HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUG. 26, 1937
PAGE THREE
LEXINGTON NEWS
Lexington People
In News of the Week
By Bertha Hunt
Mrs. Earl Hunt and two daugh
ters, Enid and Patricia, of Portland
are visiting relatives and friends
here.
Vacation Bible school was held this
week at the Congregational church
with Rev. and Mrs. Sturdevant as
teachers. On Saturday the pupils
enjoyed a party on the church lawn.
Among those going to Pendleton
this week were Mrs. Earl Warner,
Mrs. Lou Broadley, Mrs. Maude
Pointer, Laurel Beach, Mr. and Mrs.
Ralph Jackson and family, Mr. and
Mrs. Elmer Hunt, Mrs. Arthur Hunt,
Louise and Dean Hunt.
Mrs. Otto Ruhl and son and Mrs.
Arthur Hunt and children drove
to Arlington Monday to meet Mrs.
Etta Hunt of Portland.
Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Messenger and
children spent the week end in
Boardman.
Mrs. Carolyn Kuns of La Grande
visited for a few days this week at
the home of Mrs. Sarah Booher.
Carlyle and Lawrence, young sons
of Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle Harrison of
Marshfield, are visiting their grand
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence
Palmer.
Lon Edwards and Adolph Majeski
made a business trip to White Bluffs,
Wash., Sunday.
Mrs. Eldon Winkley of Corvallis
is spending her vacation with her
mother, Mrs. Ola Ward.
Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Nichols, Dona
Barnett and Trina Parker spent
Sunday in the mountains.
William Ganger of Pendleton was
a business visitor in Lexington Mon
day. Beulah Nichols visited in Lexing
ton Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Whillock and
daughter Carla went to the moun
tains Sunday.
Laurel Beach of Gresham visited
with his mother, Mrs. Elsie M. Beach,
a few days this week.
Mrs. Florence Beach left Saturday
for Portland to visit her two sisters,
Mrs. Mable Raymond and Mrs,
Eda Hewitt.
Mrs. Viola Duvall and two chil
dren of Nyssa are visiting at the
Harry Duvall home.
Mrs. Beulah Nichols and son Billie
have moved to the Gilman apart
ments at Heppner.
T. W. Cutsforth recently purchased
a new Plymouth coupe.
The candid cameramen, James
Leach and Arnold Sprauer, were
busy the last two weeks taking
moving pictures of both grownups
and youngsters in Lexington. Last
Friday afternoon and evening "Stars
of 1937" was shown at the local hall.
Much enjoyment was had by all who
attended and saw themselves "as
others see them" in real life.
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lyons and
two children who have been visiting
at the Harvey Bauman home, left for
their home in Portland Monday.
W. B. Tucker and Billie Nichols
went to Hermiston Monday.
David Clark, weight 7 lbs., arrived
Monday to Mr. and Mrs. Merle Mil
ler of Lexington, at the home of Mrs.
P. A. Mollahan at Heppner.
Helen Breshears and Bud Park
drove to Hermiston Sunday.
'Lil 01' Cow Town
Prepares for Fiesta
Mayor Jones with deep purple
shirt and black sombrero . . . Eddie
Chinn in light shaded 10-galloner
and bright green Windsor . . . Those
of "real sport" age decked out as
Will Rogerses and Buck Jonses,
many with drawn six guns . . . the
queen age on horseback . . . Gala
bedecked Main and swabbing down
of plate glass . . . Preparation of the
midway . . . Working out of bang
tails . . . Directors dashing madly
about . . . Cars with horse-trailers
. . . Strange faces of lanky boys in
waist overalls and range lids .
Dick Lawrence getting himself a
horse, a big one . . . Activity in the
vacant corner of the Peters building
... a dime portrait wendor . . , Jim
my Healy carrying loads of bread
from the bakers . . . Harry Tenney
in long-flowing red tie and large
louse cage . . . Click of horses' hoofs
on concrete . . . And horses, horses,
still more horses. . .
o Motor Cruising for Fun o
Trip to Grand Coulee Made by Motorlogers . . Darn Maris Largest Work
This newspaper U co-operating with the
Oregon State Motor association and The
Iregonian in presenting a series of motor
rulses under the title, "Motor Cruising for
Tun." It is hoped thereby to stimulate
ravel In the Pacific northwest. The follow
.og article has been condensed from a
full-page article appearing in The Oregonlan
July 18.
