Yesteryears: A Grizzly Bear — pizza parlor, that is — set to come to HR in 1978

Several of the big blasts at Ruthton Hill were touched off Monday afternoon. About 30 “coyote holes” have been bored into the base of the cliff in order to blast out the highway.

Visitor finds a little bit of Finland in HR

By THOMAS BENNETT

Monica Bjorkell was delighted.

The Up with People performer was thousands of miles from her home in Finland, but here — in Hood River, Oregon — local citizens were holding, of all things, a Finnish celebration.

There was just one problem — the young woman had no clue who this “St. Uhro” was.

“Never heard of it,” she said.

Never heard of the legendary saint who drove the grasshoppers from Finland?

Bjorkell noted she hails from a small Swedish-speaking area of Finland and is not knowledgeable about all Finnish customs. Nevertheless, she didn’t hesitate to join Monday’s grand party.

Bjorkell, who took part in Monday’s St. Urho parade along with a contingent from the Up with People group, said she was delighted with the green and purple party.

“It’s really exciting,” she said. “We’re having fun.”

Young and old braved blustery winds and the occasional shower for the 18th annual St. Urho’s Day parade and celebration.

1997 St. Urho Queen Maija Yasui passed her crown and grasshopper-adorned scepter to this year’s royalty, Joanie (Lingren) Logan, before the kickoff of the parade, which was led by another representative from the old country, Finnish high school exchange student Johanna Groh.

The parade moved down 12th Street, then, thanks to the construction downtown, detoured west to the Walmart parking lot for the traditional ceremonies by the Iron Maidens and Finnish Women’s Drill Team.

— Hood River News, March 18, 1998

1928 — 90 years ago

Members of the Tuesday forum of the chamber of commerce met in the newly arranged section of the Waukoma (sic) hotel on Tuesday and liked it so well that they voted to meet there each week in the future.

The Mt. Hood Tramway committee, of which R.E. Scott, president of the chamber of commerce, is a member, has been called to meet for organization today in Portland, by C.H. Granger, district forester.

1938 — 80 years ago

The city’s new Homelite pump earned, last weekend, a blessing, or at least a vote of thanks, from the congregation of St. Mary’s church. In common with many other buildings, the basement of the church was deeply flooded, after the heavy storm of Friday, and it appeared that the prospects for Sunday services were very slim. Then Earl Weber and Mayor Kolstad suggested that the new city pump might be requisitioned. It was; the basement was drained, the furnace lighted, and the congregation of St. Mary’s was able to worship, as usual, Sunday morning.

1948 — 70 years ago

Fourteen townspeople were invited on Tuesday of this week to attend a general meeting of the student body at Hood River senior high school and gained an insight on how student discussions are directed at important youth problems. Dick Ryalls, student body president, conducted the meeting from the stage of the high school auditorium, on which also were seated members of the student council, composed of representatives of every class. Several of the guests were asked for their views or volunteered remarks in the purely discussion meeting. One of the problems aired by the students was that of smoking on the high school campus; another was reckless driving on the part of high school students. While both problems met with considerable debate, the high school pupils agreed that they could control both situations without outside help and without a student court through a voluntary appeal, similar to a recent campaign directed against those who walked on the campus grass.

1958 — 60 years ago

Hood River’s local union 5-18, International Woodworkers of America, will decide whether to negotiate their union contracts by themselves or authorize a regional committee to represent them at a contract meeting tonight at the Woodworkers Hall. The move is part of union practice, said Kenneth See, business agent for the Hood River local, IWA. He explained that the union urges its membership to ballot on which negotiating procedure they prefer before the collective bargaining agreements expire.

1968 — 50 years ago

“Ideal spring skiing” was the claim of Mt. Hood Meadows resort manager Keith Petrie after a first full week of holiday opening ended at the high-country winter sports area. At the start of the holidays, he wasn’t sure at the first all-week opening would be such a good idea. Snow was getting in shorter supply by the day and conditions had been far from ideal. Early last week the holiday crowd started coming — about 275 the first day — and gradually built up to a 400 count by Friday. Also arriving — new snow. Petrie’s records showed two inches fell Tuesday, four inches on Thursday, five inches on Friday, and another inch on Saturday, March 16. It brought the total this week to about 79 inches.

1978 — 40 years ago

A Grizzly Bear is coming to town. For those who don’t know, that’s a pizza parlor, not the animal. Phil and Linda Jensen announced this week that arrangements have been completed to bring the family style, franchise business to downtown Hood River. The Jensens plan to convert a building at Second near Cascade to house the Grizzly Bear Pizza Parlor. At one time the 7,000 square foot building housed the Hood River Safeway store; it is now used by Luhr Jensen & Sons as a warehouse and shipping center. But a new central plant for Luhr Jensen’s fishing lure operation was nearing completion last week, so the former Safeway building will no longer be needed.

1988 — 30 years ago

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” That comment by Hood River Port Commissioner Nancy Wesche during a March 9 meeting here on the Mt. Hood National Forest draft management plan comes as close as any to expressing a prevailing attitude locally toward the Forest Service’s controversial goal of reducing timber harvest by at least 20 percent. As the Hood River County economy continues its rebound from the 1981-1982 recession, Wesche, timber industry representatives and others are asking why and how the Forest Service happened to pick Alternative E as its preferred long-term planning route, out of a range of other topics. Alternative E would establish economic, employment, recreational and environmental trends reaching several decades into the future. The reduced timber harvest alone would cost Hood River County $458,00-$676,000 a year; the school district could lose $1.5 million over 10 years, while some 200 timber industry workers could lose their jobs.

1998 — 20 years ago

Federal officials have made official what local wildlife experts have known for some time — Hood River’s steelhead runs are in trouble. The National Marine Fisheries Service on Friday announced that steelhead trout populations in a number of Oregon, Washington and California waterways have been listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. The listing covers Columbia River tributaries from Longview east to Hood River, as well as the Sacramento Valley.

Alex Dominguez knows his way around a chessboard. The big bright medal he won this month proves it. The 10-year-old Pine Grove Elementary fifth grader earned the award for competing in the OMSI State Individual chess tournament on March 7. He qualified for the state tourney by finishing as a top player in the regional tournament held in February at Hood River Valley High School.

2008 — 10 years ago

The City of Hood River’s planning commission decided Monday night to continue the public hearing to April 7 on a proposal to build 42 condominiums on the waterfront. Only one citizen attended the hearing and she asked the commission to continue it because she believed many more people would have attended if there had not be a conflict with the hearing on the proposed Bridged of the Gods casino and resort, also held Monday night in town.

— Compiled by Trisha Walker, News staff writer