100 years ago — 1921

The road between Pendleton and The Dalles is now passable. A message to this effect was brought here by J. G. E. Shotwell of Portland and J. Hays of Harrington, Washington, who arrived from The Dalles after a trip which was not lacking in hard work. The young men left Portland and detoured to The Dalles. The going was not easy from there to Pendleton, they knew when they started, but they stuck to the trail even through 10 feet of snow and little seas of mud which were their lot in some places. They derived a lot of good exercise in shoveling their way through the snow, and 29 cars left The Dalles after them when they had broken the trail, they said. The boys drove a 1915 Ford.

50 years ago — 1971

A Hermiston woman, Mrs. Al (Kay) McCall, was honored Saturday evening by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for her successful efforts in saving the life of a 77-year-old man who had fallen in the Umatilla River while fishing late in the summer. Mrs. McCall was fishing in the river east of Nolin, a short distance from Figurski and his wife, when she heard him fall in. She said when she reached the 77-year-old fisherman he had already gone under once in the swift water. Figurski was unhappy over the loss of his hat. He was in a weakened condition at the time, having been released from the veterans hospital a short time prior to the accident. This was not the first time Mrs. McCall has played the life-saving role in water accidents. The Umatilla fisherman, she said, is the fourth person she has saved from drowning.The other three were a 15-year-old boy who stepped into a deep hole in a river, a 2-year-old infant, and a middle-aged woman she pulled from a mill pond. The first three incidents occurred years ago in Montana. Mrs. McCall opines that she happens to be at the right place at the right time.

25 years ago — 1996

People all over the world can expect increased food costs and a poorer quality of life in the 21st century, unless they support research and development to reverse several alarming agricultural trends. That was the message Gary Reed of the OSU Experimental Station in Hermiston had for those who attended the Hermiston Farm Fair this week. Agricultural production rates are lagging behind the growth in population, he said, and meanwhile, grain production, providing the staple of most diets, has decreased for the past 20 years. Tree production on farm land has also hindered crop levels, said Reed. Between 120,000 and 200,000 acres in Oregon and Washington will be used to grow trees, and that’s land that could feed more than 4 million people if it was used for crops. He said necessary to prevent food shortages in the future is funding for research, support for increased irrigated crops and containing urban sprawl to land that’s not suitable for farming.