BY RICHARD L. NEUBERGER
A few years ago if the people of
Oregon wanted to glimpse the larg
est evidence of man's ingenuity, an
extensive journey was necessary.
They had to span the hemisphere
to Egypt to view the great pyramid
of Gizeh.
Now, this mission can be accom
plished in much simpler and less
expensive fashion. All that is re
quired is a 381-mile automobile
drive from Portland. The change in
traveling distance is not because the
great pyramid has been magically
transported to the Pacific north
west, but because the great pyramid
is no longer the largest man-made
object on earth. It has been super
seded by Grand Coulee dam.
Grand Coulee is tremendous. It
challenges verbal description. It is
like some relic or the massive ana
thundering ice age that still sur
vives in an era of smaller and lesser
creations. The only way to under
stand its unbelievable proportions
is to point your automobile north
eastward and drive the 381 miles
necessary to see it for yourself.
On the way to Grand Coulee you
will pass Bonneville dam, as did the
white motorlog car of The Orego
nian and the Oregon State Motor
association. Perhaps your reaction
will be the same as that of Harris
Ellsworth, publisher of the Rose
burg News-Review. En route up the
Columbia along the Washington
bank of the river, he looked at Bon
neville. "By gosh!" he said, "that's
some project. Just get a look at
those piers and penstocks."
Later, Passing Remark
Two days later the motorlog car
came back past Bonneville, headed
down the river this time. In the
interim Ellsworth had seen Grand
Coulee. He viewed Bonneville with
out comment for several moments.
Then he turned to an astonished
government truard standing nearby.
"Nice cute little dam you have here,"
he blithely remarked. "Do the boys
take it down at night, or do they
work on it all the tune ?"
There is but one method of ap
preciating the size of Grand Coulee
see it for yourself. However, a few
comparisons with Bonneville may
be of interest. Bonneville will be 170
feet high. Grand Coulee 500 feet.
Bonneville will be 180 feet thick,
Grand Coulee 550 feet. Bonneville
will be 1800 feet long, Grand Coulee
4300 feet. .
To reach this monumental edifice,
you drive via U. S. 830 up the Colum
bia gorge from Vancouver to Gold
endale. Then on U. S. 97 to Ellens
burg, going through Toppenish and
Yakima. This consumes about 240
of the miles between Portland and
Grand Coulee. From Ellensburg,
which is near the center of the state
of Washington, you point your radi
ator cap directly east to Vantage,
where the highway spans the Co
lumbia on a spectacular bridge.
Then you head northward to Quincy.
It is on this stretch that the
motorist, for the first time appre
ciates the bigness and immensity
of the region into which he is driv
ing. The canyon walls of the Co
lumbia become more precipitous.
Weird and towering rock forma
tions flank the highway. Lofty hills
roll away to the horizon like the
folds of some monstrous blanket.
Occasional farmhouses are dots
against the background of wilder
ness grandeur. Here and there are
the ruins of dry-farming experi
ments that failed mute and tragic
reminders of the great irrigation
project that lies ahead.
First Sight of Coulee
You drive almost due north, go
through the mineral-springs health
resort of Soap lake, and there,
visible from the center of town, is
the opening of one of the remark
able geological phenomena of all
time the Grand Coulee of the Co
lumbia river. It is like the entrance
of a huge trough not a trough dug
by men with steam shovels and dy
namite, but a trough gouged by
some supernatural power transcend
ing all the efforts of all the men
who ever lived.
Through this vast declevity the
road goes. You drive up it with
mingled awe and wonder. On either
side the cliffs are as sharp-brinke'd
as shoe-box edges. A mammoth
chisel could not have carved them
straighter. The bottom of the coulee
is flat and dotted with an occa
sional rock formation or lake.
At the end of this boxlike chasm,
the road circles up a sharp cliff
and you discover yourself in an
other coulee the exact replica of the
first. A 400-foot precipice as straight
as the front of a safe separates the
upper and lower coulee.
