NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Eastern Oregon town is gone, but its namesake store remains
wholly dependent on a lumber
mill. The mill closed in 1959 —
just one year after the area was
named the geographic center of the
United States with the addition of
Alaska and Hawaii.
“They were going to name it
Centerville, U.S.A., but the town
closed up,” said Lori Brock, Bob’s
daughter who moved to Pondosa
several years ago.
Lester Gaddy, brother to Bob’s
wife, Jean, saw an advertisement
in the Eugene Register-Guard.
“The whole town. For sale,”
Lori said.
Lester, she said, “traded three
city blocks for the whole town.”
Lester died in 1982, and left his
property to Jean, his only sister.
Jean and Bob Bennett faced a
decision: sell the Pondosa prop-
erty, or sell their Eugene home and
move to Eastern Oregon.
“I had a debate on it,” Bob
remembers.
He’d lived in Eugene all of
his life, and had recently retired
from Georgia-Pacific, a timber
company.
But he was tired of the rain west
of the Cascades. So the couple sold
their place and moved to Pondosa
in 1983.
“All this nice sunshine and
fresh air,” Bob said. “It was a good
idea. I kept busy over here.”
Although the houses had been
sold and moved to other towns
nearby, Bob discovered a huge pile
of sawdust left at the mill site.
He can point it out, too, on the
aerial photo of Pondosa that hangs
on the wall of the store. He set to
BY LISA BRITTON
Baker City Herald
PONDOSA — Bob Bennett
is just three years older than the
Pondosa Store, where he’s been
selling cold drinks and ice cream
since 1983.
Bob, 98, was born in 1923.
The store was built in 1926 to
serve Pondosa, a mill town about 25
miles north of Baker City, a couple
miles from Medical Springs.
Pondosa as a town no longer
exists. But Bob is happy to share
the story with anyone who happens
by his remote store.
Although Pondosa was home
to 500 people at one time, it was
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Pondosa proclaimed itself as the
geographic center of the U.S. after
Hawaii and Alaska were added as
states in 1959.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Bob Bennett, left, and his daughter, Lori Brock, at the front door of the
Pondosa store July 20, 2021.
grinding up that sawdust and
started selling it as garden mulch.
“I’d deliver it in 5-yard loads all
over,” he said.
That kept him busy for a while,
until the pile finally disappeared.
“It took 20 years,” he said with
a smile.
While he worked at that, Jean ran
the store.
“People yet talk about her. She’d
visit with everybody,” Bob said.
Jean passed away in 2015. During
her illness, she and Bob lived in
Nampa, Idaho, with Lori and her
husband, Dennis.
After Jean died, Lori thought her
father might stay in Idaho with her.
But he returned to Pondosa in the
winter of 2015.
The store is warmed by three
wood stoves, so Lori and Dennis
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
| Go to AccuWeather.com
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
came as often as they could to help
haul firewood and move the snow-
drifts.
That lasted only a few months
before they decided, in February
2016, to move to Pondosa.
Prior to her marriage, Lori had
lived in Pondosa for a time, and she
met her husband in Baker City.
“Twenty-five years later, we’re
back,” she said with a smile.
The Pondosa store has 15
bedrooms. During the days of the
mill operation, the 12 bedrooms
upstairs were rented to single men
— two to a room. They all shared
one bathroom.
In addition to the store, the town
boasted a gas station, meat market
and post office.
“That old vault is where they
stored the payroll,” Bob said, point-
July jobless rate drops to 5.2%
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Sunny, pleasant
and warmer
Partly sunny and
nice
84° 60°
79° 55°
Some sun with a
passing shower
Sunny and
delightful
Nice with plenty of
sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
76° 55°
77° 51°
80° 49°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
88° 63°
82° 57°
81° 60°
81° 47°
83° 51°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
70/58
79/54
87/57
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
85/62
Lewiston
76/61
89/62
Astoria
67/58
Pullman
Yakima 86/56
77/56
85/60
Portland
Hermiston
78/62
The Dalles 88/63
Salem
Corvallis
75/57
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
80/52
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
81/58
80/49
82/51
Ontario
84/55
Caldwell
Burns
79°
61°
91°
57°
105° (1967) 44° (1987)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
78/57
Trace
Trace
0.10"
1.93"
1.66"
5.24"
WINDS (in mph)
80/52
81/45
Trace
0.01"
0.18"
4.37"
8.68"
8.49"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 75/47
80/59
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
84/60
86/63
75°
58°
88°
58°
106° (1897) 43° (1904)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
77/57
Aberdeen
81/57
86/63
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
76/59
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
84/61
Fri.
WSW 4-8
W 6-12
SA LEM — O regon
added 20,000 jobs in July
and the state’s jobless rate
dropped from 5.6% to 5.2%,
the steepest monthly decline
in nearly a year.
