Days of Yore for September 5, 2024
10 years ago—
The state’s Seven Wonders advertising blitz has given notoriety to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and the Painted Hills, which, indeed, are wonders of the world. The number of tourists has grown and grown!
Two groups of volunteers integral to any community will be honored this year at the 19th annual Painted Hills Festival celebration at Mitchell. The volunteers of the Mitchell Ambulance Service and the Volunteer Fire Department will receive deserved accolades Saturday during the annual celebration.
25 years ago—
New faces will greet Labor Day travelers at the Service Creek Trading Post café and store. Carrol and Judy White of Maupin are the new owners and Dave Cole is managing the operation for them.
A dedication will be held at the Grass Valley City Park on Highway 97. The event will include an unveiling of the cutoff to the Barlow Road Historical Marker. The marker commemorates the route taken by early pioneers as a ‘shortcut’ from the Oregon Trail to the Barlow Trail and settlements in the Willamette Valley.
A new Mitchell post office is being built. The new building will allow more room, warmth and more parking space. It is being constructed where Clarence Jones’ service station was before it was washed away in 1957 in the flood.
50 years ago—
Mr. and Mrs. Norman Froman and Barbara returned from Los Altos Hills, California, where they attended the wedding of their son and brother, Bill Froman, and Karen Melchor.
Two Seattle fliers were mighty glad to see the beacon light at Condon’s airport last Sunday. The two were enroute back to Seattle from Twin Falls, Idaho, when the radio in their Cessna Citation failed. The radio failure wasn’t the only thrilling experience of the weekend. They had flown to Twin Falls to witness what turned out to be another flight failure when Evel Knievel plunged to the bottom of the Snake River Gorge.
Anne Coiner and Barbara Stochosky, two of the prettiest “trainees” Wheeler County has ever had, are working hard at the Medical Center and enjoying Fossil. “I just love small towns – you get to know all the people,” stated Anne, with Barbara nodding in agreement.
75 years ago—
Jack Anderson fell from a combine in Ajax while trying to hold telephone wires away from the machine, which was crossing the road from one field to another. He cut a deep gash in his left thigh on a projecting bolt. Eight stitches were needed.
Why the “V” roof? That is the question people are asking Bernie Urlie about the new house the Urlies are having built on the lower end of Main Street. Says Bernie, “The roof is being constructed in a V so that when my friends come to call and knock on the front door the water won’t drip down their backs.”
Frank Weatherford was in Condon Wednesday and reported that three infant angora goats have been obtained to replace the two that roamed over the Weatherford ranch for so many years. One of the two fell from a bluff during a high wind storm several months ago and the other died several weeks later from a broken heart. The kids are being sent to the Weatherford ranch by Albright of Portland, and the Weatherfords hope they enjoy the high cliff behind the ranch house as much as their predecessors did.
100 years ago—
Ed Shown, one of Wheeler County’s stockmen, was in with a load of cattle for the Portland market. The cattle were one of the best bunches of beef ever shipped out of Condon. What would Portland do but for Eastern Oregon beef?
T.D. Sweeten has left the penitentiary and is returning to his home in Arlington. It isn’t as serious as it sounds, however, for Mr. Sweeten was one of the guards in the penal institution. For four months he worked at the penitentiary, and those four months have supplied him with enough material to keep his conversation interesting for years to come.
John Monahan was in from Black Butte where he has an excellent sheep ranch. Mr. Monahan tells of a lucky experience he had last week. It appears he had two stacks of wheat hay which he kept over from last year and owing to the good price of wheat he concluded to thrash the two stacks. After the threshing, one of the stacks of straw caught fire.
From the Condon Times 1909—
Duncan Robertson’s team took a spin by themselves round town on Tuesday. No harm done to either horses or rig.
Frank Carter and his wife had quite an experience with a big black bear near Whitney. Frank was herding a band of sheep in the timber and on walking round the band with his dog, the latter charged into the brush where out popped the “bar”. Frank ran one way and the dog another and Mrs. Carter who was at the spring for some water made a hasty retreat for the cabin. The dog was the only one of the dramatis personae that was not frightened out of his wits. He kept on after the bear and returned in an hour, with a look of disgust on his face at getting no help from his master.
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