A2 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
COMMUNITY
HERMISTON HISTORY
THREE MINUTES WITH ...
Hermiston overbuilt after 1970s
By SHANNON PAXTON
OF THE HERMISTON HERALD
25 YEARS AGO
SEPTEMBER 29, 1992
• Chasing the American
Dream of owning your own
home is harder these days
— by one measure, twice
as hard as just two years
ago. That one measure is
the number of homes on
the market. With fewer than
half the number of proper-
ties listed for sale in the
Hermiston area MLS Mul-
tiple Listing Service than
two years ago, home buyers
are facing not just a shorter
supply, but rising prices as
well. According to Charotte
Dack of ERA Universal
Realty, housing prices have
been “very depressed over
the past several years.”
Dack believes the area —
Hermiston, Stanfi eld, Uma-
tilla and even Irrigon and
Boardman — has been over
built since the growth spurt
of the 1970s. That over sup-
ply of housing forced prices
down for a number of years
and recovery is just now
taking place.
• Memorizing 42 pag-
es of complex drill move-
ments and 10 minutes
of music is the common
chore of Hermiston High
School’s 141 marching
band members. “For the
younger kids they have to
learn harder music than
ever before — it has to be
memorized, and they have
to perform it while remem-
bering the drill” said the
band director. “It’s a hard
thing to do when judges
are watching you.” March-
ing band members started
practice two weeks before
school started, with a series
of special camps for differ-
ent sections. There was a
week of percussion camp,
with Allen Kowen from
the University of Oregon, a
week of color guard camp
and lots of music rehears-
al. Students fi rst saw the
42-page drill, written by
nationally known drill in-
structor Ron Maier, during
camp.
50 YEARS AGO
SEPTEMBER 28, 1967
• Hermiston Airport,
two miles south of town
on the Hermiston-Stanfi eld
Highway and about one-
half mile from the highway
sign pointing into it, is just
small enough that the aver-
age passer-by might not no-
tice it unless he happened
to see a plane taking off or
landing. There are about 30
local operations a day and
almost half that many tran-
sient planes moving in and
out daily. In approximately
an hour that a Herald writ-
er was at the airport, three
planes landed and took off.
And that was just an ordi-
nary day. During Friday
and Saturday of Round-up,
several out-of-state lanes
landed. Wrex Langdon
is manager of Hermiston
Municipal Airport, owned
by the city of Hermiston.
He is assisted by his wife,
who helps in such things as
radio contact calls for advi-
sory information. The three
planes mentioned, which
HERALD ARCHIVE
Marching band members performed before an excited home
crowd at a game against the Crook County Cowboys. The
marching band’s 140-plus members began practice two
weeks before school started and have additional practices
two nights a week. They were scheduled to join 25 other
bands in competition at the Cavalcade of Bands in Pasco.
landed while we were
there, each called before
arriving for an advisory
check and there were some
other calls for weather and
wing checks from planes in
the air.
• Hermiston School
District 8R residents Mon-
day voted 373 in favor and
335 against contracting a
bonded indebtedness of
$1,385.140 for improve-
ments and additions to each
of the fi ve schools in the
local system. Two ballots
were voided, and the total
number of ballots cast was
710. Tuesday evening the
board of directors met to
canvass the ballots and dis-
cussed with attorney Rustin
Brewer about the sale of the
bonds and legal documents
to be prepared. It was de-
cided to advertise for sale
of the bonds on October 5
and 12 and open the bids on
October 23.
75 YEARS AGO
OCTOBER 1, 1942
• Playing their opening
game last Friday on their
home fi eld, the Hermiston
High Bulldogs drubbed
the potentially strong Ken-
newick team, 20 to 6. The
local boys scored in every
quarter but the fi rst, and
managed to count up a
safety in the second. The
fi rst quarter started off with
a bang. The Bulldogs elect-
ing to receive, returned a
30-yard kick for 12 yards,
and then ran off two fi rst
downs before the Ken-
newick boys could call a
time out and rally their
defense. The Hermiston
fans’ hopes ran high until
two plays later when Ken-
newick took the ball and
began a drive which ended
in a touchdown, In exactly
9 plays aided by a 15-yard
roughness penalty against
the locals the mammoth
black shirted boys put the
ball over on a 12 yard pass
into the end zone. The bat-
tle then see sawed back and
forth with the ball ending
in Hermiston’s hands on
her own 40 at quarter time.
