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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2017)
WEEKEND EDITION RITTER HOT SPRINGS OUTSIDE/8C LIFE IN REMISSION HALEY GREB LIFESTYLES/1C SPORTS/1B JUNE 17-18, 2017 141st Year, No. 175 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Flying saucers still evasive 70 years after pilot’s touchstone report Daniel Wattenburger THE SIGHTING By PHIL WRIGHT ♦ East Oregonian Comment B oise businessman Ken Arnold had no idea he would change the world when he told reporters in Pendleton he saw nine strange objects fl ying along the Cascades. But 70 years ago June 25, that’s what he did. East Oregonian reporter Bill Bequette and editor Nolan Skiff didn’t fi gure the 191-word story they banged out that Wednesday just in time for the evening paper and The Associated Press noon wire would take off, well, like a fl ying saucer. But it captured the attention of the nation. The headline at the bottom of the front page of the EO for June 25, 1947, reads: “Impossible! Maybe, But Seein’ Is Believin’, Says Flyer.” And in the seven sentences that followed, Bequette and Skiff reported Arnold’s claims that on the day before he saw “nine saucer- like aircraft fl ying in formation” at an altitude between 9,500 and 10,000 feet between Mount Rainer and Mount Adams moving at “the amazing speed of about 1,200 miles an hour.” That would make them faster than any aircraft the U.S. or any other nation had back then. Give dad his due T he transformation from dude to dad is one of the remarkable metamorphoses in nature. It certainly rivals the caterpillar, which essentially takes a month-long nap and then wakes up with wings. Or the tadpole, which spends summer break in the pond and comes out in the fall with some legs. Picture a human male in his pre-fatherhood state. Can you imagine ever giving him care of a child? Can you imagine him ever willingly taking care of a child? But it happens, and it happens all at once. While nine months of pregnancy dramatically alters an expectant mother’s life and she wisely takes the time to understand what is coming, the expectant father is still somehow caught by surprise when the child arrives. Cut what? Change who? Burp how? The path to parenthood unfolds in many ways, but no matter the means there is an undeniable moment where a guy becomes a father. For me the moment came in a hospital room. Suddenly, a new person was in the room with us, a little girl, and I was in charge of naming her and cleaning her and watching her obsessively all hours of day and night. That was six years ago this month — we added a son three years later — and I’m still awestruck by both of them most days. But there was a clear moment. Before, I was a guy with my own interests, preferences, goals and aspirations. After, I was a guy with those same interests, preferences, goals and aspirations, but they all moved a notch down my to-do list. See FATHERHOOD/12A Associated Press fi le photo Ken Arnold was photographed in 1947 with his CallAir plane shortly after he reported seeing nine high-speed objects “fl ying like a saucer would” near Mount Rainier. While the imagery was there, the EO never used the phrase “fl ying saucer” in its reporting, contrary to plenty of reports. Within days of the EO breaking the story, some bright newspaper writer elsewhere coined “fl ying saucer.” The term stuck in the lexicon and the Amer- ican psyche. A daughter remembers Kim Arnold, 63, of Meridian, Idaho, said her father was not seeking publicity when he told his story. The objects scared and baffl ed him, she said, and he wanted to know what they were. “It didn’t make sense to him how fast they fl ew,” she said. “My father was a real nuts-and-bolts realist. He really believed there were explanations for things.” Ken Arnold was 32 at the time of the sighting. He and his wife, Doris, lived in Boise, and had two little girls. He had a reputation as a respected businessman selling fi re suppression equipment. Kim came along in 1954 and another daughter followed a few years later. Of the four siblings, Kim See UFO/13A “He believed that our military would come forth and tell everyone what these strange things really were. And it never happened.” — Kim Arnold, daughter of pilot Ken Arnold, who reported ‘saucers’ fl ying by Mt. Rainier to an East Oregonian reporter June 25, 1947 The UFO convention that almost was By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Pat Kennedy saw Pendleton hosting a UFO festival as plain as stars. After all, the Eastern Oregon city had a hand in the birth of modern UFO culture. Sure, Pendleton boasts a world-famous Round-Up, but this also is where Ken Arnold of Boise on June 25, 1947, told East Oregonian reporter Bill Bequette and editor Nolan Skiff that he was fl ying the day before near Mount Rainer and saw nine strange craft zipping through the sky at 1,200 mph. The EO men pushed out a four-paragraph story before lunch that day and the paper’s afternoon deadline, and the rest, as they say, is UFO history. History that Kennedy, former manager of the Pendleton Convention Center, wanted to capitalize on. “The opportunity is just laying there for Pendleton,” he said. Kennedy said over the course of 20 years he tried to start a UFO event, but he knew little about the topic and needed someone who did. “My idea was, you got to bring in some fi rst-class speakers from all over the world,” he said. “I don’t want some carnival attrac- tions.” Tim Hills faced a similar dilemma and had a similar desire. Hills is a historian for the Portland-based craft brewer McMenamins, which in 1999 renovated the old Hotel Oregon in downtown McMinnville, near where famous UFO photographs were taken 50 years prior. Evelyn and Paul Trent lived on their farm just outside Sheridan, about nine miles southwest of McMinnville. They claimed on the evening of May 11, 1950, they saw a large, metallic, saucer-life craft near the farm. Paul Trent took photos of the object and on June 9, 1950, the News-Register (then the Telephone-Register) ran See CONVENTION/14A The McMenamins Hotel Oregon UFOfest in McMinnville would not be complete without aliens, and there were plenty in this year’s UFO Parade. Staff photo by Phil Wright Creepy crickets invade Arlington Insects munching crops, causing nuisance By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris The city of Arlington has been inundated by a Mormon cricket outbreak, leaving residents with few options as to how to deal with the insects. They’re crawling up the sides of houses, swarming driveways, munching crops and generally causing a creepy nuisance around town. Mormon crickets have invaded Arlington this year in startling numbers, with residents trying desperately to fi gure out how to keep the exploding population under control. More online For video of the crickets visit eastoregonian.com “We’re just overrun,” said Jessica Gossett, who works at the local library. “Now my kids won’t even go out to play.” The problem has gotten so bad in recent days that roughly 50 people turned out Friday for a community meeting at the Arlington City Council chambers to discuss possible solutions, which ranged See CRICKETS/12A
