Deschutes County Historical Museum
Whenever we stay in a town with a history museum, we try to learn as much as we can about that town. Today's visit to Bend's past was a diverse and interesting one.
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You can't talk about Bend's history without discussing logging. For nearly a century, timber production was the unchallenged king in Bend, most of it taking place in the Old Mill District. Hardy men used axes, crosscut saws, horses, and “high-wheel” rigs to cut down huge Ponderosa pines in the surrounding forests. The first of the big mills, operated by the Shevlin-Hixon Co., opened in March 1916.
A month later a rival company, Brooks-Scanlon, began operations at its “Mill A” complex on the other side of the river. In 1922, Brooks-Scanlon established a new, bigger mill complex upstream from Mill A. At their peak, the Brooks-Scanlon and Shevlin-Hixon operations were two of the largest pine sawmills in the world, running around the clock and employing more than 2,000 workers each.
In 1950, facing dwindling timber supplies, Shevlin-Hixon sold its interests to Brooks-Scanlon. Brooks-Scanlon’s Mill A closed in 1983 and was in a state of near ruin before being restored in the early 1990s. The old brick powerhouse buildings and their three towering smokestacks still stand, silently testifying to the district’s colorful past (this is now the Old Mill District, a place we promised to return to).
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Do you ever discover something, in a museum, that you never knew existed but seems cool? I felt that way about this, the PhonAudograph dictation machine. Manufactured by the Gray Manufacturing Company whose founder, William Gray, had secured a patent on an innovative pay phone mechanism in 1889, a design that proved highly successful. Years later, in 1945, Gray introduced a sound-activated dictation machine called the Audograph. The machine,
which recorded to thin vinyl disks, was moderately popular, but might have been forgotten had one not been used by the Dallas Police Department on November 22, 1963. For better or worse, the machine found a place in history by capturing the audio from the Kennedy assassination. Wild right?
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We also learned about Maxville now dubbed "The Oregon Ghost Town That Flouted Jim Crow". Established in 1923 by the Bowman-Hicks Co., it was known by a handful of names over the years. Maxville was home to men of color: loggers at a time when Oregon’s constitution included a provision of discriminatory Jim Crow laws excluding blacks and many people of color from the state. Company jobs were typically segregated based on ethnic origin. Despite all of this, friendships among Maxville families flourished in a time when such was considered “improper”. Although the schools were located on opposite sides of Maxville, kids found ways to connect and play, meeting up after school to forge friendships.
Economic conditions, especially the Great Depression and downturn in the lumber market, led to Maxville’s eventual decline as a town. In 1933, the Bowman-Hicks Lumber Company closed.
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Tourism was not difficult for all travelers. By the late 1940s, Americans increased mobility in cars that were larger, heavier, and faster required a massive investment in roads. Oregon created a gas tax in 1949 to invest in better roads throughout the state. In 1951, the Oregon Department of Transportation reported over 1.5 million motor vehicle trips along the Bend and Redmond stretches of Highway 97 on road beds still meant for 1930s cars. For Highway 97, the increased traffic meant a re-route away from the streets of downtown Bend. The move reshaped both downtown Bend and the residential district but made tourism easier for those wanting to explore the Beaver State.
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Bend's historical pageant uniquely combined a traditional parade with elements of a flotilla (a parade of floats that actually floated downstream on the Deschutes River along the small reservoir known as Mirror Pond which passes by Drake Park). At the southern end of Mirror Pond, volunteers constructed a large arch, which marked the start of the parade. To add drama, the pageant took place at night under brightly colored lights. At dusk, an announcer proclaimed "Let there be light!" and colorful lights illuminated the arch to begin the parade.
The Bend Water Pageant ran from 1933 to 1965, although suspended during World War II. By the 1960s, the huge effort and cost required to mount the festival became a burden to volunteers who staged the event. More importantly, the attitude of both residents and visitors towards historical pageants had changed along with the times, and the pageant could not compete with newer attractions and leisure time activities.
1 comments:
Really enjoyed your with blog this posting! Great Stuff and great History Reminder! Thanks so much for all your work and efforts! God Bless,
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