100 years ago

The fight to save Manuel Martinez from the gallows was one of the most bitter and determined ever waged in Arison and assumed an international aspect as a result of formal intervention of the Mexican government. Not only did President Obregon make a plea for executive clemency to Governor Hunt for martines, a citizen of Mexico, but Roberto Quiros, Mexican consul at Phoenix, set in motion the legal machinery which on one occasion saxed him from the noone.

Originally convicted by the Santa Cruz county superior court and sentenced to hang August 18, 1922, Martines was granted a stay of execution on a ruling by the attorney general that his case should be allowed to go before the state supreme court although his attorneys has failed to file an appeal within the six-day period allowed by law. The supreme court later dismissed the case because of the delay in filing the appeal and the Santa Cruz court reset the date of the hanging for May 25, last.

50 years ago

A Milton-Freewater man who suffered a broken leg in an accident in isolated country in the Blue Mountains was brought to safety late Thursday night in a rescue effort coordinated by state police and Umatilla County Sheriff’s deputies.

Harold Jones, 34, was listed in good condition this morning at Walla Walla General Hospital after being admitted at about 1:30 a.m.

He was the object of a rescue effort Thursday evening after he fell off his trail bike 15 miles up the South Fork of the Walla Walla River.

He was on an outing with three other Milton-Freewater men, Armando Osnna, Jr., Donald Jones and Herman Jones. Sheriff’s deputies were notified at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday that the accident had occurred.

Sgt. Bob Oliver of the sheriff’s department contacted Pat Davis, Adams, who flew him by helicopter to a spot about two miles north of where Jones was injured. Oliver started hiking and reached Jones at about 9 p.m.

25 years ago

A fire in the Columbia River Gorge temporarily forced the closure of Interstate 84 while brush fires in remote areas of the state had burned about 23,000 acres.

The fire along I-84 started about 4 p.m. Sunday near Rowena, about 10 miles northwest of The Dalles. It has burned about 200 acres of grass, brush and some scattered timber, said Mike Fitzpatrick of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland.

The freeway was closed about 2 hours Sunday due to smoke but was reopened as crews fought the blaze.

The cause was under investigation, but other fires along the freeway in the past resulted from careless motorists who threw burning cigarettes out of their car windows, said Randy Parr of the Oregon Emergency Management Division. “That’s typical this time of year,” Parr said.