Wheeling your automobile up the
coulee, a trough effect is noted
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An outstanding shot of the Grand Coulee structure, taken from the base
sharp cliffs and smooth floor, and
again the impression of immensity
and vastness. At the head of the
upper coulee you drive around the
monolithic bulk of Steamboat rock,
swing through clusters of shacks
and tarpaper buildings, and there
it is Grand Coulee!
Only One Road
In and out of tne construction
site there is only one road. You
take it and the car winds like a
scenic railroad around cliffs and
bluffs until you roll through a
model village that might have been
transplanted from the Swiss Alps.
The entire setting is one of tre
mendous magnitude. The river
pours through the granite gorge
with the speed and fury of a thou
sand locomotives in a thousand
tunnels. The granite walls and
basalt formations dip down to the
stream and stand against the sky
line, survivors of the great ice-sheet
of the Pleistocene Epoch, when
'glaciers from the arctic carved the
upland plateau that dominates east
jern Washington.
I You can get a hotel room with
! bath in Mason City for $2.50. The
hotel is a hastily built structure,
because it will be torn down after
the dam is finished. But it is com
fortable and roomy. Not a chimney
pokes through its roof. Electricity
provides plenty of heat,even in sub
zero weather. There are a few
cafeterias and restaurants in the
town, but the best place to eat is at
the messhall. Meals there cost 60
cents to tourists and 50 cents to
persons accompanied by govern
ment officials.
During the summer months it Is
as dry near the dam as a piece of
zweibach and you can camp out
without hardship. Tents can be
rented. There are a lot of eating
"joints" in Grand Coulee, Electric
City and the other surrounding
communities, but unless you cook
your own food the messhall is the
best bet for victuals.
Information Service Good
The department of the interior,
through the reclamation bureau,
has made excellent arrangements
for providing information for peo
ple who visit the project. A view
tower and grandstand (both free)
look down on the dam, and a loud
speaker public-address system car
ries the announcer's explanation to
persons within several hundred
feet. There is a supply available of
pamphlets that are clearly written
and explain the purpose of the en
terprise without indulging in long
words and effulgent phraseology.
If you want more data than this
public service supplies, there are
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Map shows routes to Grand Coulee dam from Oregon
two men in the long, colonial-style
administration building at the
model village who make it their
business to describe the project to
people who want to look behind the
superficialities.
They are O. G. F. Markhus, the
engineer in charge of public re
lations, and S. E. Hutton, the di
rector of publicity. Markhus is a
whimsical, bald Scotchman who
wears a cap and smokes a pipe.
Hutton has a little goatee and looks
like the late Lincoln Steffens. They
are quiet, philosophic individuals,
who love to amplify Grand Coulee
to bewildered persons who cannot
understand just why the federal
government is spending more
money in eastern Washington than
it cost to build the Panama canal.
Briefly, here is the why of Grand
Coulee: The Columbia basin project
is a chunk of potentiality fertile
land twice as large as Rhode Island.
To bear in abundance all the crops
native to the northwest all it needs .
is water. Water it can get if the
Columbia is diverted back into the
coulee, and thence run from the
coulee through irrigation canals
to the Columbia basin project. This
can be accomplished by throwing
the world's largest chunk of mason
ry across the river at the head of
the coulee, and generating enough
power to put the water back where
it flowed thousands of years ago.
Thus, Grand Coulee dam.
Roads Over Project
There are automobile roads all
over the various parts of the proj
ect, and the bureau of reclamation
is co-operative in enabling tourists
to drive to the various points of in
terest. Blasts are set off at specified
times each day, and thus motorists
know exactly when to be on hand
for the most spectacular feature of
the construction work.
As you come back, everything
seems smaller than when you went
up. Bonneville dam was not the only
object that impressed Harris Ells
worth as being smaller after he had
seen Grand Coulee. Even the cliffs
flanking the river looked less mas
sive than the great granite walls and
bluffs near the biggest man-made
edifice on earth. Grand Coulee is
the Colossus of Rhodes among the
dams of the world, and everything
looks less significant and of less pro
portions after the ultimate has been
seen.