COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, July 15, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 5C
OUT OF THE VAULT
Shifting sands reveal giant mastodon near Hermiston
F
rank Swaggart, a
rancher in the Westland
district near Hermiston,
unearthed what University
of Oregon scientists said
was the largest mastodon
find in Oregon when shifting
sands revealed whitened and
fossilized tusks and bones on
July 6, 1954.
Swaggart immediately
called local amateur
paleontologists Bob
Buchanan, an insurance
salesman; Frank Swayze,
a retired banker; Kelly
Tiller, a van operator;
Walter Hamm, a retired
druggist; and Frank Adams,
an Arlington businessman,
to investigate the find. The
ancient creature partially
uncovered in Swaggart’s
initial diggings indicated a
prehistoric pachyderm of
massive proportions. One of
the tusks measured nearly
8 feet in length, and a bone
thought to be a femur, the
upper leg bone, measured
more than 3 feet long. The
A mammoth tusk and what is either an upper or lower
jaw of a mastodon are studied by Bob Buchanan, Frank
Swayze and Frank Swaggart, all of Hermiston, in this
July 7, 1954 East Oregonian photo.
men left the find in place
and called in scientists from
the University of Oregon
in Eugene to perform a
proper investigation of
the site, located about two
miles north of the Umatilla
ordnance depot.
A research trip to the
Hermiston library revealed
the creature likely grazed
the site, a former lake,
during the mid-Pliocene
era about 5 million years
ago. Once Dr. J. Arnold
Shotwell, curator of U of O’s
museum of natural history,
and his assistant Huntley
Alvey arrived at the scene
on July 22, they verified
the mastodon was one of
the late-era two-tusk types
(mastodons with four tusks
also existed during the early
Pliocene), and the largest
specimen found to date in
Oregon. They carefully
made plaster casts of the
beast’s skull and tusk and
employed the help of West
End volunteers to remove the
remains for study and display
in Eugene. Dr. Shotwell
and Alvey also unearthed
the remains of rhinoceros,
camel, ground sloth and
three-toed horse, also dating
to the mid-Pliocene, near the
mastodon find.
At the close of the
official dig, the public was
invited to visit the area, and
encouraged to report any
further significant finds.
■
Renee Struthers is the
Community Records Editor
for the East Oregonian. See
the complete collection of
Out of the Vault columns at
eovault.blogspot.com
DEAR ABBY
Mom wants to attach strings to treasured hand-me-downs
Dear Abby: I come from
the family. Once a gift is given,
a large family. We are not
it becomes the property of the
wealthy but always loved
recipient to keep or dispose of.
dressing our children up for
Dear Abby: If someone
holidays. Because the outfits
did something “nice” for you,
were expensive, as our children
but it turned out to cause such
outgrew them, we passed them
a hassle that you didn’t appre-
on to my sister-in-law.
ciate the gesture, how do you
politely tell the person not to do
When my youngest daughter
Jeanne
was born, I asked her about the Phillips it again, or that you wish they
hadn’t?
dresses, and she informed me
Advice
An example: Someone gives
they were not her style so she
you a box of chocolates or
had given them away. I was
heartbroken, but I never said anything. cupcakes when you are trying to lose
My older daughter is not a practicing weight. Or, the baby sitter folds all the
Catholic, and my younger daughter is clothes that were sitting in the laundry
not having children at all. I saved their basket, but puts everything away in
christening gowns, but they don’t want the wrong drawers. (And you didn’t
them. I would love to pass them on to ask her to fold the laundry in the first
another family member so they can be place.) — Don’t Do It Again
Dear Don’t: Here’s how. Thank the
used instead of sitting in a trunk, but
I don’t want them to leave the family person for the thoughtful gesture and
or be sold. Is it OK to put stipulations explain that you are watching your diet,
on something you are passing on? — cannot have candy and won’t be able to
for the foreseeable future. If the person
Unsure In New Jersey
Dear Unsure: You can stipulate is someone who cares about you and is
whatever you like, but there is no guar- not a saboteur, he or she won’t tempt
antee that the garments will remain in you again without asking first.
As for your baby sitter, while you
thank her for trying to help you by
folding and putting away your laundry,
explain that this isn’t something anyone
can do for you because you have your
own way of doing it, and please not to
do it again.
Dear Abby: I am writing this to
relieve a heavy burden I have carried
for many years. I’m 16 and have had
a crush on this girl since I was 9. I fell
in love with her the first time I saw her,
and have never gotten over it.
