A new air terminal building was dedicated at the Pendleton airport in June of 1953, but some rascally rodents were determined to make things tough for air traffic controllers and pilots trying to land at the updated airfield.
Part of the upgrades at the airport was a $48,000 high-intensity lighting system for the runways, complete with wiring shielded with a rubber coating specifically designed to deter the predations of the resident gopher population, which had delighted in sharpening their long teeth on the old lead cables. But the rodents were just as cheerful about gnawing the new rubber insulation. “We’ve had pieces of cable that looked like a cob of corn with bites taken out of it,” said city manager Raymond Botch during a city council meeting on June 17, 1953.
The new lighting system had been limited to medium intensity since the beginning of spring, when the newly awakened gophers’ chewing had left the system susceptible to outages at higher intensities. The airport electrical maintenance supervisor, Herb Wiles, complained that extermination would be next to impossible — poison would be too slow and, with thousands of gopher mounds to contend with, cyanide gas would be ineffective.
But he did have an alternate plan. Wiles suggested pouring a concrete casing around the wires, buried about 18 inches underground. At the same time the casing was being laid, a third wire could be added to the two-wire system to solve the problem of large voltage drops and varying light intensities. The contractor who installed the wiring — but only installed two of the three wires requested — would provide a portion of the necessary funds as part of a settlement with the city.
Botch commented that the Pendleton and Walla Walla areas seemed to have more gophers than most other nearby locales.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Button, dust lead to burglary conviction
It was good old-fashioned police work at its best.
Hill Meat Company in Pendleton was burglarized the night of Feb. 14, 1971, and the firm’s safe had been literally torn apart and scattered around the office. Cash totaling $1,800 was stolen.
Oregon State Police officers John Williams and Jim Toddy began their investigation by interviewing W.D. Perkins, the Hill Meat employee that discovered the burglary at 8:15 a.m. Perkins told the officers that an early 1960s beige station wagon had been seen in the company parking lot the evening prior to the theft.
Pendleton police officer Don Isom also saw the car in the area. He had stopped a similar vehicle in the Sherwood area at 4:45 a.m. for running a stop sign. He talked to the car’s two occupants, George Wesley Storms and Inez Guerrero, who Isom said seemed short of breath and nervous. He let them go with a warning. Police soon learned that both men were convicted safe burglars, but the men and the car had vanished.
Meanwhile, OSP investigators at the scene of the burglary found a single black button in the wreckage of the safe. With this and the descriptions of the two suspects, they asked Umatilla County District Attorney R.P. Smith and District Judge Richard Courson for a search warrant. Smith then headed for Portland, where Storms and Guerrero were well known to law enforcement.
The suspect vehicle was spotted at a Portland bar, and Storms was arrested. Portland police seized the vehicle and OSP investigators Williams and Toddy, and Reg Madsen of the state police crime lab, made a thorough search. In the car they found a copy of the Feb. 13 East Oregonian newspaper and some dust, which was collected with a vacuum cleaner.
But that wasn’t enough evidence to make a solid case. So Portland police, armed with a second warrant, raided a home where Storms was known to have visited recently. And there they collected a black jacket with a missing button. Dust in the pockets of the jacket was also collected.
Pendleton police, armed with mug shots of the two suspects, learned that they had been at Hill Meat Co. a few days prior to the burglary, asking for jobs. But the big break occurred when police interviewed Barry Clift at his service station on Southwest Emigrant Avenue, and learned the suspects’ car had stopped there around 7:15 a.m. the morning following the burglary. Clift said one of the men had pockets full of coins and boasted of making “quite a score.”
Crime lab reports matched the black button to the jacket, and the dust in the car and in the pockets of the jacket included particles of fire clay and paint from the ransacked safe.
During Storms’ trial on June 3, 1971, the prosecution called 18 witnesses to the stand. The jury was out only 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty. The 44-year-old Storms was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Guerrero faced the same charge, but at the time of the trial was being held in a Portland jail on a charge of armed robbery.
Hill Meat Company in Pendleton was burglarized the night of Feb. 14, 1971, and the firm’s safe had been literally torn apart and scattered around the office. Cash totaling $1,800 was stolen.
Oregon State Police officers John Williams and Jim Toddy began their investigation by interviewing W.D. Perkins, the Hill Meat employee that discovered the burglary at 8:15 a.m. Perkins told the officers that an early 1960s beige station wagon had been seen in the company parking lot the evening prior to the theft.
Pendleton police officer Don Isom also saw the car in the area. He had stopped a similar vehicle in the Sherwood area at 4:45 a.m. for running a stop sign. He talked to the car’s two occupants, George Wesley Storms and Inez Guerrero, who Isom said seemed short of breath and nervous. He let them go with a warning. Police soon learned that both men were convicted safe burglars, but the men and the car had vanished.
Meanwhile, OSP investigators at the scene of the burglary found a single black button in the wreckage of the safe. With this and the descriptions of the two suspects, they asked Umatilla County District Attorney R.P. Smith and District Judge Richard Courson for a search warrant. Smith then headed for Portland, where Storms and Guerrero were well known to law enforcement.
