Looking back at 100 years

Oenophile’s Delight: Any time you can put the words “Ross Bailey” and “wine” together in a sentence, you’re doing well. Best news in a long time is that Ross will be offering his famous wine tasting class again, every Wednesday night for six weeks starting on Feb. 23. Cost for the course is $85 a person, which includes samples from a wide variety of wines and instruction from the Gorge’s leading oenophilist.

The Dalles Planning Commission approved an application Thursday night for a pole building on Chenowith Water PUD’s property in the 700 block of Pomona. The 24-by-84-foot building, which will be 20 feet high, will be used to house vehicles and equipment owned by Chenowith PUD.

Slow but steady. That’s the story of Wasco County’s recent economic growth, which lags behind both state and national trends but still represents solid improvement over the past decade. Regional economist Dallas Fridley of the Oregon Employment Department addressed the county’s economic picture during a Rotary Club luncheon last week at the Lone Pine Restaurant.

A new tour company is offering a chance to experience the Columbia River Gorge, not just see it. Julee’s Gorge Tours and Retreats, LLC, was started by Julee Wasserman, a Mosier area resident. “I feel this business was needed out here. I don’t think anybody’s doing this kind of business,” Wasserman said.

After a couple of months without a veteran’s service officer, Linda Adams now serves Wasco and Hood River counties in that role.  “My position here is just to assist veterans and families in making them aware of benefits and helping them with forms – there’s a lot of paperwork,” Adams said.

Although NORCOR regional jail was built to keep criminals off the street, it fights disease as well as crime. That’s because as the jail was build last year, Wasco-Sherman Public Health Department director Kathy Schwartz saw the new facility as an opportunity for outreach. “We have a lot of programs that target high-risk populations,” she said. “Since these people come back into our community, I thought it would be a good idea to take these programs out to the jail.”

SALEM—The state law that has provided marijuana to more than 400 medical patients suffering from diseases such as cancer and AIDS could be expanded if an advisory group decides that smoking pot helps ease anxiety, depression and sleep disorders.

40 years ago — 1980

The Dalles High School football coach John McCormick has resigned. In a letter written to principal Rich Correa and athletic director Art Bull, McCormick stated that he was stepping down after four years as the Indians’ head coach primarily because of personal reasons. Though he would not comment on those reasons in a Wednesday interview, he did amplify his decision.

An inbound District 12 school bus slid into the ditch on Five-mile Road near the Dennis Haener orchard Wednesday morning and a wrecker was called to get the bus back onto the road. There were no injuries or damage to the bus, which was operated by Marvin Jones, school transportation superintendent Paul Sandovol said. The area where the incident occurred was very slippery, and the bus had stopped to pick up students and when starting up again slid  onto the left shoulder of the road and then into the ditch.

Karen Buchanan of Moro is ranked among the leaders in the Northwest Cup Series as of Feb. 1, according to the Pacific Northwest Ski Association. Buchanan, who competes out of Mission Ridge, Wash., is ranked sixth in the women’s downhill with 20 points, trailing leader Linda Phalen’s 45 points.

An amateur motocross race scheduled for Sunday; Feb. 12 at the Seattle Kingdome has attracted three local entries. Brent McKinney of Wasco will be competing in the event for the second time. He placed 39th out of a limited 150 rider field in his first try at the event.

WASHINGTON (UPI)—President Carter today asked Congress to approve the mandatory military registration of American women and men aged 19 and 20 this year. Eighteen-year-olds would have to register beginning in 1981. A bitter fight is expected in the House and Senate over the un-precedented U.S. registration of females even though Carter stipulated today that women must continue to be barred from combat.

ORLANDO, Fla (UPI) A jury of seven women and five men today convicted condemned coed killer Theodor Bundy of the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Lake City school girl Kimberly Diane Leach.

60 years ago — 1960

Dalles city is presently in the process of looking for employees to fill two city positions. Applications are being accepted and interviews scheduled for the job of meter maid and that of director of parks and recreation. Mrs. Helen Care, the police department’s current meter maid has resigned to await the arrival of an expected child Police Chief Robert Brower said.

A Dalles man was remanded to the custody of Multnomah county deputy sheriffs yesterday morning and returned to Portland to face hit and run charges. The man was taken into custody by Wasco County Sheriff’s Deputies Don Martin and Vic Peterson Saturday night at his home after a bulletin for his arrest was issued at Portland Saturday.

The Wasco County court has been asked to block moves to close Terminal avenue between Sixth Street and U. S. Highway 30. In a petition filed recently at the county clerk’s office 35 signers have asked the court not to consent to closure of the road should such a proposal be made by the State Highway Commission.

