Left: 1999 — Monte Severe discusses his career as a saddlemaker with second and third grade students at Washington Elementary School, Pendleton. RIGHT: 1974 — Bill Sanders, who handles paper buying for Umatilla County’s School districts, check out the first shipment of paper for the 1974-75 school year. But the 49,000-pound shipment was less than ¼ of what schools need. Zellerbach Paper Co. reported the delivery was a result of a severe paper shortage, but schools will get the rest of their paper.

25 years ago this week — 1999

Former Stanfield resident John Charles Astor, who is also known as Charles Cloy Gulliford and — according to local police — about a dozen other aliases, is seeking political contributions to run for president of the United States.

A full-page advertisement in a Tri-City newspaper this past week announced Astor’s intention to run for president as a Reform Party candidate. The advertisement has a post office box number in Pasco where contributions would be sent and a telephone number where the candidate could be reached.

But according to police records, Astor is a career criminal with convictions dating back to 1958.

Astor’s rap sheet includes everything from negligent manslaughter from a 1971 homicide in which a woman was shot and killed in Umatilla, to his most recent arrest Jan. 6. At that time, he was picked up by Hermiston police for allegedly trying to cash fraudulent checks and driving while his license was suspended.

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On Friday the temperature in the Blue Mountains near Meacham was 23 degrees and the wind was blowing at about 30 m.p.h. By some people’s standards it could have been classified a miserable day.

But crunching through the morning snow on snowshoes, the sun filtering through the trees, Mike Burton, a resource conservationist with the Natural Resources and Conservation Service in La Grande, had a different perspective.

“A bad day out here is better than a good day in the office,” Burton said. And Steve Jaeger, a soil conservationist from the Pendleton office of the NRCS, agreed.

The two men were conducting the monthly snow survey at the Meacham and Tollgate snow courses.

The information they gather is used by a variety of agencies and groups, including the irrigation districts, farmers, and recreationalist such as skiers, and snowmobilers. It also helps the Army Corps of Engineers determine the way to manage reservoirs, and fish and wildlife agencies determine the movement and feed needs of certain wildlife.

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Oregon has more but slightly smaller farms, and generally saw more value for the agricultural products those farms sell, according to the 1997 Census of Agriculture released on Monday.

The Census of Agriculture is conducted every five years by the United States Department of Agriculture and is the most ambitious and important compilation of all agriculture surveys, according to the Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service. Data from all 50 states has been gathered and analyzed from surveys reaching every farmer and rancher possible in the United States.

“This census is the only comprehensive study that is conducted throughout the country at the same time,” said Oregon statistician Homer Rowley. “It gives an in-depth look at how producers are doing, how they are adapting to the times, where the industry is going.”

On the national level, according to the 1997 census, there are approximately 1.91 million farms in the U.S., a slight drop from the 1.92 million farms counted in the 1992 census. The average size of farms in the U.S. is 487 acres, which is slightly down from 491 acres in the 1992 census.

50 years ago this week — 1974

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation today cited a new study and warned that unless the spillway on McKay Dam is enlarged, the reservoir could overflow and cause a flood.

The bureau said that because of heavy snowpack in the Blue Mountains this winter, at least 32 per cent of McKay Reservoir’s storage space will be held until Feb. 1.

Jim Tucker, reservoir superintendent at McKay for the bureau, said today McKay Reservoir now holds 51,520 acre-feet of water. Its capacity is 73,000 acre-feet. He said 300 cubic feet per second of water is being released now from the reservoir into McKay Creek, which flows into the Umatilla River just down-stream from Pendleotn. The reservoir lies six miles south of Pendleton.

The bureau said that channel capacity below the dam varies from only 700 to 1,500 cfs. “Floods of low magnitude could force the use of the present spillway, which has a capacity of 10,000 cfs.

“Under these conditions property damage could be high for those who have built on the flood plain,” as scores of area residents have.

