Gas hauler plunges down Minam Hill

Published 3:01 am Wednesday, March 25, 2015

100 YEARS AGO

March 25, 1915

The automobile fever shows no signs of abating in Wallowa county, but rather is raging more actively than ever this spring. Two carloads of autos have been received at Enterprise already and two carloads more will come in shortly. Trading in second hand autos is very brisk, and the outlook is that the number of machines will be nearly doubled before the season ends. The Enterprise garage brought in the first carload, Maxwell cars. Among the purchasers are S.B. Williamson, White Front livery. S.P. Graham, and Winchester Brothers. … Rodgers Brothers received their first carload of Fords last week.

Grave fears are felt by farmers that this county is to be visited again this year by another and more severe grasshopper pest. Reports from Alder Slope and from Prairie creek are to the effect that the hoppers are hatching out already, and that the ground is alive with their eggs.

The contract for the construction of the first unit of the new Enterprise sewer system was let Monday afternoon by the council to J.H. Childs of La Grande, for $14,958.45. He was the lowest bidder of the eleven who sought the work.

70 YEARS AGO

March 22, 1945

On Tuesday of last week two men miraculously escaped death when a large gasoline transport truck and trailer went out of control, due to a failure of air brakes, while coming down Minam hill and rolled to the bottom of the canyon.

Descending the Minam hill the air hose broke and the huge truck gained a speed of 55 miles an hour before the driver swerved the truck into the road bank a short distance above View Point. The truck careened over the steep embankment, plunging and rolling to the bottom of the canyon. The gas tanks, trailer and truck were all detached in the descent and 5700 gallons of gasoline poured down the mountainside when holes were ripped in the tanks. Both men climbed out of the cab unhurt.

A suit was filed Monday by attorneys Henry Hess of La Grande and R.V. Chrisman to correct the location of the lines on most of the property situated in the town of Lostine. This legal action grows out of a mistake made in the original plat of the village of Lostine filed by Sarah E. Rinehart and John Rinehart on Oct. 29, 1884. The complaint in the suit just filed alleges a mistake in the original dedication deed which threw the property lines off about 160 feet creating a confusion which has prevented the securing of abstracts of title and title insurance to property located in the town.

50 YEARS AGO

March 25, 1965

Lowell Trump is in the Wallowa Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound in the foot. His foot and lower leg have been placed in a cast. Trump said he was working for Louie Audet, and Sunday morning looked out his window and saw some magpies at the barn. He got a .22 pump repeater and went out to the barn, but the magpies flew off. When he came back to the porch he pumped out the shells and while doing so one fired and went through his foot about three inches up from his second toe. The .22 long, hollow-point bullet did considerable damage. What irked him most, Trump said, was the magpies getting away!

Measles reported over the state during the fist two months of this year totaled 917 cases, as early indication that thousands of Oregon children will be affected by the time “measles season’ reaches its Spring peak, according to Dr. Richard H. Wilcox, State Health Officer. He urged parents to have children vaccinated as soon as possible Traditionally, the disease gains momentum until April or May, with strong incidence still apparent through June.

James Hyatt, who was seriously injured about three weeks ago in a fall at the J. Herbert Bate Co. mill at Wallowa, is still a patient at the Wallowa Memorial Hospital. … He fell about 20 feet while dismantling a building and landed on his feet.

Bob Friddles, of Troy, who was seriously injured last week when a tractor and trailer overturned on him, is reported to be improving slowly at the Wallowa Memorial Hospital.

25 YEARS AGO

March 22, 1990

Oregon Senator Bob Packwood visited Eagle Cap Chalets at Wallowa Lake last week to dispute claims that President Bush’s proposed tax cut would benefit only the rich. Speaking to about 10 persons gathered in the resort’s new conference room, Packwood said that former owners of the business Ray and Pat Combes are typical of the kind of people who would benefit from the proposed tax cut. “People like this are the kid of people who ought to benefit from cuts in the capital gains tax,” Packwood said.

A good offense is the best defense. That’s the message the Wallowa Soil and Conservation District and Wallowa County Stockgrowers Association are trying to get across to local cattlemen, who are under the gun for polluting local streams. Cow manure is being blamed for contributing to the high mortality of steelhead smolts at the Wallowa hatchery near Enterprise for the past three years, according to a report released recently by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

At its March 16 meeting, the Rotary Club of Wallowa County honored Don and Rosemary Green, rural Joseph, as its Couple of the Year.