The numbers out Tuesday,
Aug. 17, from the Oregon
Employment Department
indicate the state is continu-
ing its rapid recovery from
the COVID-19 pandemic,
but the rampant spread of the
coronavirus’ delta variant
has introduced considerable
uncertainty for the fall.
And tens of thousands
of unemployed Oregonians
face additional hardship
when expanded federal
benefits expire next month.
The national unemploy-
ment rate was 5.4% last
month. In Oregon, July’s job
gains were more than double
the monthly average of 9,100
over the prior six months.
Oregon counted 105,000
79/46
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:00 a.m.
7:56 p.m.
6:47 p.m.
2:15 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Aug 22
Aug 29
Sep 6
Sep 13
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 105° in Zapata, Texas Low 29° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
workers as unemployed last
month, a little more than half
as many as in July 2020.
Hiring was strongest
in the government and the
leisure- and-hospitality
sectors, which added 12,800
and 7,100 jobs, respec-
tively. Those segments
were among those hardest
hit by the pandemic, and
both had been struggling to
find workers after the state
began widespread reopening
last spring.
Employment at hotels,
restaurants and bars remains
well below where it was
before the pandemic. The
employment department
says the leisure- and-hos-
pitality sector has regained
just 60% of the jobs lost to
the pandemic recession.
Expanded federal bene-
f its in place since the
pandemic began in March
2020 will end the week of
Sept. 4 unless Congress
steps in with a last-minute
extension, a prospect that
looks unlikely given the
sharp partisan divide in the
Capitol.
That would mean an end
to $70 million in weekly
benefits for tens of thou-
sands of Oregonians, many
of whom are not counted in
the monthly unemployment
figures.
The expanded programs
include a $300 weekly
bonus, extended benefits for
people who remained unem-
ployed for a long period of
time, and a program called
Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance for contractors
and other self-employed
workers who aren’t usually
eligible for jobless aid.
Oregon had 115,000
people receiving assis-
tance under such temporary
federal programs at the end
of July, though that figure
has been falling rapidly for
several months and may
number fewer than 100,000
when the expanded benefits
expire after Labor Day.
SW 7-14
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
ing to a structure just across the
driveway from the store.
Although the store was closed
for a bit when Jean was sick, and
again in the depths of the coronavi-
rus pandemic, it is now open seven
days a week.
“Once we got Dad vaccinated,
we opened back up,” Lori said.
Lori, who is a registered nurse,
administered her dad’s second dose,
on Feb. 11 at the Baker County
Health Department in Baker City.
“We’re here and adding to our
business,” Bob added.
Lori said the store stocks “mostly
refreshments and snacks” — soda,
ice cream, candy and chips. But Bob
can serve up burritos, too, and he
offers some essentials, such as flour,
sugar, milk and eggs.
They’ve also applied for a liquor
license.
The store is open daily from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Offerings have
expanded outside as well. This
spring they developed three camp-
sites, and Lori posted the availabil-
ity on the website hipcamp. com.
“We get campers off the free-
way,” Lori said. “North Carolina is
the farthest away.”
Between the store and camp-
sites is a deck surrounded by trees
and flowers in an area dedicated to
Jean’s memory.
“We fixed up Mom’s little park,”
Lori said.
She said it’s proven popular as
a resting spot for touring car clubs
as well as travelers on motorcycles
and bicycles.
“It’s like a little oasis in the
middle of the desert,” Lori said.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Oregon State Hospital must
resume admitting patients
within 7 days, court rules
PORTLAND — The Ninth Circuit Court
on Monday, Aug. 16, decided the Oregon State
Hospital must again admit certain patients
within seven days, overturning a federal
judge’s May 2020 ruling that put a pause on
that directive.
In the early stages of the COVID-19
pandemic, U.S. District Judge Michael
W. Mosman modified a 2002 court order
requiring the state psychiatric hospital to
admit people no longer than seven days after
they’ve been found unable to aid and assist in
their own defense. His decision removes the
time limit on keeping those patients in jail
to accommodate the state hospital’s limited
admissions policy as the pandemic worsened.
Advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon
has long protested Mosman’s decision, saying
that leaving patients in jail violates their
constitutional rights. The group appealed the
decision with the Ninth Circuit Court, urging
the judges to consider the constitutional rights
of patients awaiting trial.
The judges sided with Disability Rights
Oregon, ruling the state hospital must resume
admitting aid-and-assist patients within a
week. They also asked Mosman to assess
whether a modification to the admissions
policy for aid-and-assist patients is still neces-
sary in the long-term, considering things like
the hospital’s capacity and its ability to comply
with public health rules during this phase of
the pandemic.
“Our hope is that the judge determines a
modification is no longer necessary,” Cooper
told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
A state hospital spokesperson did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
The state hospital began staggering admis-
sions at the beginning of the pandemic,
converting two of its units to test and moni-
tor newly-admitted patients for two weeks
before placing them in the general popula-
tion. That required the state hospital to limit
its pace of admissions.
— The Oregonian
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
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cold front
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