Looking back, August 23

As construction dust raises around The Dalles, local players in economic development say the changes may be a growth spurt of part of a long-term upswing.

John Geiger, owner of Kargl, Elwood and Geiger, Inc., and a commissioner for the Port of The Dalles, sees this summer's busy construction schedule as a part of the normal cycle of growth.

In this area, growth depends upon the property that is made available for development, Geiger said, in particular noting the Gearing development, which is taking place on the former site of the Shamrock Restaurant and Motel. He also noted the potential for commercial growth property currently housing the city's public works shop and the National Guard Armory.

“The problem with The Dalles is that nobody wants to go out to the Chenoweth Road or Hostetler areas,” Geiger noted. “They see that as the boondocks. They want to be all crunched up together.”

40 years ago, 1975

Interior elevators, Friday, opened the Sunshine Mill elevators to take overflow of wheat coming to The Dalles. Harvests have stopped because of rain, but a car containing 3,000 bushels from Madras went into No. 14 elevator which will hold 18,000 bushels. The Sunshine facility was purchased by Interior this summer. It has the capacity to store 270,000 bushels of wheat. A near-bumper crop in the northwest is filing elevators everywhere. The U.S. Corps of Engineers has announced it will delay the 11closings of locks on the Columbia to allow passage of wheat to Portland. Steve Selberg, Interior accountant, ran the first samples tests at Sunshine Friday.

Rona Craft of Dufur has the Grand Champion Market Steer at the 1975 Wasco County Fair with Reserve Grand Champion going to Zipporah Underhill of Dufur.

60 years ago, 1955

An accident at The Dalles dam this morning resulted in the death of one man, the 11th to lose his life on the project, and the hospitalization of six others.

Killed was Charles L. Beagl of Lyle, Wash. He died within two hours of the time he was taken to the Mid-Columbia hospital in The Dalles.

He and six other men were injured about 8:15 a.m. today when a “structural failure” caused a wooden panel weighing about three tons to collapse and fall several feet to the top of a concrete wall at the entrance to the east fish ladder at the upstream end of the powerhouse.

A crane was swinging the panel, which was to have been used as a form for concrete.

About 10 men were waiting to receive the 30 by 10 foot panel to bolt it into place atop the existing concrete, and several were on a scaffold. The panel fell apart when it hit the concrete and pieces of debris fell on both sides of the existing wall.

One man kept his footing, one landed on a platform and five others were thrown to the bottom of the fish channel which is about 40 feet below the top of the wall.

80 years ago, 1935

Crowded conditions at The Dalles high school will be intensified rather than lessened during the coming 1935-36 school year if advance estimates of registration made by Paul B. McCulloch, principal, are borne out when school opens September 4.

Based on the most reliable figures obtainable, McCulloch's estimate indicates 585 students will register at the high school on the opening day. Last year but 527 students were assigned to classes on the opening day, although the total registration for the entire year reached 591.

The anticipated increase in registration can be taken care of in the high school building, Principal McCulloch believes, although he said space in the Whittier junior high school building was being reserved “in case of emergency.”

100 years ago, 1915

An Irishman, a German and a Swede rubbed elbows in the police court this morning when they entered a joint plea of guilty to charges of drunkenness. All of them spent Sunday in the city jail. They were reprimanded and discharged by Judge Moore.

Gored by an angry bull, F.M. Fowler, a rancher who resides in the Wamic section, is in The Dalles hospital suffering from a fractured leg. Fowler was horseback, herding a bunch of cattle, when the bull charged him, the stub of his horn goring a great hole in the side of the horse, entering Fowler's leg and tearing jagged holes in both bones. His condition is considered hopeful.

Drs. Reuter and Thompson, who conduct The Dalles hospital have compiled some interisting statistics showing that the hospital has concluded a series of 3,506 major and minor operations during a period of 13 years.