Score 6 points for Kenne-
wick.
• The Hermiston Black-
smith shop, owned by LF
Beaver, has been named
as offi cial salvage depot
for this area, according to
Gene Lear, district chair-
man. Mr. Beaver will buy
all scrap steel and cast as
Printed on
recycled
newsprint
VOLUME 111 ● NUMBER 39
Gary L. West | Editor • gwest@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4532
it is brought in and pay for
the material in accordance
with minimum prices es-
tablished by the War Pro-
duction Board. Surveys
indicate that there is still a
large amount of scrap metal
on farms and around homes
in this area. It is hoped by
the county salvage commit-
tee that all this scrap may
be brought in during the
next two weeks. It is badly
needed in the war industry
plants. In order to meet the
scrap quota for Umatilla
County it will be necessary
to average 200 pounds of
the metal per person. Scrap
steel should be separat-
ed from scrap cast if 100
pounds or over of each met-
al is brought in, according
to Mr. Lear. The Hermiston
Rotary club will sponsor
the drive for scrap metals in
the city and will announce
in the near future a date
when a truck will pick up
the material about town.
100 YEARS AGO
SEPTEMBER 29, 1917
• A record kept of the
people who have come to
this area the past two weeks
shows that over one half
were here for the purpose
of looking at the lands con-
tained herein over with a
view to purchasing a farm.
These people would no
doubt locate at once were it
not for the fact that they left
their eastern and southern
homes with the avowed in-
tention of thoroughly look-
ing over the qualities of the
different farming sections
in the Pacifi c Coast states
before making any defi nite
selection. Therefore, it is
safe to predict that in view
of the many people coming
here who are home seekers,
a large majority of them will
eventually settle in this fer-
tile valley. The balance of
those of whom a record was
kept came to visit relatives
and friends, and went away
with the feeling that should
chance present they would
dispose of their possessions
elsewhere and come to this
county to reside,
• Probably the quickest
and most thorough piece
of work ever done here in
the way of clearing, level-
ing and fl uming raw land
is that being accomplished
by WH Skinner, who on
August 28 last began the
huge task of preparing and
seeding to rye and alfalfa
the big tract of land north-
west of Hermiston a short
distance recently purchased
by a party of Tillamook
dairymen. How well he has
progressed with the under-
taking thus far can only be
appreciated by a trip to the
land, and even when there
one can hardly believe that
the ground could be trans-
formed from a sagebrush
area into a cultivated tract
in so short a space of time.
But with experience de-
rived from other like con-
quests and a goodly amount
of energy, Mr. Skinner has
directed the work of putting
in cultivation the vast tract
of land in such an able man-
ner that owners will never
have cause for complaint,
the system of irrigation
mapped out being far in the
lead of any we have seen
thus far on the projects.
ALEXIS
MANSANAREZ
Sports reporter,
Hermiston Herald and East Oregonian
When and why did you move to Hermiston?
I moved to Hermiston about a month ago after tak-
ing a sports reporter position at the East Orego-
nian.
What is your favorite place to eat in Herm-
iston?
I have to say my apartment kitchen. I enjoy cooking
very much (and it’s a lot cheaper than eating out).
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Depending on the weather, I enjoy being outside
and exploring and on rainy days, I’ll fi nd some-
thing to binge watch on Netfl ix.
What surprises you about Hermiston?
I was surprised at just how nice everyone was, and
still is. I’m coming from Seattle where people rarely
smiled back at you on the street.
What was the last book you read, and would
you recommend it?
I couldn’t tell you the last book I fully read, but I
also enjoy a great sports feature. The most recent
that stood out to me was one by Mina Kimes of
ESPN on Aaron Rodgers. I highly recommend giv-
ing it a read.
What app or website do you use most often
other than Facebook?
Twitter. Defi nitely Twitter.
If you could travel anywhere in the world,
where would you go?
Spain. I have always wanted to visit.
What is the funniest thing that’s ever hap-
pened to you?
I have had way too many embarrassing moments
that I have blocked out of my memory.
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Herald, 333 E. Main St., Hermiston, OR
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