The suspect vehicle was spotted at a Portland bar, and Storms was arrested. Portland police seized the vehicle and OSP investigators Williams and Toddy, and Reg Madsen of the state police crime lab, made a thorough search. In the car they found a copy of the Feb. 13 East Oregonian newspaper and some dust, which was collected with a vacuum cleaner.
But that wasn’t enough evidence to make a solid case. So Portland police, armed with a second warrant, raided a home where Storms was known to have visited recently. And there they collected a black jacket with a missing button. Dust in the pockets of the jacket was also collected.
Pendleton police, armed with mug shots of the two suspects, learned that they had been at Hill Meat Co. a few days prior to the burglary, asking for jobs. But the big break occurred when police interviewed Barry Clift at his service station on Southwest Emigrant Avenue, and learned the suspects’ car had stopped there around 7:15 a.m. the morning following the burglary. Clift said one of the men had pockets full of coins and boasted of making “quite a score.”
Crime lab reports matched the black button to the jacket, and the dust in the car and in the pockets of the jacket included particles of fire clay and paint from the ransacked safe.
During Storms’ trial on June 3, 1971, the prosecution called 18 witnesses to the stand. The jury was out only 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty. The 44-year-old Storms was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Guerrero faced the same charge, but at the time of the trial was being held in a Portland jail on a charge of armed robbery.
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Telephone operators save Pilot Rock residents from flood
A cloudburst the afternoon of June 22, 1938, south of Pilot Rock brought a raging torrent of water through the business section of town, demolishing most of the businesses on the south side of Main Street and damaging many homes. No lives were lost and no injuries were suffered, thanks to the efforts of a pair of telephone operators who risked their lives to warn as many of the town’s residents and area ranchers as possible.
An extremely heavy downpour began about 2 p.m., and an hour later there was two feet of water on Main Street. The first hint of danger came from a farmer who warned the Pilot Rock telephone office of heavy rains on Bear Creek, a tributary of West Birch Creek. Operator Erline Gilliland immediately called all their subscribers on those creeks with the news. At 3:15 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Hans Nielsen, who lived five miles up East Birch Creek, called in a warning of a wall of water headed for town. Chief operator Maud Gilbert immediately called as many residents as they had numbers for to warn them of the coming flood. Most of the area residents were able to race to higher ground, and those remaining did their best to save valuable property and aid the escape of others. Gilliland was sent home to retrieve her belongings while Gilbert continued to man the phones.
The second rush of water hit Pilot Rock between 3:30 and 4 p.m., raising the level of East Birch Creek about 12 feet above normal. Gilbert stayed at her post until the water was a foot high outside the office, then waded to safety with her husband. The Gilberts returned to the telephone office when the water had receded to below their knees, and she continued to route calls and request aid from Pendleton for hours. The flash flood was over in about 20 minutes, but an hour after the crest of the flood had passed there was still a lot of water in the streets and East Birch Creek was running wild over wide swaths of farmland south of town.
Damage estimates to downtown businesses was about $32,000, but ruined cropland south of town also added to the devastation.
Operators Gilbert and Gilliland in May of 1939 were awarded the Theodore N. Vail bronze medals for outstanding public service by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. In the citation, district manager J.A. Murray recognized their “initiative, courage and devotion to duty in continuing an essential public service under hazardous conditions caused by flood.”
An extremely heavy downpour began about 2 p.m., and an hour later there was two feet of water on Main Street. The first hint of danger came from a farmer who warned the Pilot Rock telephone office of heavy rains on Bear Creek, a tributary of West Birch Creek. Operator Erline Gilliland immediately called all their subscribers on those creeks with the news. At 3:15 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Hans Nielsen, who lived five miles up East Birch Creek, called in a warning of a wall of water headed for town. Chief operator Maud Gilbert immediately called as many residents as they had numbers for to warn them of the coming flood. Most of the area residents were able to race to higher ground, and those remaining did their best to save valuable property and aid the escape of others. Gilliland was sent home to retrieve her belongings while Gilbert continued to man the phones.
The second rush of water hit Pilot Rock between 3:30 and 4 p.m., raising the level of East Birch Creek about 12 feet above normal. Gilbert stayed at her post until the water was a foot high outside the office, then waded to safety with her husband. The Gilberts returned to the telephone office when the water had receded to below their knees, and she continued to route calls and request aid from Pendleton for hours. The flash flood was over in about 20 minutes, but an hour after the crest of the flood had passed there was still a lot of water in the streets and East Birch Creek was running wild over wide swaths of farmland south of town.
Damage estimates to downtown businesses was about $32,000, but ruined cropland south of town also added to the devastation.
Operators Gilbert and Gilliland in May of 1939 were awarded the Theodore N. Vail bronze medals for outstanding public service by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. In the citation, district manager J.A. Murray recognized their “initiative, courage and devotion to duty in continuing an essential public service under hazardous conditions caused by flood.”
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
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