Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

March 27, 2013

Eero Kovero brought his seventh group since 2010 to the Eastern Washington Agricultural Museum at the Garfield County Fairgrounds on Sunday. The farmer and tour leader from Finland brought 10 other farmers from the south of that county to Washington state, landing in Seattle on Monday. The farmers worked their way east with stops at Coulee Dam and the Genesee area, and a jet-boat ride on the Snake River. They were headed back west and will travel through the Yakima Valley before going home after their 10-day excursion.

Spinner's members received many positive comments during the annual Broomstick Pool Tournament about how great Maple Hall looked. It's amazing how much our community appreciates the efforts to restore a 1928 building. Your feedback and comments energize our members. Thank you.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

March 25,1998

Supporters of the Garfield County Junior Livestock Show attended a town hall meeting March 12 to discuss the future of the show. Changes are necessary because the show no longer qualifies for support from the Washington State Fairs Commission. For many years, the Garfield County Junior Livestock show has been dependent on funds received from the commission. President Brad Gingerich explained the changes at the meeting and said the Pomeroy Service Club should continue to support the show through the lunch program and handling the books. The show will require a substantial amount of donated funds from friends and supporters of the show to make up the difference in lost state funding.

After not fielding a team last year, perennial contender ZIPS regrouped for the 1998 All-Pomeroy basketball tournament over the weekend in the high school gym, and the comeback was highly successful. ZIPS dethroned two-time defending champion Boopers 57-51 in the championship game of the 16th annual event.

Fifty Years Ago

March 22, 1973

Garfield County has a target date of Nov. 1, 1973, for the opening of a sanitary landfill, and the nursing home "certificate of need" is expected to be approved by the state Department of Social and Health Services. These were two revelations made by County Commissioner George Ledgerwood, speaking for the board of commissioners, at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday.

The Forest Service will ask the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for special permission to use the pesticide DDT against the tussock moth in southeast Washington and northwest Oregon, where considerably more damage to fir trees is expected next summer. Results of forest studies of moth egg samples indicate that not as many of the moths are being killed by the natural virus foresters expected.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

March 25, 1948

Ushering in the 1948 racing season, Pomeroy will hold a two-day meet on Pomeroy Downs, May 8 and 9. At a meeting of the Garfield County Fair association held Wednesday evening, it was announced that a queen contest will be conducted this year. Any organization in the county is eligible to sponsor a single girl for queen candidate. There will be a queen and two attendants chosen from the candidates. Each group sponsoring a girl will receive a number of buttons to sell. To the girl whose sponsor group sells the most buttons will go the honor of queen, and the two next high will be princesses.

Two projects designed to reinforce and improve the local power system are included in the record-breaking budget set up by Pacific Power & Light company for the 1948 construction, according to Dallas Forest, local manager. Additional voltage regulators are going on feeder lines here, he said, and the local distribution system is to be converted to higher voltage. Total set up for the year's system-wide construction program is $6,666,350, Forest reported.

One Hundred Years Ago

March 24, 1922

Letter to Editor-I think that if the government was to set a price on wheat, say $1.50 or $1.75 that every acre in the U.S. that would sprout black-eyed peas would be put into wheat and therefore we would flood the world with wheat, of which we have a an over production already, according to some reports. And isn't it a fact that what the government buys is paid through taxation and I think the little mite above what we are getting would be gobbled up through taxation from which we are groaning now. The government and Ex-President Wilson fixed the price on wheat once in war time and they fixed the farmer a plenty, full and running over with bitter gall. How soon will people forget little things like that-Frank Fitzgerald.

At the Garfield County court house Monday evening, it was found that public sentiment was practically unanimously in favor of the ball team being managed by the local post of the American Legion for the past season of 1923. It was pointed out that the team could be operated more economically under Legion management. All proceeds from games will go into the Legion funds, and likewise, the usual expenses will be met by the Legion.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

March 26, 1998

Pomeroy will soon be favored by a visit from the noted Dr. Darrin, who has created such a furor though out the coast and northwest by his wonderful cures that have been the principal topic and sensation wherever he has been. He will be here a short time only, April 1 to 10, and will have his office at Hotel St. George, where the afflicted can consult him. So much has been said in praise of Dr. Darrin and his wonderful cures and so many card and letters received from grateful patients, that it seems useless to publish them.

The fusion between democrats and populists, if accomplished, will result in a sort of cat and monkey farce, in which the populists will play the cat part, and rake out the chestnuts for the democratic monkey. The latter will walk off with the offices, and leave the pops wondering what they were after.