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