Nyssa Gate City Journal
VOLUME LV
THE NYSSA GATE CITY JOURNAL. NYSSA. OREGON. THURSDAY. APRIL 14. 1960
The Sugar City
Nyssa Rites Held
Tuesday Morning
For B. J. Rookstool
Utility Company Personnel Scans System From Air
Idaho Power Uses Low-Flying Plane
For Inspection of Transmission Lines
“It’s strictly for the birds—and •--------------- ———
men with strong stomachs and
good eyes.”
Such was an observer’s conclu
sion recently as his feet touched
steady, solid earth at Boise again
after three hours in the air on a
typical ground - skimming patrol
of Idaho Power company trans
mission lines.
Taken along for a first-hand
look at how these trouble-spotting
missions are performed, he watch
ed J. Harry Anderson, transmis
sion line maintenance foreman
for Idaho Power’s central division,
carry out a painstaking aerial in
spection over a 200-mile route
extending to the Hagerman valley
and back to Boise again by way
of the utility’s Strike and Swan
Falls generating plants.
Anderson, peering steadily out
the window at the lines while the
patrol’s light plane flew a paral
lel course 75 feet above the
ground, had checked the condition
of pole after pole, their insulators
and the wires stretching between
these structures that march across
the land like soldiers on single-file
parade.
“We can tell much more about
the condition of the pole cross
arms and insulators from the air
than from the ground,” Anderson
had explained at the start of the
patrol as Pilot Harold Dougal lift
ed the chartered plane from the
Boise runway and turned east.
Shouting above the engine’s
throaty roar, the utility foreman
ported that he tries to fly routine
patrols over the central division’s
more than 1,000 miles of transmis
sion lines at least once a month.
Similar aerial inspections also are
performed in Idaho Power’s east
ern, western and southern divi
sions to prevent service interrup
tions, or “outages,” on the utility’s
far-flung complex of high-voltage
lines, which now total more than
3,000 miles.
Anderson continued speaking as
the plane glided earthward above
Idaho Power’s sprawling Boise
Bench substation to start patrol-
ing a line to the east toward
Mountain Home.
"We make emergency patrols
whenever there is bad weather
that might have damaged the lines
or whenever we get a ‘trip-out’
report,” he said. “Dougal and I
can get to a trouble spot much
faster than a crew on the ground.”
In 1959 alone, the foreman flew
nearly 100 routine and emergency
patrols totaling 7,262 miles. Fre
quent ground patrols also are
made in each of the company’s
four divisions.
Anderson pointed to a walkie-
talkie radio on the cabin floor.
“When I spot something wrong
with the lines, I use this to call
the dispatcher in Boise and he
sends out a crew to make repairs.”
Pilot Dougal, an oia hand at
low-level patrols throughout the
Northwest, now had jockeyed the
plane into position about 25 feet
to one side of the transmission
line. For the next 200 miles,
constantly adjusting the plane’s
throttle and flaps, he would fol
low every dip and rise in the
terrain.
“Don't worry,” said Anderson
as he saw the observer look ner
vously at the poles flashing by
just off the wingtip
“We fly low and slow—but we
fly by the safety rules. Dougal
has ben okayed for this type of
flying and holds a special permit
from the Federal Aviation agen-
cy.
Anderson turned his full atten
tion to the line, and the observer
looked around him.
Below, the sage-dotted desert
was almost a blur as the plane
winged eastward. To the south
the sun was playing peek-a-boo
Funeral services were held
Tuesday morning at 10 o’clock for
Benjamin Freeman Rookstool who
succumbed Saturday following a
long illness.
Mr. Rookstool was born Sep
tember 8, 1892 at Spencer, S. D.
In 1894 the family moved to Ham
burg, Iowa where he spent his
early boyhood years. At the age
of 15 years Mr. Rookstool, with
hts family, moved to Custer Coun
ty, Nebr. He completed his edu
cation and grew to manhood near
Callaway, Nebr.
He was married to Virginia Pos
ton July 25, 1913 and to this union
were born five boys and four girls.
One daughter, Harriet preceded
him in death.
Mr. Rookstool was engaged in
farming near Callaway, Nebr. un
til 1936 at which time he and his
family moved to Nyssa where he
proceeded to improve sage brush
land and build a home for his
family. They made their home on
that farm until Mr. Rookstool’s re
tirement in 1958 when they mov
ed to Nyssa.
Surviving are his wife, Virginia
of the home; five sons, Ancel of
Corby, England, Harold of Othel-
in billowing storm clouds, paint
ing the land with light and shad
ow resembling a patchwork quilt.
An eagle, its great wings flap
ping frantically as the plane ap
proached, soared away from its
perch on a pole crossarm.
