Image provided by: Sherman County Historical Museum; Moro, OR
About Sherman County journal. (Moro, Or.) 1931-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1959)
Eighty Years of Power Life in Oregon Vastly Easier Than in (Old) Days When Grandfather H ad Only Horses and Muscle Oregonians of the Centennial year are supermen of energy. They perform almost miraculous feats of labor in a few minutes rather than days, and live in dream hcmes-washing clothes, preparing meals and cleaning house in hours ret her than in days of a week. The energy today s Oregonians use so matter-of-factly is electri city. In terms of its use at work and at home, a single kilowatt-hour, which is one thousand watts used for one hour, is the measure of a giant. The muscle energy an average man can exert in one eight-hour working day for example has been calculated as equivalent to that of a mere 35 minutes of electricity. How much work electricity per forms is reflected by industrial applications. In terms of human energy equivalents, the average per-man use of 69 kilowatt-hours every day means that 240 men stand beside every worker at a sawmill head-rig in Prineville, a trailer assembly line in McMinn ville, and a furniture factory in Filot Rock. And throughout the state, based on average household use of electricity, the homemakers busily operate equipment equal to 90 servants at work each day in each home. Great - grandfather could have used those extra hands in an early- day woolen mill at Brownsville or at clearing the Barlow Road, and grandmother would have welcomed the help in the homestead on the Tualatin plain. Region Tse High Oregonians of today live in a region that enjoys the advantages of more electricity at use in their homes than anywhere else, twice as much as the national average and at a cost less than half the U.S. average. Forecasts are for con sumption to double every ten years. The family that now uses between 7,000 and 10,000 kilowatt-hours an nually will likely be using 14,000 cr 20,000 in a decade. Growth of the electric utility in dustry in the state has included eras of pioneering typical of the spirit that motivated the stalwart emigrants and their sons whose en terprise has marked the state's progress. The earliest adoption in the state of the awe-inspiring idea that some thing invisible could make a motor turn faster than a steam engine, or produce a light brighter than a whale-oil lamp, was linked with a r rival of ships in Willamette River ports. Arcs from a bare-wire circuit I hiked to a dynamo aboard the steamship California introduced the magic of electricity to Portland in 1X79. The next year, the United States Electric Lighting and Power Ccmpany was formed in the city. Shortly thereafter a string of lamps served by a sawmill dynamo lit up Astoria on a Christmas Eve for the start of a service that eventually grew into the present utility there. Other pioneering ventures includ ed the first long-distance transmis sion of power, from the Willam ette Falls hydroelectric plant. winch in 1X89 was a pioneer in the west, to Portland, a distance of 14 miles. Then in 1905 the mag- n.ficencp of 80,000 electric globes lighting the Lewis & Clark Expos ition became the talk of the nation. Pioneering of rural electrification into Hood River and Wallowa val leys by predecessors of Pacific Power & Light Company was an achievement of 1906 Electric service for homes and factories became almost universal ir. later years, when power systems began linking larger areas to cen tral station generating- plants. During World War 11 these’ systems became interconnected and grew into the first regional power pool, oi which the Oregon utilities are a part. Because of these activities by the industry, Oregon has long en joyed the benefits of ample elec tric supplies of light and power. Large dams now dot the state and tne great rivers on its borders, and transmission networks link tneir powerhouses to farms, homes, and factories. Expansions are con tinuing, to provide for the years ahead. The utilities serving Oregon share with the federal government in the greatest hydroelectric program ever advanced by any region. The con N O T A C E N T E N N IA L POSED SHOT it the above picture, taken struction caps more than a half- • n 1906. of Ezra Meeker and hit oxen in Pendleton. century of progress that rapidly is utilizing the remaining good In the middle of the 19th cen hydroelectric sites in the region. sought and fought. And, strange as Consequently, the electric utility it may seem to many Easterners, tury. the immigrants flooded to it is none the less true that most of ward the Pacific Ocean and the companies are looking to thermal- type plants for the future power this 'extra room' is in an area with rich Willamette valley that lay a mild, equable climate and some sheltered just this side of the goal. supplies. These may use fossil, fuels, such as Coos County coal, of the nation's finest scenery and Reaching there they crowded to gether until the inevitable back or the unlimited enegy of nu- natural recreations lands.” wash began. Impact Significant cleai fuel ores being mined from the earth in Lake County. Curry County Reporter. Gold For a centuiy those who flowed Beach: ‘‘Oregon does not have the hack from the first surge, who set large population centers of eastern tled on less favorable land in the states so the smaller towns here great eastern portion of the state, serve a much more important pur built a prosperity unforeseen by pose than similar-sized towns else those headed for quicker rewards where. A town with no more than Now, the second great wave of About Smaller Cities and the two or three thousand persons may immigrants has begun. With Calif be the trading center for a large ornia filling up. with Oregon begin Future of Them in Oregon area. This tends to place a strain ning to want her share, the flood on the small towns since they are. People differ widely as to what Many oi our best citizens develop in a sense, playing over their tide of new residents should over run the state within another cen sized town they like (or city, if in the pleasant atmosphere of the heads.’ In Gold Beach, for example tury. you please)- all the way from the small town." with a population of 1,900 then» is For non-metropolitan Oregon, that metropolis to the village. They dif Seaside Signal: "To a great many a general hospital, yet we have seen boom w iir hold the real promise fer, too, as to their favorite types mid-western cities with populations of town. Some like the so-called residents of metropolitan areas of over 5,000 that do not have hos of the future. Rural communities ‘ bedroom’’ suburb, close to the big towns mean Recreation. This is pitals. Because of these factors, the face a hard choice between their town; some prefer the rural town, particularly true of the towns on small towns of Oregon have a sig natural beauties they cherish and the market-spot for the outlying the scenic Oregon Coast. The fam nificant impact on the state as a the economic benefits of mow people and mow businesses. country; still others are happiest ous Clatsop beaches, Seaside, Can whole.” to be in the little factory town, non Beach, and Gearhart have held Into the smaller town and cities Influx Kxpeetcd where they work at good jobs while the interest of millions of persons of the state will come industry, Redmond Spokesman: “With de their home towns grow into some seeking recreation over a period of centralization of population evi wanting a place to grow in the thing different. All these are good 75 years. They still constitute one dent on every hand, rural Oregon favorable setting built over the weekly newspaper towns. The edit of the most popular recreational can expect an influx of new resi past 100 years. Towns which fail ors and their readers agree, gener areas on the Pacific Coast because dents within the next dozen or so now to protect themselves by care ally, that these various types and of a rare combination of ocean, ex years such as it never saw in the ful zoning, by modern industrial sizes of towns are the backbone of tensive beaches, natural scenic last 50." planning, by long-range social im Oregon, at once a supply depot and beauty, and recreational develop provements may well be ground in Malheur Enterprise, Vale: ", . . to industrial slag heaps by the market for the producers on farm ment.” It is not so much what the future and in factory. Newberg Graphic: ’ Families of holds for non-metropolitan Oregon pressure due to come. The industrial worm is finally due Following are some comments of today frequently prefer to live in as that in the non-metropolitan Ore to turn towards the rural part of editors about what the smaller smaller cities and towns, where gon lies the future." Oregon. The early birds will find Cities and towns mean to Oregon they enter into community life. Madras Pioneer; "Industry, at the choicest chunks await them - Towns close to larger cities and least and the outlook for the future. light industry will find it R.C.H., Hood River News metropolitan centers attract people Rural Life Benefits to locate in small towns, who commute to and from work desirable No Need To Die Woodburn Independent: T h e where employees can live a n d but prefer the neighborliness of the work in an atmosphere conducive smaller cities and towns mean that smaller Port Umpqua Courier: "Some city to life in »he metropo Oregon will continue to be a part- lis, Suburban life is becoming to agreeable relations, permanent people think the building of great super-highways, the tendency of in icularly desirable state in which to more popular, and even in the residence, and low turnover." dustries to congregate and concen live. They provide the benefits of smaller I’aer Accelerated cities there is a tendency rural life but in most cases are Polk County Itemlzer-Observer, trate will spell the doom of little many to build homes in t h e close enough to big cities or met for Dallas: "The growth of non-metro towns. Some will die as some have fringe area or on small acreages ropolitan areas to make possible and politan communities in western always died because they were subdivisions.” the sports and cultural advantages Oregon during the past 15 years founded on pure opportunism, but Small Town* Vital Las been consistent and is bound to those small cities which have Valley Herald, Milton-Freewater: REASONS for being will continue The smaller towns and cities of Hermiston Herald: ‘‘The smaller continue at an accelerated pace. to grow and prosper, and there are Oregon furnish real ‘grassroots' cities and tow nsare just as import The day is here when comparative background for the State of Ore ant to the growth of our state as ly small communities will be the many industries and many people gon. These smaller places are the the large cities are-and just as vi center of manufacturing in various who will seek them out because of lines, where workmen are not com what they can offer. A good exam provisioning points* the suppliers for tal as an aid to the c o n t i n u e d pelled to travel long distances in ple is the City of Bend, which did much ranch and timherland area.” growth of each . . . " crowded traffic. The expansion of not die (as many feared) when Madras Pioneer: “The smaller one of the mills closed some years Myrtle Creek Mail: ‘The future cities and towns of Oregon are of non-metropolitan Oregon? It is the fruit and vegetable.canning in ago for lack of timber.” rallying points for groups and in Opportunity, unlimited. For. as this dustry. together with valley irri Lincoln County Leader, Toledo: dividuals bent on finding ways to nation’s population grows, here in gation to make this possible, means “Small cities and towns are the improve themselves and their com Oregon are the untapped row re much for the entire valley. It means higher land production, market for backbone of American economy - munities.” sources of timber, minerals, and needed pnxlucts, employment for and nowhere is this more important Stayton Mail: smaller cities water power, the sites for industry youths and women as well as men. than in Oregon. Most towns and and towns offer the best living con and homebuilding—the ’lebensraum’ The small towns of the area will cities in Oregon are small, each ditions...with pure air to breathe, or living space, for which the people see continued rapid growth and bet with its own business area, serving elbow room to move about, no con in many nations of the work Id have ter local business.” its own trade area.” gestion to fight, picturesque natural setting to enjoy, and warm and friendly community relationships. Editors Comment S M ITH ROCKS ON CROOKED RIVER, u *« n mil«« north of Redmond, 1« being promoted for a state park by the city of Red mond and the Redmond Chamber of Commerce. OSWALD WEST STATE PARK preserves typically wild ocean shore upon which no developments are to be made to enroach upon the spectacularly scenic beach of three miles. Ths park also In- duds« storied Nsshkahni« mountain which rises V M feet from ths Pacific ocean on ths northern Oregon coast. ♦
