25 years ago this week — 1999

Thunderstorms continued to spark dozens of new fires in Central and Eastern Oregon, even as firefighters continue to work on lightning-sparked blazes that erupted earlier in the week.

A fire near Pilot Rock called the Seven Mile fire consumed about 100 acres of grass before being brought under control.

Two other lightning blazes, the Cup Gulch fire and Lincton Mountain fire, south of Walla Walla near the Oregon-Washington line, blackened 75 acres and 50 acres respectively.

Although the majority of those fires were less than a quarter-acre and many were single-tree fires on Wednesday, others were much larger.

Crews scrambled Wednesday to attack a fire burning across 2,000 acres of rangeland near Crump Lake, about 40 miles east of Lakeview.

An additional 26 fires continued to burn in the John Day River drainage. The largest of those, the Flat Creek Fire, grew to 800 acres on steep, wooded rangeland southeast of Dayville. Crews had built a line around 80 percent of the Flat Creek fire by Wednesday morning, said Rod Nichols, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The 216-acre Cache Creek fire in the Mount Washington Wilderness near Santiam Pass was considered 50 percent contained by early Wednesday.

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PENDLETON — THe Umatilla County Commissioners said this week they will consider seeking federal drought relief aid for the county’s farmers once they see some solid numbers on wheat yields throughout the county.

“The Oregon Department of Agriculture is soliciting input from various counties to see how much damage they are suffering as a result of the drought, and specifically to see whether the commissioners will be asking the governor to consider a drought disaster declaration,” said commissioner Dennis Doherty.

Requests for federal disaster relief must start at the county level, with an appeal to the governor. The governor then sends the request to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture within 90 days.

Morrow County commissioners sent a letter to Gov. Kitzhaber last week asking him to request assistance from the federal government. The commissioners told the governor the drought hit about 265,000 acres in the county, causing a 40 to 45 percent loss to the wheat crop.

With wheat harvest about half completed in Umatilla County, the commissioners said they wanted to wait until the harvest was closer to completion, so they would have more basis to file for disaster relief.

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UMATILLA — Hasu Mistry watched this weekend as one customer checked in, entered a room, and then immediately checked out.

Mistry, owner of the Rest-A-Bit Motel, said that customer wasn’t alone in complaining that the rooms stink.

“All my rooms are smelling like we had a fire,” Mistry said Monday. “We have nothing but watery eyes and all sorts of respiratory problems,” he said, a point echoed by desk clerk Shirley Verzani, who said her sinus-induced asthma was hit hard by the smell of smoke from two burn piles behind Umatilla High School.

Mistry said he is one of dozens of neighbors frustrated with the issuance of a special burn permit to a subcontractor at the Umatilla High site. The Friday burn allowed the contractor to destroy wood from the barracks of the old high school, which was recently demolished to make room for the new high school. The new high school. The new high school is still under construction.

Mistry, whose motel is one block north of the high school, said that while the fire burned on Friday, it smoldered over the weekend. He says he has photographs of insulation, rubber and other nonburnable materials being burned in the fire.

50 years ago this week — 1974

All those who sweltered in the afternoon heat at the fair and wished for cooler temperatures got their wish around 8 p.m. Thursday when rain drenched rodeo fans and fairgoers. The OMSI show was forced to leave the stage due to the downpour and other shows were canceled.

The rodeo went on as scheduled with hundreds of fans enduring the wet conditions.

Travis Tarmine and three of his friends were sporting back trash bags as ponchos. He said that he bought the plastic cover from an industrious duo who were selling them for 50 cents apiece.

“It was pouring down rain and they were selling pop and we asked them if they had umbrellas. Then they said no, we told them to go get us some plastic bags. They came back later and had a couple of bags and sold them,” he said. “We feel kind of ripped off.”

Although a few fans ran for cover or left the rodeo altogether, most simply grinned and bared it in order to view the calf roping and steer wrestling in the arena.

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It was one of those weekends for area police officers. Police logs for the weekend, which usually consist of only a few items, today ran to several pages. Some of the more unusual entries were:

A Riverside man complained to Oregon State Police that a neighbor’s rooster crows early every day and wakes him from a sound sleep. He wants something done about it.

