100 Years Ago

Sept. 25, 1924 — Fairgrounds put in shape

The fairgrounds are a busy place these days with workmen cleaning up the grounds and putting up new buildings in preparation for the biggest fair yet, which occurs Oct. 9, 10 and 11.

The livestock sections are being added to sufficiently to house about 20 head of stock more than formerly. The poultry section is being built in the pavilion. Additional space is being provided for in the grandstand. The grounds are being cleaned of weeds and trash and the whole place generally overhauled.

75 Years Ago

Sept. 22, 1949 — Mail to South May Be Slower

Two Trains to Drop

From Chemult Run Mail service south by rail will be curtailed greatly when two Southern Pacific train schedule are dropped October 2, Redmond chamber of commerce was advised in a letter from the Railway Mail association in Portland.

The association, an organization of mail clerks and workers advised the Redmond chamber to try to do something about urging that the schedules be continued.

The morning mail which has now been making connection with Chemult from here at about 6 p.m. would have to stay in Chemult all night, according to the letter. This would mean a 24 hour delay to San Francisco, and a 22-hour delay to Eugene and points north from Chemult. Trains to be discontinued are No 19 southbound, and No. 16 northbound, which meet at Chemult.

Postmaster Arthur Tifft is now investigating the situation to see just what will happen to the service. He points out that an over night delay at Chemult would obviously cause an additional over night delay in San Francisco since the mail couldn’t be delivered by carriers until the next day. The same would be true with mail to Willamette Valley points.

Tifft is not clear, however, a to what effect the new train schedule would have on mail posted here after noon. This mail, he said, goes to Portland before starting south. The pre-noon mail is delivered to Chemult by bus.

50 Years Ago

Sept. 25, 1974 — Commuter airline starts three-day-a-week

La Grande Air Service, Inc., is now offering passenger service between Redmond, Salem, Portland, Baker and La Grande.

The Aero Commander 680E arrives in Redmond on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 9 a.m. from Portland and Salem and at 5:20 p.m. from Baker and La Grande.

Departure times from Redmond are 9:10 a.m. for Baker and La Grande and 5:30 p.m. for Salem, Portland, Baker and La Grande on the same days.

Reservations must be made in advance for all flights. Persons may make reservations by calling 963-2661 collect.

Wayne L. Mitchell, president, will attend the meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Sept. 25, in the Redmond High School auditorium. The Oregon Department of Transportation has scheduled the community meeting to determine the need and demand for regional commuter service.

25 Years Ago

Sept. 22, 1999 — Final flight of Polar One brings flier home

The big Antonov banked slowly as it turned over Camp Sherman, the ponderosa pines passing just a few hundred feet below.

Shane Lundgren muscled the Russian behemoth of a biplane around for a second and third pass. Green Ridge formed a wall to the east. Black Butte filled the segmented glass windshield.

Below the meadows of Lundgren’s family’s ranch opened gaps in the trees. He had spent his youthful summers among those meadows and woods.

But Lundgren (no relation to author) saw that familiar ground in a new way Thursday — through the same windshield he had watched the vast polar ice cap inch past on his historic 16-hour flight over the North Pole in 1998.

“I always wanted to make it here,” he said later, explaining he had hoped to take his grandfather, longtime Central Oregon lumberman Leonard Lundgren, up once in the Antonov.

The elder Lundgren died before they had the opportunity, but Shane Lundgren still savored the moment.

“It was pretty fun flying over here and seeing it through the same window I saw the North Pole and the Cliffs of Dover,” he said.

Lundgren and co-pilot Dagley Reeves, landed the biplane Wednesday at Roberts Field. They were on the second-to-last leg of a flight across the United States to deliver the plane to the Museum of Flight in Seattle where it will go on permanent display.

On Thursday, they flew the plane, called Polar One, over Camp Sherman and landed at the Sisters airport to show it to students from Camp Sherman Elementary School. Friday afternoon they landed at Boeing Field in Seattle and turned the plane over to the museum.

The flight ended the five-year affair Lundgren has had with a plane that carried him over the pole and around the globe.