50 YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

July 3, 1971

SUMPTER — New activities for the fourth-annual Sumpter Valley Days Celebration Saturday and Sunday will be centered around kids.

When the SVD committee asked for suggestions to improve the celebration, they found insufficient activities for the youngsters was the main complaint.

25 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

July 3, 1996

The Oregon Army National Guard plans to build a new armory in Baker City, perhaps by the end of the century.

The National Guard hopes to break ground on the estimated $4 million building in three or four years, Lt. Col. Michael Caldwell said during a public luncheon Tuesday at the existing armory.

10 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

July 4, 2011

When asked what Wally Byam was like, Dale Schwamborn pushes “play” on his CD player.

A deep voice, perfect for radio, fills the room at t he Baker Heritage Museum, a space dedicated this season to Byam’s adventures with Airstream trailers.

Schwamborn’s eyes tear up as he listens to the radio interview Byam gave during the 1950s.

Schwamborn is in Baker City for a rally of Airstream trailers, a gathering of the Wally Byam Caravan Club International that arrived here Friday.

Byam was born in Baker City on July 4, 1896. He helped design the Airstream trailer.

ONE YEAR AGO

from the Baker City Herald

July 2, 2020

On the weekend when most people deal with beef by tossing it on a sizzling barbecue, Jesse Brown will be tussling with a quarter-ton of steer that’s very much alive.

And capable of running at about 25 mph, something beyond the capacity of the average ribeye steak.

A spatula, suffice it to say, is of no use to Brown.

He’s a 27-year-old professional steer wrestler from Baker City.

Last September Brown set an arena record in the event at Oregon’s most famous rodeo, the Pendleton Round-Up, bringing his steer down in 3.7 seconds.

Brown had big goals for 2020.

Then came the coronavirus.

He was competing at Rodeo Houston in Texas in early March, a 3-week event that normally draws hundreds of thousands of spectators. The top steer wrestler wins $50,000.

But when organizers learned that a man who attended a barbecue cookoff associated with the rodeo on Feb. 28, along with about 73,000 others, had tested positive for COVID-19, they canceled the Rodeo on March 11.

It had been scheduled to continue through March 22.

And that was just the start.

“It was the domino effect from there,” Brown said.