LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
Today is Thursday, Aug. 12,
the 224th day of 2021. There are
141 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On August 12, 1985, the
world’s worst single-aircraft
disaster occurred as a crippled
Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a
domestic flight crashed into a
mountain, killing 520 people.
(Four people survived.)
ON THIS DATE
In 1902, International Har-
vester Co. was formed by a
merger of McCormick Har-
vesting Machine Co., Deering
Harvester Co. and several other
manufacturers.
In 1909, the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, home to the
Indianapolis 500, first opened.
In 1939, the MGM movie
musical “The Wizard of Oz,”
starring Judy Garland, had its
world premiere at the Strand
Theater in Oconomowoc, Wis-
consin, three days before
opening in Hollywood.
In 1953, the Soviet Union
conducted a secret test of its
first hydrogen bomb.
In 1960, the first balloon
communications satellite —
the Echo 1 — was launched by
the United States from Cape
Canaveral.
In 1964, author Ian Fleming,
56, the creator of James Bond,
died in Canterbury, Kent,
England.
In 1981, IBM introduced its
first personal computer, the
model 5150, at a press confer-
ence in New York.
In 1994, in baseball’s eighth
work stoppage since 1972,
players went on strike rather
than allow team owners to limit
their salaries. (The strike ended
in April 1995.)
In 2000, the Russian nuclear
submarine Kursk and its 118-
man crew were lost during
naval exercises in the Barents
Sea.
In 2013, James “Whitey”
Bulger, the feared Boston mob
boss who became one of the
nation’s most-wanted fugitives,
was convicted in a string of 11
killings and dozens of other
gangland crimes, many of them
committed while he was said to
be an FBI informant. (Bulger was
sentenced to life; he was fatally
beaten at a West Virginia prison
in 2018, hours after being trans-
ferred from a facility in Florida.)
In 2017, a car plowed into
a crowd of people peacefully
protesting a white nationalist
rally in the Virginia college
town of Charlottesville, killing
32-year-old Heather Heyer and
hurting more than a dozen
others. (The attacker, James
Alex Fields, was sentenced to
life in prison on 29 federal hate
crime charges, and life plus 419
years on state charges.) ”
Ten years ago: A divided
three-judge panel of the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals in
Atlanta struck down the cen-
terpiece of President Barack
Obama’s sweeping health care
overhaul, the so-called indi-
vidual mandate. (The mandate
was upheld by the U.S. Supreme
Court in June 2012.)
Five years ago: A judge in
Milwaukee overturned the con-
viction of Brendan Dassey, who
was found guilty of helping his
uncle kill a woman in a case
profiled in the Netflix series
“Making a Murderer,” ruling that
investigators coerced a confes-
sion using deceptive tactics.
(The ruling was later overturned
by a federal appeals court.) .
One year ago: Appearing
together for the first time as
running mates, Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris put aside their
one-time political rivalry to
deliver an aggressive attack
on the character and perfor-
mance of President Donald
Trump; because of the corona-
virus, their appearance came
in a mostly empty high school
gym in Delaware. Trump again
pressed Congress to steer
future coronavirus funding
away from schools that did
not reopen in the fall. Seat-
tle’s school board voted unan-
imously to begin the academic
year with remote teaching only.
LOTTERY
Monday, Aug. 9, 2021
Megabucks
3-10-28-29-37-40
Estimated jackpot: $1.6 million
Lucky Lines
4-6-9-15-19-22-25-30
Estimated jackpot: $53,000
Win for Life
37-47-64-77
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 7-4-4-5
4 p.m.: 8-8-6-1
7 p.m.: 3-7-1-2
10 p.m.: 2-0-4-1
Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021
Mega Millions
29-45-50-59-62
Mega Ball: 12
Megaplier: 2
Estimated jackpot: $225
million
Lucky Lines
3-5-12-13-17-23-25-32
Estimated jackpot: $54,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 4-1-8-3
4 p.m.: 5-7-5-8
7 p.m.: 4-0-9-9
10 p.m.: 0-2-6-5
THuRSday, auguST 12, 2021
Elgin Museum receives historic wagon Ready
to raise
a glass
By DICK MASON The Observer
ELGIN — Buffalo
hides, cannonballs and a
1976 Datsun.
All three are part of the
colorful but mysterious
story of the latest addi-
tion to the Elgin Museum
complex.
The new museum piece
is a wagon that has bad
wheels but easily gets
imaginations rolling. The
10-foot wagon, made of
iron and wood, is believed
to have hauled buffalo
hides in the 1800s and
ammunition during the
Civil War, according to
Brian Shaw of La Grande,
who donated it to the Elgin
Museum in July.
Shaw obtained the
wagon about four years
ago in a trade with a movie
producer who then lived
in Starkey and has since
moved to Arizona. The
man told Shaw the wagon
was used to haul ammu-
nition, which could have
included cannonballs
during the Civil War but
did not say if it was used
by the Union or the Con-
federate army.
