1916 — 100 years ago
Work has started this week on the big community packing house which the Apple Growers Association will build at Van Horn Station. The building is located on the Mount Hood Railroad. It is 55 by 160 feet in size and will have a capacity sufficient for the fruit from the immediate neighborhood. Grading machines will be installed to expedite the work of packing. This is the first community packing house erected by the Association and is being built in response to the wishes of Association members in that section.
1926 — 90 years ago
That an injunction may be asked for against the building of the proposed Whiskey Creek lateral on the present survey is the statement made by leading taxpayers who are vitally concerned with the grade and location of this road. A number of taxpayers on the East Side state that, sooner than permit grades of worse than 7 percent on a market road, they would seek an injunction against the county court. They contend the argument of the county judge that he is “through” with the controversy is no answer to their objections, and if there is not sufficient money available to build this road on a standard grade, the project should be abandoned until there is.
1936 — 80 years ago
While it could not be classed as a spectacular, huge blast, detonated on the side hill above Gilhooley Canyon, near Dee, last Friday certainly accomplished its purpose, for it dislodged and prepared for the rock crusher 15,000 cubic feet of rock. A number of residents had gathered on nearby vantage points to witness what they had heard was to be a thrill, but following a dull thud, a huge area of steep hillside slowly slipped and created a huge pile of rock, from which the contractor’s crusher will be fed. About 6,300 pounds of dynamite was used.
1946 — 70 years ago
The inside story of the recent disaster to cherry growers of Hood River Valley was related Saturday be General Manager J.E. Klahre, of Apple Growers Association, before members at the summer meeting of the cooperative, which drew only a moderate attendance, fine weather keeping many at work on their ranches. T.J. Annala presided at the meeting, with Forrest L. Moe as secretary. Characterizing the successive heavy rainstorms as responsible for the worst cherry crop disaster in Hood River Valley, Klahre stated that the delay in the picking of Bing cherries came as a result of adverse market conditions in the east, with the prospect that earlier picking would have forced local cherries on to the market at the July 4 holiday season, in itself a great advantage. However, he said, the Association owes no apologies to its members, for, like growers, had no information that unseasonal rains were coming to deal a heavy blow to the cherry industry here.
1956 — 60 years ago
The codling moth is no longer the most important topic considered by orchardists in Hood River Valley as it once was, observed Leroy Childs during the summer AGA meeting Saturday. Childs, former experiment station superintendent and an orchardist, recalled that the codling moth and its control was the most discussed topic during most of his 40 years as an entomologist. “We used to catch up 9,000 codling moth in the traps at the experiment station,” he told AGA members, and told of their decline in the past few years. This decline was also substantiated by F.E. “Red” Ellertson, entomologist, who added that only two months have been caught in the experiment station traps this year.
1966 — 50 years ago
A long sought study outlining a sewer system proposal for Odell was in the hands of sanitation district leaders this week, and a meeting has been set to show the plan to the community. John Weber, president of the district board, said the meeting will be Aug. 22 at Mid Valley School. Total estimated cost of the system and treatment plant, including land and other expenses, is between $394,100 and $413,250. There is a wide variation in estimates because more than one plan is included in the report. One alternative is a “waste stabilization pond,” or “lagoon” type. The other is a “sewage treatment and collection facility,” similar to the plant in Hood River
1976 — 40 years ago
Sale of 160 acres belonging to the City of Cascade Locks will result in $56,000 being added to the city coffers following enactment of an ordinance at Monday’s meeting at the Cascade Locks City Council. Purchasing the property, though which a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail passes, is the United States Forest Service. A price of $350 an acre was offered by the Forest Service and accepted without hesitation by the city. The site, outside city limits, was occupied by the former municipal power plant. The money will be used to help pay the city’s remaining obligation on urban renewal development in the Gorge gateway city.
1986 — 30 years ago
Nighttime travelers on Interstate 84 between Hood River and Portland will soon traverse the area unhindered and in darkness. The eerie glow of the lights which have illuminated the rockslide area at Milepost 53, between the Starvation Creek rest area and Shellrock Mountain, is gone, and the narrow, curving detour in the highway around it soon will be. According to a State Highway Department official, the work of stabilizing the slide area may be completed by the end of August.
1996 — 20 years ago
All Hood River’s waterfront land between Western Power to the west and Luhr Jensen on the east should be park open space, Hood River Planning Commission agreed unanimously Monday. The area consolidates the controversial Parcel 6 and several adjacent sub-parcels. “Basically, it makes it whole again,” said Steve Gates, commission chairman. The commissioners also discussed two north-south access roads the waterfront plan showed running north-south into Parcel 6. The planning commission agreed early in its deliberations that it would consider separately the strip of land that runs adjacent to the waterfront.
2006 — 10 years ago
Several blazes burning out of control forced evacuations of Mount Hood campgrounds and closure of Highway 35 Tuesday morning. U.S. Forest Service stated that a 300-acre fire was burning Tuesday morning near Nottingham and Sherwood campgrounds, six miles south of Parkdale. On the east side of Highway 35, a 50-acre fire broke out on Gumjuwac Saddle near Lookout Mountain. High winds were fanning the fires on Tuesday.
— Compiled by Trisha Walker, news staff writer
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