60YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

July 20, 1957

Fires blazed on five fronts for the Baker fire department during the last 24 hours with four grass fires and a small fire at the Central Hotel keeping the firemen busy.

25YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

July 21, 1992

The Table Rock Fire, six miles west of Lime, had grown to 2,845 acres this morning.

The lightning-caused fire, on Bureau of Land Management land, was reported at 2:30 p.m. Sunday six miles west of the Rye Valley exit on Interstate 84.

10YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

July 21, 2007

Matt Reidy watched the flames lay waste to a thicket of subalpine fir trees and he wondered, for just an instant, whether he had somehow misplaced an entire month.

Reidy was pretty sure it was mid-July.

But the fire had torched those firs with a rapidity that reminded Reidy of August.

ONEYEAR AGO

from the Baker City Herald

July 22, 2016

SUMPTER -— Rella Brown stands on the top center deck of the Sumpter Dredge, admiring the massive mining rig built in the Great Depression.

A ranger assistant of Oregon State Parks, Brown points to a large metal structure partially sticking out of the ship’s front. It looks like a rusty Ferris wheel, featuring multiple spoon-shaped buckets that weigh a ton each.

The hopper, as it’s called, used to carry ore into the ship by scooping it up and rotating it toward the dredge’s mouth. From there, the rocks were washed and filtered for gold in a metal container called the neck.

Brown uses anatomical terms including mouth, neck and belly to explain the complex machine to children.

Today, the former workplace is a tourist attraction restored by Oregon State Parks and Friends of the Dredge, an organization devoted to continued preservation of the historical piece.