He also told Shaw the
wagon was used to trans-
port buffalo hides in the
sandhills of Nebraska,
a state where wild bison
were once abundant.
Little else is known
about the wagon’s history.
A unique trade
Shaw gave the movie
producer his orange 1976
Datsun for the wagon. He
made the trade after the
movie producer expressed
an interest in his old
vehicle.
“He once had one just
like it and wanted mine for
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
alex Wittwer/The Observer
A Civil War-era ammunition wagon sits outside the Elgin Museum and Historical Society on Friday, Aug.
6, 2021. The wagon is a new piece at the museum after being donated by Brian Shaw.
sentimental reasons,” Shaw
said.
Shaw donated the
wagon because he wanted
to help the museum. He
said he did not have the
means to restore it.
Charlie Horn, the
curator for the Elgin
Museum, said restoring
the wagon’s wheels would
be costly but he hopes
it someday can be done.
Repairing the wheels, Horn
said, would allow more
people to see the wagon.
“It could then appear in
parades,” he said.
The wagon looks like it
was designed to be pulled
by four horses but Horn
said it is easy to imagine a
time when additional ones
were needed during the
Civil War.
“It probably needed
more horses when it was
carrying cannonballs,”
said Horn, a member of the
Elgin Museum and Histor-
ical Society Board.
Another feature that
intrigues Horn is the wag-
on’s suspension system,
which includes metal shock
absorbers. Each is com-
posed of 14 curved pieces
of layered metal.
“You do not see some-
thing like this everyday,”
he said.
Settling in at the
museum
A new sign identifying
the wagon and explaining
its history accompa-
nies the wagon. The sign
was paid for by Horn and
David Reed of Elgin, also
a member of the Elgin
Museum and Historical
Society Board. The sign is
a replica of one that came
with the wagon. Shaw
said the design of the sign
makes him feel like it had
been publicly displayed
somewhere else.
The wagon was trans-
ported to the Elgin
Museum with major help
from Rick Muilenburg of
La Grande and Marshal
Kilby of Summerville.
Muilenburg operated, free
of charge, a forklift he pro-
vided to load the wagon
onto a flatbed trailer owned
by Kilby, a member of the
Elgin Museum and Histor-
ical Society Board.
Gerald Hopkins, presi-
dent of the Elgin Museum
and Historical Society, said
that lowering the wagon
onto the pickup was hair-
raising because of the wag-
on’s weight.
“I was afraid it would
go right through it,” he
said.
The ammunition wagon
is on display outside the
Elgin Museum. It is next
to the old city jail the Elgin
Museum and Historical
Society restored about two
years ago.
“It is a precious piece,”
Hopkins said. “I think
people will really like it.”
Blue Mountain Scenic Byway gets road work
Crews to begin
chip sealing next
week
The Observer
PENDLETON — Work
to chip seal almost 33
miles of the Blue Moun-
tain Scenic Byway, which
is being funded by the
Great American Out-
doors Act, will begin on
Monday, Aug. 16, and
is expected to finish on
Monday, Aug. 30.
Crews will begin by
cleaning the road sur-
face in the week leading
up to Aug. 16. The work
is going to be done
between mileposts 0 and
32.94, according to Darcy
Weseman, public affairs
officer for the Umatilla
National Forest.
The Forest Service has
wanted to get this project
done for over a decade, but
it wasn’t until this year that
the funding became avail-
able, Weseman said.
“We’ve had deferred
maintenance for several
years,” she said. “It’s been
on our list, so we were
happy to put it in for con-
sideration last fall.”
Over the two-week con-
struction period, crews
will be sealing cracks and
patching potholes before
chip sealing the entire
33-mile stretch of the road,
beginning about 5 miles
south of Ukiah and ending
just west of Forest Ser-
vice Road 51, which is the
boundary for the Umatilla
and the Wallowa Whitman
National Forests.
During construction,
flaggers and pilot cars will
control traffic, causing
short delays, according to
Weseman.
The Great American
Outdoors Act was signed
into law in August 2020,
with the purpose of desig-
nating $1.9 billion in yearly
funding for maintenance
work on federal parks
and lands, according to
the National Park Service
website.
Project proposals were
sent in September 2020
and were approved with
the 2021 Consolidated
Appropriations Act, which
was passed on Jan. 4, 2021,
according to Weseman.
In addition to the Blue
Mountain Scenic Byway
chip seal project, the
Umatilla National Forest
received funding to replace
the Burnt Cabin Trail
Bridge on the Walla Walla
Ranger District, according
to a press release from the
Forest Service.
NEWS BRIEFS
Police raid two marijuana
grow sites in Union
UNION — Oregon State Police
and Union County Sheriff’s Office
found and searched two illegal mari-
juana grow sites in Union, according
to a press release on Wednesday,
Aug. 11.
The two operations were at sepa-
rate properties. Oregon State Police
was issued a search warrant after an
investigation into the two unlicensed
operations.
