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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1934)
LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER. LA GRANDE. OREGON Page Six CITY JUST Only Lack of Money?! Kept Grant Keys r rora Success in 1904. Altnoueh the Semi -Ora vrnnl al Cmtn Pacific celebration next week has to do primarily with the 6Cth anniversary of the first com inc of the railroad to Eastern Oregon, a word about the airplane also xnifat riot be amiss. Present La Orande. ait of a line municipal airport and destined to greater progress tn aviation cir ri w;tij each passing year, may IcdJ: back to the year 1W4 jus: thirty years ago to what some m 1 1: h t t erin its 1 :rst start in b.avicr-inn-air craft. ir'j. a goad yarn. iust as & prelude. It might be not td that Cirant Keys, now a resl dm of Western Springs. 111., built his first k:te in tlie early Os. near the Morgan lake hydro-electric plum. He was so delighted with his success with kites and his be lie! in the future of flying, that in 1 104, he constructed what La Grande may call lis first airplane, regardless of whether It was a success or not. Actually, he was unable to fly because of hu Inability to obtain motive power due to lack of fi nances, i-a'-er a storm wrecked his plane and, at be end of his xetouixx-b be gave up when he as on the verge of beating the Wright brothers to success. The La Grange Citizen, a week ly newspaper, tells of his early Inventions in the following Inter esting article: I "A chanoe of fate snatched fame from the hands of Grant Keys year ago. This resident of West- ! ern Springs, now an engineer at the La Grange plant of the Pub- I lie Service company, invented an airplane at La Grande, Ore., sev eral years before Orvllle Wright achieved world renown by his suc ful flight of a motor-driven aii craft. -While he Is unknown to the wortd. Keys is undoubtedly one cf the pioneers of aviation. His giant ship, the object of an a m used pop ulace of t he Oregon community, was designed along lines later used successfully by Wright. "Noticing the ease with which buzzards and ot her huge bi rds cculd sow in the air for hours with lit lie effort. Keys became ccnvinoed that man could achieve tlx same results. While his friends mailed politely and the town won dered in amusement. Keys con-cjucu-d a giant kite out of bam boo and steel wire, covering the wines with silk. "His first experiment were made with his aerial craft. With a long strand ol steel wire. Keys guided the kite into the air. The cralt climbed higher and higher with the impetus of the turong wind. Then the first mis fortune of the sene happened. He had made the wings of the plane level instead of slightly bowed, and when the plane dipped to one ude as the wind changed. It t boc tinned to the earth, unable to regain its equilibrium. pleased by the initial success, Keys constructed another plane, but this time designed the wings so that they bowed slightly. This principle was used several years later by Orville Wright and has been in vogue since. The second plane met misfortune when Keys lost control of the huge craft in tre air. and it fell to earth and crumpled like paper. -The summer before the Lewis and Clark exposition at Portland. Ore . Keys completed his third plane." IThe story goes on to state that the plane was to be driven by pro pellers, with a gasoline engine as motive power, and that it was a double airplane each plane be ing 40 feet long, by 12 feet wide and eight feet apart, and equipped with two guiding planes, each 24 feet long by 40 inches wide. Sus pended three feet below the low er plane was a basket, six feet square, to which were attached four bicycle wheels to be ued in arising or alighting. Key, however, was unable to raise enough funds to obtain a gasoline motor light enough to answer the purpose, and before hut dream of really flying was remlired. a storm wrecked hi ma chine. That is how close La Grande cam to beui the cradle of mod ern aviation. Ntly auv.000 cattle $rae thp rantfe of fJMtfem Oregon an nually as well 8 .00.000 sbeep. maktftg ttu seethe one the most important range Livestock re gion of the jwiioh. MISSED BEING CRADLE OF THE I La Grande Stores in The Early Days of New Town ! i - -rrr -jz. - " ""t . - I A view of a portion of La Grande' business section In the early days. The two stores above John Collier's Hardware and Crockery store, a id the Gulden Rule Dry (foods. Notions and Furulkliliir were In the Huntington building on Adams avenue, now occupied by the Hoover market. Note the aide bojrd 'idcwalk and the muddy street. ATTACK tl BY INDIANS James Mr C lure and Jake Nlbler were in La Grande before the com- ing of the railroad, and these men, who were youths at that time. were with a party of freighters who were attacked by Indians I west of the Blue mountains in ! 1817, when a number of white j men were killed. The two boys 1 and several men escaped by hid- ing in the brush and timber, and later made their way back to La Grande to tell their adventures, J7, ' 177 V- iMJL "The Best They Had in the Catalog-" Montgomery Ward was already a popular name in every home back in those days of fancy feather boas and round crusted toppers. Not the great retail store organization it is today, but in those years a great mail order house, known for quality of merchandise and de lendability of service. "Send for it to Montgomery Ward's" was a household phrase. , . . j.- ' Today "Our Huge Mail Order Business Still . C o n t i n u es With the addition thereto of Over 500 Great Retail Stores Over the U. S. - "Satisfaction or Your Money Back" A Slogan that Tleases. MONTGOMERY WARD We are indeed grateful for the patronage of the railroad emplovees of this district wto have contributed in a large measure to the success of our store iu la Gjinde. 1 f KIR ST TO PKKAC1I GOSI'KL HKHE Rev. H. K. Hlnes, a Methodist ! minister prominent in the early history of the state of Oregon, j was the first man to preach the ; gospel to the pioneers in the f Grande Ronde valley. AIRPLANE ROUND UP TO BE SEPT. 13-15 IN PENDLETON This year's Pendleton Round-Up, to be held Sept. 13. 14 and 15 at Pendleton, will be the silver jub ilee of the famous western event, and in connection with this phase, will stand out as "The Epic Drama of tho West,'' Cowboy b from western states, Canada and .Mexico will vie for world championships In riding vi cious bronca, bulldogging and rop ing long horn steers and riding relay and pony express races. Mora than 2000 Indians from the north west tribes will take part In the dally parades and events. The Westward Hot parade will be held Friday morning, Sept. 14, depict ing transportation methods used In the days of the covered wagon, stage coach and pony express. Each night beginning with Wed nesday, Sept. 12, Happy Canyon stages its famous pageant depict ing the coming of the white man to the northwest. MANY 8WI.M WALLOWA LAKE Eight persons have swam the length of Wallowa lake since it was first accomplished on Aug. 15, 1925. Helen Carson was the first mermaid to turn the trick. Others were Stella Dery, Forence Hurley, Margaret Boyd, Mrs. Charles Bing ner, Maurice Wels, Lyle Baird and Ben Oesterllng. Oesterling has the best time of 1:58:00, and also swam two lengths of the lake Aug, 6. 1933 In 4 hours and 32 minutes. V
