Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

March 17, 2011

•[Photo caption] The months-long logistical project for the components of the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project in Garfield County has begun. Here, a transport of a nacelle makes its way through Waitsburg on Highway 12. It’s the part that sits behind the three blades and hub, and generates the electricity from the mill’s rotation. In all, truckers are making nearly 1,192 trips to bring the major components for 149 towers to their construction sites in Garfield County and will be coming through the Touchet Valley through June.

•Main Street’s new Anchor, seated on an original bar stool, project manager Jim German points to the first bay of the former American Legion building which owner Charles Smith is turning into a new “working man’s bar.”

•In the footsteps of the Troublemakers, The up-and coming Rezonators perform a benefit for the aviary. “We wanted to follow in the footsteps of the Troublemakers,” said 12-year-old Emily Adams of Waitsburg. And without hesitation, that’s what they are doing.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

March 9, 1995

•Bill Thompson, of Waitsburg, a member of the City Council since 1988, announced Tuesday that he won’t seek re-election this year.

•[Photo caption] Kyle Aronson and Stevie Harshman share a computer at the library in Waitsburg during an after-school program sponsored by Readiness to Learn.

•Cardinal basketball player Eric Wyatt was named to the first team all-conference, it was announced last week.

•The Waitsburg 4-H dog obedience club will hold their first spring meeting at Preston Park on Friday, March 10 at 5 p.m. Members are asked not to bring their dogs. Only the most obedient will be allowed.

•Delbert Mock was nominated to fill the Waitsburg City Council seat being vacated by Bill Thompson. In fact, it was Thompson who nominated Mock at the city caucus.

Fifty Years Ago

March 12, 1970

•Elmer Hazelbaker, long-time Waitsburg Fire Chief, was presented with a fishing pole at the Firemen’s annual dinner last Saturday evening.

•Jeff Broom arrived Monday from Champlin, Minn. to visit his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Broom.

•Bertha M. Estes, the first queen of the Pendleton Round-Up and a resident of Walla Walla since 1915, died Saturday evening at a local hospital. She was 81.

•Small distributors who have had trouble breaking even under Washington’s new wine law aren’t the only people unhappy with it.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

March 16, 1945

•A number of basketball fans from Waitsburg attended the University of Oregon-WSC basketball play-off at Pullman Saturday night. Kenneth Hays, a graduate of Wait-Hi in 1943, plays center on the Oregon team.

•Regardless of whether the groundhog saw his shadow February 2 or not, spring is officially here, the weatherman and all other gloominaries to the contrary notwithstanding. Baseball has taken the place of basketball. Marbles have shared the limelight too, and the war cry of “gimme back my migs” has been the inspiration of many a violent verbal battle.

One Hundred Years Ago

March 19, 1920

•A. J. Woodworth this week sold his confectionery and tobacco business, including all his fixtures and stock of goods to Merrill H. Cox of this city, and the new proprietor has taken possession.

•Born last Thursday, March 11, to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph G. Lloyd a daughter weighing 9 ¼ pounds. This young lady is the first girl in the family so Mrs. and Mrs. Lloyd are “tickled to death.”

•S. W. Hinchliffe and wife Eva Kahler and the hired man took a sleigh ride to J. W. Jones’ on Strawberry Ridge Monday night and got in a snow drift and had to cut the fence and go through the field.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

March 22, 1895

•Two train loads of clay are being hauled each day from Dixie for brickmaking at the penitentiary. A gang of twenty prisoners do the shoveling. They are securely shackled to prevent any attempt at escape.

•Rev. W. G. M. Hays preached Sunday evening. There’s a man that will be missed, for he is an active man of much ability, and all his talents are used in the right direction.

•Fred Aldrich and his team had a little spat last Friday; but judging from Fred’s head and the dilapidated condition of his buggy, the team did the biggest part of the spatting.