During the search, investigators
found 2,168 marijuana plants and at
least $4,000 in cash. They also seized
one weapon.
No arrests were made at the time
of the search, but the Union County
District Attorney’s Office is now
investigating the case.
Brown declares state of
emergency due to heat
SALEM — Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown declared a state of emergency
in Oregon on Tuesday, Aug. 10, to
ensure additional resources are avail-
able to respond to forecasted exces-
sively high temperatures, according
to a release from the governor’s
office.
The emergency declaration was
triggered by the need for state agen-
cies to assist local and Tribal juris-
dictions in providing for the health
and safety of their residents, the
release said. Multiple days of extreme
heat with little or no cooling over-
night may also impact critical infra-
structure, causing utility outages and
transportation disruptions.
Brown has directed the Office of
Oregon State Police/Contributed Photo
Oregon State Police and Union County Sheriff’s Office found and searched two illegal mari-
juana grow sites in Union, according to a press release on Wednesday, Aug. 11.
Emergency Management to activate
the state’s Emergency Coordination
Center to coordinate essential protec-
tive measures, the release said. She
has also directed state agencies to
provide any assistance requested by
OEM to support response efforts.
Union County records
17 new COVID-19 cases
UNION COUNTY — The
Oregon Health Authority announced
17 new cases of COVID-19 in
Union County for Tuesday, Aug. 10,
according to a press release.
The Aug. 10 total comes after the
county announced 65 new cases on
Monday, Aug. 9. The Aug. 9 total
included new infections recorded
by counties for the three-day period
from Aug. 6 to Aug. 8.
The new cases bring Union Coun-
ty’s total to 1,847 known cases since
the pandemic began last year. The
county did not report any new deaths,
leaving the county’s total at 28.
Union County’s total is part of
2,329 confirmed and presumptive
cases of COVID-19 reported across
the state, bringing the state total to
232,436, according to OHA.
The state also reported nine new
COVID-19 deaths, raising Oregon’s
death toll to 2,912.
Wallowa County recorded eight
new cases on Aug. 10 and seven new
cases on Aug. 9, bringing its total
to 271 since the pandemic started.
There have been six deaths in the
county related to the pandemic,
according to the Oregon Health
Authority.
— The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Eastern Oregon Beer Fes-
tival, a La Grande favorite,
is bringing the party back
after being canceled in
2020 due to the pandemic.
The event is returning
to the Union County Fair-
grounds on Saturday, Aug.
14, but there will be a
slightly different approach
in order to
address con-
cerns over
COVID-19.
Even with
mask man-
Scroggins dates in place,
the festival
organizers are expecting a
large, safe turnout.
“Due to the uptick
in cases, we’re going to
be requiring people to
wear masks while they’re
inside the beer halls get-
ting their beer, but out-
side on the grounds, masks
will be optional,” said
Taylor Scroggins, execu-
tive director at La Grande
Main Street Downtown,
the event’s organizer.
Beer at the festival will
be served in the Mount
Emily and Mount Harris
halls at the fairgrounds,
with the remainder of the
festival taking place out-
doors. The organizers are
ready for a steady turnout.
“Right now, we’re on
track with previous years
as far as our presale tickets
go,” Scroggins said. “We
are probably expecting
in the 500 to 700 range,
depending on how many
people buy tickets at the
gate. It can vary, but that’s
what we’re looking at right
now.”
With a large turnout
expected, those in charge
are prepared to put on a
safe event, given the recent
surge in COVID-19 cases.
According to Scroggins,
the event organizers will
work to funnel participants
out of the beer halls in
order to avoid large crowds
indoors.
“We will be encour-
aging guests to get their
beers and take them out-
side to drink, in order to
keep people out in the
open air,” he said. “Studies
have shown that outdoor
transmission is exceed-
ingly rare, so that’s really
what we’re hoping for.”
Other than the
COVID-19 protocols, the
beer festival will return
much of the same events
and features as previous
years.
Festival organizers
decided to bring back VIP
tickets for the first time
since 2018, which will
include a party on Aug. 13
on the rooftop of Market
Place Fresh Foods.
More than 30 different
beers and ciders will be
featured at the festival,
with brewers and represen-
tatives present to discuss
their brews.
In addition to the beer
and cider tasting, The
Wasteland Kings and
Coyote Kings will both be
performing live music at
the festival.
M.J. Goss Motors is
also sponsoring a free
shuttle service that will
go from the Union County
Fairgrounds all the way
through downtown La
Grande and up to the
hotels near Island Avenue
every half hour.
The festival starts at
1 p.m. on Aug. 14 and will
run until 9 p.m., two hours
later than previous years.
Even with the precau-
tionary measures in place,
Eastern Oregon Beer Fes-
tival officials are hoping
for a strong showing after
a year off.
“I think there will be
a lot of people who are
really excited to come back
for the event,” Scroggins
said. “I’ve been getting
very good feedback around
town.”