The theft of 1,000 bushels of wheat from its Spofford elevator near Milton-Freewater was reported to the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Department by Walla Walla Grain Growers.

A 17-year-old boy riding a bicycle was cited by Pendleton police Saturday as a minor in possession of liquor by consumption. He was lodged in the Umatilla County Jail.

Charles W. Leavitt, Pendleton, told Pendleton police that someone stole his wallet from his pocket Saturday while he dozed in his car in downtown Pendleton. The wallet contained $115 in cash and a $15 check, he said.

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A fire Tuesday night burned about 50 acres of grassy, brushy land on both sides of the Cold Spring Highway canyon north of Pendleton.

A crew from Pendleton Grain Growers was called to the scene, just north of the Pendleton city limits near the lawmen’s gun club, at about 9 p.m.

The fire, which sent smoke billowing over Pendleton, was brought under control and firefighters left the scene about 12:30 a.m. today.

Round-Up Crop Dusters dumped several loads of water on the burning hillsides, according to a Pendleton Grain Growers fire crew spokesman.

The Fritz Hill residence was threatened briefly before the fire was controlled.

The 132-acre fire on forest land in Morrow County is still being mopped up, the U.S. Forest Service Office in Pendleton reported today.

Most of the 250 firefighters have been sent home, although about 100 men from the Snake River Valley and the Umatilla Indian crew remained to mop up.

100 years ago this week — 1924

A most enthusiastic account of the Pendleton Round-Up appears in the August issue of the Pictorial Review, in “Seeing America by Automobile,” written by Alice Lawton, who tells most entertainingly of a motor trip made in company with a man traveler and his lady, journeying westward ho and eastward home. She describes the Round-Up thus:

“It was at Ennis, that small cowboy town in the wilds of Montana that we first heard of that great epic drama of the West, as proponents love to call it. All along the line we heard it talked of. Cowboys with whom smoke from time to time were loud in their praises and wafer to take part in its events. Accordingly we went to Pendleton.

“The streets of the small city– mere dot in the desert from a distance– were gay with flags and bunting. Every man in town wore a huge sombrero, gay-colored shirt and sometimes an elaborately beaded vest. Cowboys in full regalia, clanking spurs attached to their funny high-heeled boots, swarmed the streets. Beginning the first day of September, every man in town from the highest official down, put on this gala garb in honor of the Round-Up, to be staged the third week of that month.”

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The controversy between the city and Umatilla county over road tax refunds which the city claims are due from the county came to a head in the session of the council last night when the city attorney was instructed to bring suit against the county to recover such sums as are claimed to be due. The instructions were passed in the form of a resolution which was adopted by unanimous vote of the councilmen present.

The resolution stated that demands have been made on the county for the payments alleged to be due and that the county denied that any sum was owed the municipality. The matter has been in the public eye for several days, and the city’s estimate of what is claimed to be due in the way of refunds is about $30,000.

An ordinance was passed adopting a charter amendment which would govern the business of conducting campgrounds and setting forth the regulations under which they may operate. The amendment was referred to the electorate and is to be voted on in the election this fall.

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“Idaho people are mighty interested in the progress of the Pendleton Round-Up and a great many auto enthusiasts are glad to have some place to go for their late summer vacation trips. Pendleton can expect hundreds more tourists from the Gem state than ever before for the folks in that section are getting used to the idea of traveling coastwards now that good roads are an established fact.

This was the gist of the report which arrived at Round-Up headquarters this morning, from Arthur S. Rudd, field worker for the local cowboy show, who is now putting on an advertising campaign in Boise, Idaho, and vicinity in the interests of the Round-Up.

Since his arrival in Boise the Round-Up worker has interviewed Calvin Cobb, owner of the Idaho Statesman and personal friends of H. W. Collins, president of the Round-Up. In answer to the question of whether the Statesman would attempt to run a special train, Mr. Cobb said: “Not this year, everyone from this section is going to drive over. If Pendleton can promise good accommodations and something better than hot dogs to eat you will have a great delegation from this section.”