1917 — 100 years ago
Odell Union High School will begin its first full year in the new high school building Aug. 27. The directors have spared no work nor expense in preparing for the coming year’s work. In addition to the courses offered last year, they have added a commercial course including shorthand, typewriting and other commercial subjects, and also a domestic science course.
Steele and Cram Residences In City Purchased From Portland Security Companies
Two of the oldest landmarks in Hood River changed hands last week when it was announced that the Frank Cram residence on the corner of 10th and State streets had been sold to Mrs. Genevieve Fitch by Hibernia Security Company of Portland for a consideration of less than $3,000 and that the residence at 703 Oak Street, known as the Steele place, had been purchased from the Portland Mortgage Company by Earl Koberg for a consideration of over $3,000.
Longtime residents of Hood River will remember that the home on 10th and State was, over a period of 20 years, owned by Frank Cram, who operated a dry goods store from 1902 to 1922 on the present site of the J.C. Penney building.
The Steele place was owned a good many years ago by P.S. Davidson, who served at one time as the president of the Apple Growers Association. It was later acquired by F.S. Steele, who also was connected with the AGA, serving as its manager.
Truman Butler was the agent in both deals.
— Hood River News, August 6, 1937
1927 — 90 years ago
When Harry Gross was unpacking bananas last Friday evening, something hopped from the case to the floor. Investigation disclosed a live spider, so large that the store hands decided it was something more than an ordinary spider. By devious means it was persuaded to ender a glass jar, and it was later identified as an unusually large and healthy specimen of the tarantula, a tropical insect the bite of which is very poisonous. The tarantula was finally put in alcohol for preservation.
1937 — 80 years ago
The work of rebuilding the Liberty Theater into an ultra-modern show house will start on Monday of next week, it was announced yesterday by A.S. Kolstad, manager. Manager Kolstad states local labor will be used exclusively.
Fire Marshal James R. Wilson stated yesterday that no more fire permits will be issued in the city until after the rains start his fall. Due to extreme dry conditions and humidity prevailing at the present time, it is dangerous to burn dry grass and rubbish. Wilson asks that all dry grass and other inflammables be kept back from buildings.
1947 — 70 years ago
Final preparations for the second annual rodeo, Aug. 16-17, are shaping up and members of the Hood River Saddle Club, who will be putting on the show again this year, anticipate a larger, better rodeo and parade than has ever been witnessed here before. More professional stars will be seen in the two-day show than last year. Among the bronc busters are some of the finest performers in the country and Max Barbur has promised the local group that he will bring a bunch of “the meanest, orneriest animals in the rodeo business.”
1957 — 60 years ago
Despite a predicted 18 percent increase in AGA fruit production, increased marketing costs combined with depressed prices will probably cause a decrease in the association’s 1957 net profits, compared to last year’s proceeds, predicted J.E. Klahre, general manager of the AGA in a speech to association members at the annual summer meeting last Saturday. Klahre pictured the marketing job of the AGA as one in which a bumper crop of fruit must be moved to the ultimate consumer in higher than average quantities to achieve a profit on par to past years. He denied extreme pessimism, pointing to the “largest fruit and fruit products advertising in history” as one way the associations marketing forces will attempt to create new sales for the product, as well as stimulate accelerated repeat purchases by present fruit consumers.
1967 — 50 years ago
What looks to be the biggest Bartlett pear crop in the history of the Hood River Valley should start coming off the trees about September 18 in the lower valley. And it’s bound to be a bumper price to go along with the bumper crop. Asking prices for Bartletts, requested by the bargaining association, were released Wednesday. They amounted to $167.50 per ton for No. 1’s and $110 for No. 2’s. Diamond Fruit Growers officials noted these were “asking” prices and that so far as they know, no canner had as yet accepted these figures. The final crop figure isn’t known any more than the final price, but it is bound to be just as outstanding for the Hood River growers.
1977 — 40 years ago
Continued hot weather and erosion of the reserves in the city’s five-million-gallon reservoir led Mayor Charles Beardsley to declare a water emergency here starting at midnight on Aug. 8. It was the first time this year that such precipitous action had been called, because it was the first time the water level dipped well below the 10-foot mark during its decline. The mayor’s proclamation calls for total reduction in irrigation within the city until the reservoir has completely recovered.
Two popular films for the whole family are on the movie schedule for Hood River this week — Walt Disney’s “The Rescuers” and the most popular film of the year, “Star Wars.”
1987 — 30 years ago
The recipe was nostalgia with a healthy portion of politics when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers observed the 50th anniversary of Bonneville Dam on Saturday. Nostalgia was provided by a large group of Bonneville pioneers among about 700 persons who gathered at the Bradford Island center for the rededication. A large section in the program area was set aside for that group — including some of the people who were on the job from 1933 until after President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the project in September 1937. But the major political note of the day came from another source — American Indian representatives who saw the dam not as a boon to bringing inexpensive power to the West, but as a forerunner of bad news for a fish resource.
1997 — 20 years ago
The Hood River Golf Course is pouring sand this week, 2,000 yards of it, as bases of the new tees for the nine-hole expansion scheduled to be ready for play in early June 1998. Golf Pro Dave Waller said the $1 million expansion project of the nine-hole course is about three months behind schedule due to severe fall and winter weather, but fairway construction is now 60 percent complete. The expansion to a full 18-hole course will more than double business at the club, which now logs 20,000 rounds a year for nine holes.
2007 — 10 years ago
The question of bridge safety and conditions on federal and state bridges in the Gorge has come up since last week’s collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis. In the Columbia Gorge, plans have been underway for months to repair and replace several bridges on I-84 from The Dalles to the Sandy River. The first segment involves four bridges from The Dalles to Hood River. The second phase involves replacing three bridges and repairing eight between Cascade Locks and Hood River.
— Compiled by Trisha Walker, News staff writer
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