“Birds that nest in the cross-
arms are one of our biggest prob
lems,” Anderson said. “Twigs or
grass in the nests touch the lines
during wet weather and cause
trouble, but the company is stead
ily putting up another type of
pole that doesn’t give birds any
place to build nests.”
Rain suddenly drummed on the
windshield, just as the plane nos
ed down into the Snake River
canyon near Grandview. The
plane moved across the canyon
floor, where a network of Idaho
power lines gather from all direc
tions like swarming bees, and
then zoomed upward to hurdle the
sheer bluff on the opposite side.
‘This is an up-and-down job
from start to finish,” Anderson
said. “For example, we have to
climb to 8.300 feet where the Em-
mett-Stibnite line goes over
Meadow Creek summit. That
same line goes over Cabin Creek
summit at 7,370 feet and then we
have to glide down the Angels’
Flight slope on the other side.”
The foreman suddenly pointed
out a coyote standing near the line
and looking up at the plane.
“During one patrol we spotted
a cow trapped in a hole near
Buhl,” Anderson recalled. “We
figured out which farm the cow
belonged to and dropped a note
near the farmhouse.
“Not long after that, I got a
letter from the farmer thanking
me and saying the cow had been
missing for two or three days.”
Back in Boise after the three-
hour patrol, Anderson told the
observer that he already had been
on two other flights that day
One had taken him north of
Horseshoe Bend to pinpoint the
source of an outage, while the
other had taken him over the
mountains east of Boise to check
on a false report of a fallen pole.
savings . . . low-cost maintenance . . ,
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AT YOU* FO»0 OEAUEITg
A teenage dance was scheduled
to be held at the Eagles hall Fri
day April 15 The event has been
Funeral services were held postponed until Friday, April 22
Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock from 9 to 11:30 p.m.
for William Reitenbaugh who
died accidently Thursday as he ATTEND FAMILY DINNER
Mr and Mrs. Oscar Schafer at
was testing a homemade device to
lessen the pain and discomfort of tended a family dinner in Cald
well Sunday at the home of Mrs.
a stiff neck.
Schafer’s sister, Mr. and Mrs.
Mr. R< itenbaugh was born De Kerby Kindall LaVada Lenaghen
cember 23. 1896 in Iowa and was and
and Mrs. Arthur Bach
married to Eva Handee in 1922 mann Mr.
of Boise were there.
who succumbed in 1941. In 1954
he was married to Mane Karter.
Brown of Missouri and also 20
He had lived in Iowa, Kansas, grandchildren.
Colorado, Idaho and came to the
Services were held at Lienka-
Nyssa area in November, 1958. He emper chapel with the Rev. Paul
was employed on the farm of Nor Ludlow of the Nyssa Methodist
man Hipp. He was a veteran of church officiating. Interment was
World War I and a member of the made in the Nyssa cemetery with
American Legion.
graveside services conducted by
Surviving are his wife, Marie the American Legion.
of the home; five daughters, Mrs.
aillllirt—■■■—=»
Mabel Robeson of Burley, Idaho,
Mrs. Mamie Wright of Murtaugh,
Idaho, Mrs. Evelyn Wiebe of
Oklahoma. Mrs. Blanche Hart of
Colorado and Miss Marie Reiten Awnings - Siding
baugh of Greeley, Colo.; three
sons, Herbert of Hazelton, Idaho,
Charles of San Diego, Calif., and
DON
Richard of Denver, Colorado.
519
North 8th, Nyssa
Also surviving are one brother,
Phone FR 2-2326
George of Nyssa; two sisters,
Ethel Shaffer of Indiana and Lily
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Funeral Services
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For Wm. Reitenbaugh
NUMBER 15
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three daughters, Mary Jane of
Oregon City, Ore , Betty of Tule
lake, Calif., and Lola of Nampa,
Idaho.
Other survivors are four broth
ers, Chris of Parma, Idaho, Glenn
of Ansley, Nebr., Roy of Nyssa
and Albert of Hastings, Nebr.; two
sisters, Clara of California and
Marie of Hiawatha, Kan.; 23
grandchildren and four great
grandchildren.
Three brothers. Frank, Irvin
and Raleigh and one sister, Ber
tha preceded Mr. Rookstool in
death. Another brother and sister
died in infancy.
Local services were held at Li-
enkaemper chapel with the Rev.
Earl Hastings of the Nyssa Chris
tian church officiating. Interment
was made at Callaway, Nebraska.
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A cast of 19 for the Eastern Ore
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by Richard G. Hiatt, director.
The play is scheduled for May 6,
7, 13 and 14 and included m the
cast is Valene Mitchell of Nyssa.
She is the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. S R. Mitchell of 706 North
Second street.
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51 — ( I
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