Wasco County growers attending the annual Cherry Institute Saturday in Yakima heard stern warnings of trouble that lies ahead unless extreme care is practiced in the use of organic phosphate insecticides. Dr. James E. Zimmerman of the Yakima Valley, who describes himself as a “country doctor,” pointed out that people vary greatly in susceptibility to organic phosphate poisons and susceptibility of any person also varies from day to day.

Although cold and snow weather boosted total unemployment in The Dalles area, the work force at John Day Dam increased during January, the local office of Oregon Employment Service notes in its monthly report. Employment at the dam rose to 120. Two hundred are expected to be on the job by March 1, 500 by May 1 and 600 by July.

Snowpack remains less than one-third normal in Wasco County and Hood river Valley watersheds, W. T. Frost, supervisor of snow surveys, reports in his latest appraisal of the 1960 water outlook. Frost, who serves the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Agricultural Experiment Station and the state engineer, said water content of the snow is only slightly better than it was at this time last year.

Port of The Dalles expects an inbound cargo of approximately 150,000 tons annually to Harvey Aluminum Co. and a minimum of at least an equal amount of grain outbound. This estimate was contained in a letter written yesterday by Charles Tait, director of port development, to the Corps of Engineers in Portland in reply to a Corps inquiry.

80 years ago — 1940

Plans for revamping The Dalles school system, made necessary by destruction of the high school building early Tuesday morning, were announced today by Superintendent Paul R. McCulloch.

Members of the Celilo fish committee yesterday favored a building program at Celilo but left plans and details in the hands of a four-member sub-committee which will meet at Celilo next Thursday.

The Wasco County court this morning heard County Agent W. Wray Lawrence describe the presence of approximately 10 acres of white top weeds as one of the most serious menaces to county farmlands.

Tidewater Navigation company’s only all-steel wheat barge was berthed today in Celilo canal after water seeped into two front bins after the vessel struck a rock in the Umatilla rapids, it was learned yesterday.

Men Transferred—Approximately 35 WPA workers will be transferred Monday to the Mill Creek project from various other work relief programs, H. R. Landfare, resident engineer, said today. The transfers will increase the number of men working on this project approximately to 85, Landfare said.

Trial of Roscoe Herman Wilson, indicted for stealing a calf from the ranch of George Bourland near Dufur last November, will take place before a jury in Circuit Judge Fred W. Wilson’s court Wednesday, February 14. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the indictment at his arraignment before Judge Wilson yesterday afternoon.

Fire Chief L. L. Mohr today was investigating a “remote possibility” that the local high school fire could have been started by a short circuit in an electric line that stretched underground from the Whittier junior high school to The Dalles high school. The line, electrically operated through a transformer that cut the voltage down considerably, was used to ring a bell in the high school boiler room when something went wrong in the Whittier heating plant, Mohr said.

100 years ago — 1920

The Northwestern Transportation company will start regular service between The Dalles and Portland, running the fast steamer Olympian, formerly the Telegraph, beginning March 2. The steamer will cater in the summer months to passenger and light freight and will make the round trip daily when the tourist travel opens. On Sundays the vessel will ply between Portland and Cascade Locks only.

Four children are orphaned, two of whom are ill of influenza at the hospital, following the death Saturday of the father, Wilfred Ernest Davis, who in turn succumbed a few days after his wife, Alphretta Davis. The dual deaths of the couple who lived at Emerson station presents one of the saddest cases in the history of Wasco County.

Definite assurances that there would be no change in the policies of Dodge Brothers, Detroit automobile manufacturers, as a result of the recent death of John F. Dodge, president, was given to dealers at a meeting in the Blackston Hotel, in Chicago, during the automobile show there in January.

Children who have been out of school because they refused to submit to vaccination against smallpox in conformity with the health laws of the state of Oregon may return to classrooms Wednesday morning, according to announcement today of Dr. Fred Thompson, city health officer. This return rule does not apply, of course, to those children whose homes are quarantined for influenza.

Following telegraphic communications from Hillsboro, Oregon, announcing that her sister Pearl Spinning was seriously ill with double pneumonia, Miss Mable Spinning, nurse at the local hospital, left this morning to attend her bedside. Miss Pearl is a student at Pacific University.

WASHINGTON—The senate today by a vote of 63 to 9 declared suspension of rules for the purpose of reconsidering the Versailles treaty. Lodge later moved to recommit the treaty to the foreign relations committee with “The reservations as adopted by the senate and a resolution of ratification with instructions to report the treaty back immediately.”

The allies; demand upon Germany that she renders up a big list of persons guilty of cruelty in the late war and the refusal of Germany to deliver these war criminals opens possibilities of grave importance to the world.