I have always had a problem
expressing my feelings. I have been
very shy from the day I was born. Now
that I’m older, I have more confidence
and have lost most of my shyness. What
should I do after years of barely talking
to her? — Not So Shy Anymore
Dear Not So Shy Anymore: Now
that you have more confidence, start
talking to her. You don’t have to declare
your love in the first conversation, but
her reaction will tell you if she wants
to have some sort of relationship with
you, even if it’s only friendship — and
that’s an auspicious beginning.
DAYS GONE BY
100 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
July 15-16, 1917
The past few days of excessive
heat has been very hard on the grain
of Umatilla County, according to all
reports, and unless cooler weather
and showers come soon the damage
will be considerable. A hot wind that
blew Saturday is reported to have
cooked a great deal of spring grain
in all parts of the county. Fall sown
grain is not so much damaged. In
the Echo and Stage Gulch section
the fall sown stuff is so far advanced
that the weather is not likely to hurt
it, according to reports, but the spring
sown stuff has been literally cooked.
Spring sown grain on the reservation
is also said to have suffered consid-
erably.
50 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
July 15-16, 1967
A pickup truck parked near a motel in
Umatilla exploded early Friday morning
when a Madras man turned on the ignition
switch. The Umatilla Fire Department
answered the alarm about 4 a.m. Driver
of the truck was Delbert Carpenter, who
is employed by the Pacific Clearing Co.
that is clearing land on the north shore
of the Columbia River. Carpenter told
Fire Chief Hugh Little that he filled the
gas tank just prior to parking the pickup
Thursday night. Chief Little assumed heat
forced the gas out through the carburetor
on the engine and transmission housing.
Carpenter said when he turned on the
switch flames came up through the floor
of the cab. He said he did not have time to
turn off the ignition switch.
25 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
July 15-16, 1992
For about five seconds Tuesday after-
noon, workers at the Milton-Freewater
Dairy Queen didn’t need electricity to
make milkshakes — they let a minor
earth tremor do the work. An earth-
quake shook the Walla Walla Valley
at 1:04 p.m. Tuesday. It hit northeast
of Milton-Freewater near the Oregon/
Washington border. It was centered some
seven miles beneath the earth’s surface,
University of Washington seismologist
Ruth Ludwin said, and measured about
4.2 on the Richter scale. Becky Wilson,
manager of the Milton-Freewater Dairy
Queen, said the quake made a sound
similar to a jet airplane flying overhead
and that the floor of the fast-food restau-
rant shook for several seconds.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Today is the 196th day of
2017. There are 169 days left
in the year.
Today’s Highlight in
History:
On July 15, 1997,
fashion designer Gianni
Versace, 50, was shot dead
outside his Miami Beach
home; suspected gunman
Andrew Phillip Cunanan, 27,
was found dead eight days
later, a suicide. (Investigators
believed Cunanan killed four
other victims before Versace
in a cross-country spree that
began the previous March.)
On this date:
In 1799, French soldiers
in Egypt discovered the
Rosetta Stone, which proved
instrumental in deciphering
ancient Egyptian hiero-
glyphs.
In 1870, Georgia became
the last Confederate state to
be readmitted to the Union.
Manitoba entered confeder-
ation as the fifth Canadian
province.
In 1916, Boeing Co.,
originally known as Pacific
Aero Products Co., was
founded in Seattle.
In
1932,
President
Herbert Hoover announced
he was slashing his own
salary by 20 percent, from
$75,000 to $60,000 a year;
he also cut Cabinet members’
salaries by 15 percent, from
$15,000 to $12,750 a year.
In 1942, “The Pride of
the Yankees,” Samuel Gold-
wyn’s biopic starring Gary
Cooper as baseball star Lou
Gehrig, premiered in New
York.
In 1948, President Harry
S. Truman was nominated
for another term of office
by the Democratic national
convention in Philadelphia.
In 1964, Sen. Barry M.
Goldwater of Arizona was
nominated for president
by the Republican national
convention in San Francisco.
In 1976, a 36-hour
kidnap ordeal began for 26
schoolchildren and their bus
driver as they were abducted
near Chowchilla, California,
by three gunmen and impris-
oned in an underground
cell. (The captives escaped
unharmed; the kidnappers
were caught.)
Today’s
Birthdays:
Author Clive Cussler is 86.
Actor Ken Kercheval is 82.
Actor Patrick Wayne is 78.
Actor Jan-Michael Vincent
is 73. Rhythm-and-blues
singer Millie Jackson is 73.
Rock singer-musician Peter
Lewis (Moby Grape) is 72.
Singer Linda Ronstadt is 71.
Rock musician Artimus Pyle
is 69. Arianna Huffington,
co-founder of The Huffington
Post, is 67. Rock musician
Marky Ramone is 61. Rock
musician Joe Satriani is
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