The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-08-09
PARTY ENJOYS TOUR
OF CENTRAL OREGON

Despite the unpleasantness of trav-
ersing stretchs of very bad roads, some
bad spots of dust and scorching sun
shine. the following party of local men
returned home Sunday afternoon from
tour of Central Oregon and fishing
along the Deschutes, declaring that
they had had wonderfully enjoyable
trip: c. Dethman, o. H. Rhoades, c.
E. Copple and A. d. Moe. The journey
was mae in Mr.. Noes REQ. The party
left here at five O'Clock Friday morn
ing and before the sun had grown hot
were we'll on the way toward their
goal.
Saturday night they stopped at Mad
ras, county seat of the new county of
Jefferson. Here they met Vine w.
Pearee, editor and publisher of the
Madras Pioneer, who also is active in
various enterprises in the Central Ore
gon town. Among them Mr.. Pearce
is purveyor of the county seats enter
tainment. operating the moving picture
theater. The Hood River men formed a
theatre party at Madras, attending the
show as the guests of the proprietor.
At Madras the local men saw Horace
Greedy Kibbee, formerly publisher of
the Mosier Bulletin, and well known in
Hood River, where he frequently Wis.,
tied.
The country is showing the effects of
the very dry summer and the wheat
fields look very bad, many fields being
so poor that they are hardly worth
cutting. The irrigated country
around Bend and Redmond looks much
better While the season is fully three
weeks late, the hay crop, which is the
principal crop on the irrigated lands,
is good as rule. The city of Bend is
one of the most prosperous looking
cities in the state. New buildings are
going up everywhere, the growth of
the town being largely due to the es-
tablishment of two large sawmills n
the past two years. Sales of irrigated
lands have been very active, but since
the war have quoted down somewhat.
Frost a week ago killed or injured
many fields of potatoes and ruined gar
dens, but in some districts little harm
was apparent.
The roads are of all kinds and condi-
tions, from excellent to very bad.
From here to The Dalles the grades
are heavy and in some places very
rough and rocky, but on the whole
better than last year. From The
Dalles to Dufur the road is badly cut
| up in places, but rather fair on the
whole. From Dufur south to the top
of the Tygh grade they are good, a
steady climb most of the way, but
easy grades. The Tygh grade is four
miles long, mostly 7 per cent, but
fairly good surface. A climb out of
Tygh on to per cent grade takes
one over the ridge to Maupin over a
fair road. Crossing a good bridge and
then another climb of about the same
grade for several miles to the top of
the ridge toward Shaniko. a fairly
good road is encountered until within
several miles of that town, when it
gradually gets worse. There are but
few road signs, and one has to guess
which cross road to take. A few
dollars and a little time would save
many tourist the trouble and extra
mileage caused by getting off the road.
From Shaniko to Antelope the road
is more or less rocky and rough.
Leaving Antelope for Madras, a dis
tance of 40 miles, the first few miles
are good. The Antelope canyon of
two miles is very rough, rocky and
generally bad. From there to Madras
it is fair except for numerous chuck
holes and places of deep dust and sand,
with stretches of very good dirt road.
From Madras south to Bend about half
the road is good, the rest fair mostly,
but with numerous rough places.
More or less rocky spots are encoun-
tered in the road as we'll as chuck
holes.