110 years ago
April 9, 1914
Ferdinand Rots, a sheepherder, met an untimely end by drowning Saturday evening at the Crooked River bridge at O'Neil.
Rots, who was herding for W.M. Vaughn, had his sheep camp about 200 yards from the bridge.
About 8 o'clock, he heard a commotion among his sheep and went to the bridge to investigate. He found that some of the sheep had crowded onto a narrow shelf along the river in search for grass. The approach to the shelf must have been 8 or 10 feet wide and at the end narrowed down to about half the distance. Right at the narrowest point of the pocket was unusually long grass. And this grass was what caused the tragedy. When the herder got there, the sheep must have been packed in. Rots got down onto some boulders at the water's edge in his efforts to back them up and was either crowded into the swift current of Crooked River or lost his balance and fell in.
The camp tender spread the alarm, but nothing could be done Saturday night. Sheriff Elkins was notified and was on hand early Sunday morning. He was accompanied by Coroner Poindexter and Ed Harbin.
The sheriff made grappling irons and securing a boat dragged the river bottom where the man fell in. After hours of work the body was found and brought to Prineville for burial.
Rots was a Frenchman, apparently about 50 years of age. He had in his possession certificates of deposit to the amount of $300. The watch that he had in his pocket had stopped at 7:50, and it is thought that this was about the time he met his death. No inquest was considered necessary.
75 years ago
April 7, 1949
Spring work on the new Prineville Golf and Country Club started this week, with good prospects for a five-hole golf course to be ready for use by summer. A general meeting of members of the club was held last Friday night in the American Legion barracks to review work of the past year and make plans for the coming season.
With 85 members, the new golf club is making good progress on the first five holes of the course laid out last year. Winter damage on the new greens and fairways was slight, it was reported by Paul B. Kelly, head of the committee in charge of construction of the new course, four miles east of Prineville on the Bob Hogan ranch.
50 years ago
April 8, 1974
A breakdown of translator equipment that caused a suspension of television broadcast of Channel 12 is being repaired as quickly as possible, Gary Romine, president of Ochoco Telecasters, announced today.
Romine said that a malfunction of electronic equipment that telecasts Channel 12 from the top of Grizzly Mountain caused the suspension. The equipment was returned to the manufacturer on the east coast for repairs, the major reason for the length of time that the station has been off the air.
He said that the repaired equipment was expected back this week but has been delayed.
"We don't know for sure, but we hope to have the equipment back in operation by the end of the week," he explained.
25 years ago
April 8, 1999
Not everyone is happy with the city's share of the implied partnership included with the Baldwin Industrial Park. At least one property owner is thinking about letting the courts solve the problem.
The city council recently sent letters to most of the property owners in the industrial park, ordering them to comply with paving and landscaping. The letters warned that non-compliance meant taking legal action.
While giving testimony to the city council, one of the small businessmen operating in the industrial park mentioned that some of the paving was not done because his neighbor "was broke."
That neighbor, Mike Webb, said that report is "idle gossip." Webb opened the doors of his cabinet shop six years ago on a shoestring and in that time, he's come a long way. The problem, he explained, is "when I first started, my main focus is making cabinetry. Now that's about fourth or fifth down the list. Now, I have to be everything, including a politician," he explained.
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