PIONEER PORTRAITS

Ten Years Ago

January 9, 2015

[Photo Caption] New Whiskey Creek Sports Bar & Grill general manager Gary Bales (l) stopped for a quick photo with restaurant investor Ken Cole, Jr. before heading to the work site to check on construction progress. The Whiskey Creek Sports Bar & Grill is right on track to open early this spring.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 6, 2000

The Washington wheat industry is keeping a close eye on Zak, a promising newcomer among soft white spring wheat varieties.

Zak's credentials look hard to beat. It has outstanding end-use quality, is tolerant to the Hessian fly, is resistant to stripe rust, and has higher yield potential than Wawawai, the main variety it is expected to replace in eastern Washington's high rainfall zones, which receive 20 inches or more of moisture a year.

Fifty Years Ago

January 6, 1975

Representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will present a current status report on the Touchet Division of the Walla Walla project in Dayton on Thursday evening, January 9, at 7 p.m. in the exhibit building of the fairgrounds.

The original bill, introduced in 1964 by Sen. Henry Jackson, estimated the project cost at about $16 million, but inflation has driven that figure past a later $23 million projection.

In a preliminary announcement this past week, Perry Harrison, resources planner for the Bureau, said that his office will recommend reducing the height of the dam by 13 feet and cutting the capacity down to 45,000 acre feet. Another projection is to eliminate the fish passage facilities in favor of catching and transporting migratory fish. Harrison commented that even with the changes, the estimates of cost area now in the $40 million range.

The project, as planned will provide irrigation water for about 13,000 acres of cropland, as well as provide significant protection against flooding in the Touchet Valley.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

January 13, 1950

N. B. Atkinson will be honored on his 91st birthday Sunday, January 15, at a family dinner at the home of his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Ray.

Rufus Emery Butler, MD. Age 93, died Tuesday night at Dayton Hospital where he had been ill for the past 17 months. Servies will be held Friday afternoon. He is survived by two sons and four grandsons.

Starlight Bluebirds met Monday night. We made paper beads and finished our Nature scrap books. Joan Otterson was snack hostess.

One Hundred Years Ago

January 16, 1925

The sexton's cottage at the Odd Fellows Cemetery occupied by Samp McCown caught fire Saturday afternoon about 2:30 presumably from an overheated stove. The blaze was extinguished before anything but the roof had been very badly damaged.

Mr. and Mrs. Otto Bachman of Wilson Hollow entertained a number of relatives and friends at a turkey dinner Sunday honoring Miss Josephine Forgette. Other guests were Mrs. Kate Buehrer and Edward; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Jordan, Edward and Marion; Mr. and Mrs. Ad Clark; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bachmann, Frederic, Margaret and Barbara Ann; Newton Dumond, Violet and Labert Land; and Mrs. Riley Wise.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 19, 1900

C. W. Wheeler, this week sold his place just east of the city known as Rose Glen to Mr. Gustave Vollmer, of Umatilla, Ore. Mr. Vollmer, who is a well-to-do farmer will take possession in thirty days and will move his family here and make this place his permanent home.

Mrs. L. Sutherland, the elocutionist from College Place, did not give her entertainment under the auspices of the Methodist Church on Monday evening as advertised, owing to the precautionary measures taken by the city authorities to prevent the spread of smallpox.