100 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
Oct. 13, 1912
Bend is wicked, Gov. West is told in letter
Last night Mayor Putnam received the following communication from Governor West: To the Mayor of Bend. Dear Sir, I am enclosing you a copy of a letter received today from Mrs. Etta Fraser, for such information as it may give you and such subsequent action as the facts may warrant. Very Truly yours, Oswald West.
The communication referred to from Mrs. Fraser follows: Governor West, Dear Sir: I am writing to you this morning to inform you that gambling is going on in Bend, Oregon. One of my neighbors was fleeced by a poker game and another was sandbagged and nearly killed by a gambler. There seems to be no enforcement of the law and one is not safe to be on the street at night. It certainly needs investigation.
Hoping you will look into the matter at once, I remain, Mrs. Etta Fraser.
The text of Mr. Putnam’s reply to Governor West is: Thanks for your letter, with copy of Mrs. Etta Fraser’s letter. I am enclosing a clipping from the Bend Bulletin with its subject matter explaining the situation and my stand in regard thereto. I beg to assure you that it is my honest effort to see that the laws which I obligated myself to enforce are lived up to, to the best of my ability. G.P. Putnam, Mayor of Bend.
The facts of the case so far as they can be ascertained, seem to be these.
On Saturday night, A.S. Fogg, postmaster at Hampton, reported that he had been held up, and, he alleged, sandbagged, near the present post office. His loss was a ten-dollar gold piece. He also stated that in his pocket at the time was a considerable roll of bills.
The latter was not disturbed. No clue was obtainable concerning the alleged robbery, and indeed Mr. Fogg himself appeared somewhat hazy concerning its details.
Regarding the loss in a poker game by Mrs. Fraser’s neighbor, there is absolutely no information. The man made no complaint to the police.
In a statement today, Mayor Putnam said: “It is of course regrettable that Mrs. Fraser should regard Bend as a den of iniquity, and that she should give that impression to the Governor. I wish that she would make her complaint here. I assure her, and any others, that legitimate complaints will receive honest attention and any action demanded by the circumstances. Inasmuch as no complaint was made, and the facts of the matter are completely unknown to the city officials, of course nothing can be done about it.
“Very recently, at my own expense, I had a stranger look up some of the reported law violations. He found nothing worth considering. I took an oath to enforce these laws and I have enforced them. Any time that it proves possible for the town to become anything nearly approaching what Mrs. Fraser says it is, I want nothing more to do with it."
75 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
Oct. 13, 1937
Huge lumber shed being erected at plant in Bend
Construction of a lumber storage shed that is to be 500 feet long, 74 feet wide and 46 feet high is well under way this week as crews prepare to raise 26 arched rib trusses.
500,000 board feet of lumber is being used in the construction of the massive shed that will protect from the weather millions of feet of lumber.
The shed is to have a 70-foot traveling crane. The long shed is to have two entrances. That facing the south will be used for rough lumber, from Mill B. Dressed lumber will enter the shed from the north end. Walls of the great storage shed were taking definite form today, as busy crews put timbers in place while other men worked on the patented arched rib trusses that are to be raised into position through the use of a big crane.
Erection of the big shed is only a portion of construction and reconstruction activity under way in the Brooks-Scanlon plant as winter approaches. Six new Moore dry kilns have just been put in service and nine others of an old battery of 15 are being remodeled. These are in addition to the experimental kiln constructed recently as a cooperative project by Brooks-Scanlon, the Western Pine association and the Moore Dry Kiln Company.
A new type of stacker has also just been placed in service, in connection with a modernized stacker and unstacker system. The new kilns take much heavier loads than the old ones, and the lumber is stacked in a different manner.
Because of the interest in the experiments now under way, Bend has become the dry kiln capital of the western pine region. This week, the Kiln club held an important meeting here, with kiln operators present from many western pine operations. Some of these operators were still in Bend today, studying results being obtained from the experimental kiln.
The Brooks-Scanlon shed will be largely completed in about six weeks.
To clear the way for the huge shed, those in charge have found it necessary to construct a concrete lined tunnel that is to hold the blow pipe that carries refuse from the box factory across the grounds to Mill B. This tunnel will be 500 feet long. High-tension wires will also be routed through the tunnel, in a conduit.
50 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
Oct. 13, 1962
‘Heights’ might be better name for campus’ location
A college, it now appears certain, is to spread its campus over the slope of a sheltering landmass close to the western city limits of Bend.
This landmark, so we note in news releases relative to plans for Central Oregon College, is being referred to as Awbrey Butte. Deeds and escrows are being drawn up. Presumably, the area will be referred to as Awbrey Butte.
This will be incorrect. The ridge-like formation, really a series of old volcanoes, is officially listed as Awbrey Heights. That is the designation that appears in McArthur’s “Oregon Geographic Names," the bible of the Oregon Geographic Names Board of the Oregon Historical Society.
Awbrey Heights were named for a man who just short of 100 years ago rode the lonely Deschutes ranges, set up temporary quarters in the Harmon Field area of the present, then moved down the Deschutes to pioneer Laidlaw, now Tumalo.
That rider of the ranges was Marshall Clay Awbrey, a native of Missouri. He served in the Mexican War, came to Oregon in 1850, then joined up for action in the Rogue River Indian War.
Awbrey came to Central Oregon in the early 1860s. He lived here for many years, and was a colorful figure on the streets of Bend when this city was a village lost in the Oregon hinterlands.
More than 40 years ago, Bend decided to honor the pioneer. They gave his name to the sprawling, long ridge west of Bend over which Awbrey’s stock ranged in early days.
The ridge was named Awbrey Heights.
Worst storm in state’s history devastates Oregon
The edge of Typhoon Frieda cut a devastating swath through Oregon Friday night, killing at least nine persons, causing untold millions of dollars in damage and leaving behind a trail of rubble such as the state had never seen.
Note to readers: Everybody remembers the Columbus Day Storm and where they were because it made the headlines in every paper in the country.
25 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
Oct. 13, 1987
Sticky situation befuddles birds in downtown Bend
While baseball fans were glued to their seats for the sixth game of the National League playoffs, six cedar waxwing birds found themselves in a sticky situation of their own Tuesday.
The birds were stuck in a taffy-like substance in a tree in downtown Bend. Trapped — and in one case hanging upside down — they probably didn’t appreciate the irony of the location of the tree: Bond Street.
The six birds were caught in a sticky, sugar-water substance exuded by aphids that eat tree leaves. They were discovered Tuesday in or near a tree in front of Mahoney Office Equipment.
Jane Stevens, a volunteer at the Sunriver Nature Center, was called to rescue the befuddled waxwings, small gray birds that migrate through Central Oregon each fall on their way south.
Stevens found one bird dangling upside down and a second bird cemented to a tree branch. Two other birds were cut loose by another rescuer just before Stevens arrived. And two other worried waxwings were hiding under a nearby car, too covered with the gluelike gunk to fly to safety.
Tufts of feathers stuck on the tree showed that other birds had narrowly escaped a long Tuesday on Bond Street.
Stevens took the rescued waxwings home and rinsed the sugar coating off. Three have been released, while three more are still recovering.
The problem with waxwings and sticky trees in Bend is not unusual, Stevens said, but it has been exacerbated this fall because of the dry, warm weather. A good rain is needed to wash away the sticky stuff, she said.
