100 Years Ago

Oct. 9, 1921

Richard Hanley, athletic instructor and coach of the Bulldoggers of Pendleton high school, returned today from Pullman, where he was one of the stars of the annual Alumni-Varsity game at Washington State College. Mr. Hanley, who played right half, helped the Alumni to give the Varsity the worst drubbing in the history of the college by making a touchdown and kicking four goals. The Alumni team, Mr. Hanley states, was made up of members of the champion teams of 1915-1917 and six W. S. C. players who were members of the Marine team. Despite the poor showing made by the Varsity team, Mr. Hanley believes that the Washington players will after some practice spring a few surprises in the games this fall.

50 Years Ago

Oct. 9, 1971

Another area product — bacon — is winning attention across the nation, along with Eastern Oregon’s watermelons, potatoes, apples, wheat and lumber. “We turn out about 400 slabs a week,” says Wally Gaboury, one of the owners of Hill Meat Co., Pendleton. Hill’s sells all its bacon to area markets. Talks with local meat market operators show that their customers buy Hill’s bacon and send it to friends and relatives in New York, Alaska, Minnesota and other states. “You have to start with good hogs,” Gaboury says. Hill’s buys most of its hogs from Hansell Brothers at Ordnance. But there’s more to it than that. Hill’s still uses the old-time methods. The slabs are smoked with alder to impart the flavor that results in the bacon being a sell-out as fast as Hill’s can process it.

25 Years Ago

Oct. 9, 1996

In the five years since Ken Gray first came to work for the tribes, he’s seen the fire department expand from a 4×4 pickup that served as a fire truck to a six-bay unit with nine pieces of equipment. It’s a fire chief’s dream to have better facilities and more staff to meet the community’s needs, and Chief Gray is seeing that dream come true on the Umatilla Indian Reservation as a result of the success of the Wildhorse Gaming Resort. The tribes’ Board of Trustees authorized half a million dollars of casino-generated funds last year to revamp existing fire department structures, expanding the 2,300-square-foot area to a sprawling 9,500 feet. Gray said the expansion is in response to the increase in medical calls (281 in 1995) as well as to the tribes’ economic development. In 1991, there were 168 emergency calls, and the current count this year is 239 and climbing.