100 years ago

Oct. 5, 1916 — “Back of recent incorporation of The Spokesman Publishing Company is an interesting story,” says the Bend Bulletin, “which is expected to be unfolded as the county division campaign and the work on the Prineville railroad develop.” “According to the best reports available the primary object of the new enterprise will be to obtain location of the Prineville railroad satisfactory to the interests behind the new company. Another object will be to fight county division. It is understood that a portion of the Redmond Spokesman plant will be moved to Prineville and that two papers will be published, the Prineville Spokesman and the Redmond Spokesman.” The Bulletin is partly correct. The new Spokesman will certainly wage the fight against county division, but as to railroad matters it has yet to learn that anyone connected with it in anyway has any interest in the railroad matter that differs in common with other citizens of Prineville. The paper desires to see every interest of the community develop and prosper and to that end will lend its aid and support in every legitimate manner. It has no battles to fight; no axes to grind, but those tending to the up-building of Prineville and Crook County, and to these it will devote its time and energies.

75 years ago

Oct. 2, 1941 — Deschutes potato growers met here Tuesday evening to set a wage scale for pickers, to discuss the labor problem with officials of the U.S. Unemployment service, and to vote on a potato marketing agreement. The growers decided the rate per unit of picking should be advanced 20 percent, making the price 3 cents per 60 pounds or 1 ¼ cents per 25-pound can. Others rates decided upon were $4.00 per day or $3.00 per day plus board, 50 cents per hour, $1.50 per hour for man and truck, and $4.00 per acre for a one-row tractor digger with two men or a horse digger. Emory Worth, state supervisor of the farm placement division of the U.S. employment service, advised the growers that whatever rate schedule they decided upon they must stick with it. “This is a pickers’ market,” he said. “And if there is more than one rate in the territory you will find the pickers driving the roads watching for the farms bid — instead of picking potatoes.”

50 years ago

Oct. 6, 1966 — So far this year there have been 127 fires on the Deschutes National Forest, but only 10 acres have been burned, Don franks, fire control officer. Quick action has been possible, due to proximity to Redmond Air Center, where smoke-jumpers have been on duty during the fire season. Retardant planes from Roberts Field also have been used to a considerable extent. There have been four hunter-caused fires since the opening of deer season, two believed to have been started by smokers and two as the result of abandoned campfires. Last weekend the Forest Service has some 25 patrolmen in the woods, contacting hunters and giving information on correct campfire procedure. On one occasion, patrolmen found four hunters combating a blaze which had been started by a lighted cigarette. The hunters had noticed the fire near the road and had stopped to fight it.

25 years ago

Oct. 2, 1991 — Jim Gardner would like to turn the 1,800 acres he owns on the west side of Smith Rock into one of the country’s premier resorts. But a land-use proposal before the Deschutes County Planning Commission looms as a road-block to Gardner’s plans. He questions the proposal’s definition of “important agricultural lands” and the impact it would have on the county in general, not to mention his own property. Gardner was inadvertently forced into divulging plans for his property during a public hearing on the county proposal last Wednesday in Bend. The project might have been one of the area’s best-kept secrets and a motivating force behind the Redmond City Council’s strong opposition to the county’s proposal.