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A U.S. district court judge issued a temporary restraining order against the head of the Council of Independent Truckers today as a nationwide work stoppage by independent drivers grew.

Dozens of shooting incidents and reports of thousands of drivers participating against high fuel prices were reported.

In Tennessee, police reported some 15 incidents of shots being fired at trucks. One driver suffered minor injuries.

Police in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee reported shots being fired at truckers who were ignoring calls for a shutdown.

In Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. District Court Judge Leroy J. Contie, Jr., issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of the National Steel Carriers Association against George R. Rynn, president of the Council of Independent Truckers and others.

It bars them from interfering with steel carrier association members and bans use of citizen band radios to further what the association called a conspiracy to interfere.

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A car-train accident at a rail crossing on the Ramos ranch south of Echo, claimed the life Saturday afternoon of Helen Ramos, 65, wife of Joe Ramos, and Echo rancher.

Mrs. Ramos was pinned under her car after it was hit by a westbound freight train. Her 8-year-old grandson, John B. “Binkey,” Ramos, was a passenger in the car and was thrown clear of the vehicle by the impact.

Young Ramos was hospitalized overnight at Good Shepherd Hospital, Hermiston. He received lacerations and bruises.

Joe Ramos Sr., Mrs. Ramos’s father-in-law, died in a similar accident at the same crossing approximately 30 years ago.

Mrs. Ramos and her grandson were leaving the John Ramos home when the accident happened. The home is near the railroad track.

The funeral for Mrs. Ramos will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Echo Methodist Church.

100 years ago this week — 1924

Revealing the results of a hay fever plant survey of this district, which has resulted in the finding of medical treatments that are now being successfully used by many physicians of Pendleton and surrounding towns, G. Hollister, representative of the Hollister-Stier laboratories of Spokane, in the city yesterday conferring with local doctors, stated that no one need longer suffer from this distressing summer ailment.

An expert botanist who worked in eastern Washington found 29 pollens that sometimes cause the disease, and an extract from each pollen was made. At clinics in other sections of the country physicians have been reported as saying that they have been successful in coping with the disease in from 85 to 96 per cent of the cases.

In the east ragweed is the chief cause of the ailment, while in the west the chief plant to cause the trouble is Russian thistle.

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Woodrow Wilson is in the shadow of death, fighting gamely and probably for the last time. An upset of the digestive organs, which began last Monday and seemed inconsequential at first, so wracked his feeble frame and constitution that he lies today clinging to lids by a slender thread which may at any hour break.

Today he alternatively slept fitfully or took light nourishment, while family and physicians watched the flickering flame and hoped for the best. Many times his death was rumored. At one time flags at government buildings had been placed at half mast.

A general wearing out, the result of a five years’ gallant struggle which began when he was laid low in the White House, has left him too weak and worn to fight off the present difficulty.

But all day long today his pulse was strong and his heart action was good, although he was in such a state of exhaustion that he no longer was able to whisper to those at his bedside without the greatest difficulty.

No opiates have been given, but some stimulants have been used, to which Mr. Wilson has responded. He has been conscious all day, but too weak to talk above a whisper or move.

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Production of wheat in Umatilla county reached its peak for all years in 1923, according to statistics on warehouse receipts collected over the county by Carl Halterman, district agent for Kerr-Gifford Co. Production for the year as reflected in the quantity put in the warehouse went to 7,017,641 bushels, according to the figures secured by Mr. Halterman.

Of this crop a total of 4,534,786 bushels, or about 65 per cent, had been shipped out to market January 1, and there remained in the county 2,482,855 bushels on that date. The production of a little more than seven million bushels for 1923 compares with a crop of 6,455,000 on warehouse receipts in 1921.

With warehouse receipts of a little more than the seven million bushels, it may be safely assumed that a considerable bushelage is held on ranches so that total production might be placed at something near seven and one-quarter million bushels. With the natural production a little more than 800,000,000 bushels, the county lacked very little of having produced one per cent of the total crop this year.