529 for electrical installation of new lights.

Helen McCune Junior High School, $550 for purchase of bleachers for gym.

100 years ago this week — 1924

A rush to get lawns mowed and other chores around their homes done before Thursday is on among Pendleton boys between the ages of 10 and 16 years. The reason for the show of industry is that the boys are anxious to have all possible barriers removed that might prevent them from attending the third annual boys’ picnic which is to be held Thursday at Thornhollow under the auspices of the Rotary Club.

Plans are complete for the affair, according to Rev. G. L. Clark, a member of the committee in charge of the event. The picnic during the past two years has always proved one of the red letter days of the year for Pendleton boys, and all indications are that this year’s picnic will be no exception, according to Rev. Clark.

The start will be made from the north gate of the courthouse shortly after 8:30 o’clock Thursday morning. All that the boys are required to bring are bathing suits and heavy coats so they won’t get cold before the return. Contest for prizes have been arranged as a part of the day’s activities. There’ll be lots to eat, too.

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Federation wheat, an Australian variety which has been tried out in Umatilla county for three years, has come to stay.

Weston will probably be one of the very few stations in the Columbia basin where practically the same volume of wheat as was shipped out last year will go to market this year.

About 60 pounds of the club varieties of wheat and about 70 pounds of Federation are the right amount to see to the acre where the seed is treated with copper carbonated as a means of preventing smut.

Too much copper carbonated should not be used in treating seed, because it will cause drill trouble.

The time of seeding should not be changed materially from the old established schedule which has been proved correct for average years over a long period of years.

The foregoing are some of the conclusions drawn by Fred Bennion after the wheat tour made in the county Tuesday. He bases these conclusions on observations made by farmers of the county, by Prof. Hyslop and D. E. Stephens and by himself after visiting the various demonstrations that we included on the tour.

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There are no present day pioneers, and the great movements in which they were a part have become history, according to the declaration made here today by Rev. John H. Secor of Pendleton in the chief address of the day at the second day’s session of the 32nd annual picnic of Umatilla county pioneers. Progress is still being made, and the race will undoubtedly go forward on the foundation erected by the pioneers, he said.

The pioneers who settled this country were inspired by the five cardinal principles, Rev. Secor declared, They were the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Not only did the spirit of adventure prompt the hardy men and women who were the pioneers of the northwest, but they were also moved by the urge of humanity that has always carried peoples into new lands awaiting settlement. The address of Rev. Secor was one of the most eloquent of the pioneers.

About as snappy as a ball game as has been played anywhere in the county this year was offered by the Weston-Athena team and the Mission Indians. The Indians were defeated, but the score was 3 to 1 with both teams offering errorless playing.