Firefighters work to extricate Alejandro Madrigal from a potato truck after a crash in 1995.

25 YEARS AGO

Oct. 17, 1995

A 23-year-old man is in serious condition today at Oregon Health & Science University hospital in Portland after two potato trucks collided Friday on Westland Road near Lamb Weston, which left him trapped in his truck for more than an hour.

Alejandro Madrigal’s 10-wheel potato carrier collided Friday with a semi-truck leaving Lamb Weston. The accident sent Madrigal’s load of potatoes tumbling over the cab and onto the road. The front of his truck was crushed under the force of the impact, spilling diesel fuel.

Emergency workers were called to the scene at 12:21 p.m. Hermiston Fire Chief Jim Stearns immediately called for assistance from an Army fire brigade at the Umatilla Army Depot. Workers took more than an hour freeing Madrigal and had to use a pair of Jaws of Life tools to safely extricate him.

“It was probably the most difficult extrication we’ve done with the patient conscious,” Stearns said. “He was jammed in there against another vehicle.”

For every move rescuers made, they had to take care not to further injure Madrigal. Madrigal was conscious and alert throughout the extrications and spoke to rescuers via a translator. He told them he had no feeling below his waist. Rescuers feared he may have lost his legs. At one point during the rescue, one emergency medical technician commented that Madrigal shouldn’t have survived the wreck.

Umatilla County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Boise said interviews with the other driver indicate Madrigal may have had his turn signal on and was attempting to brake for the turn just prior to impact.

“It was like two brick walls running into each other,” Boise said.

Depot firefighters tried using their truck to pull Madrigal’s vehicle out and away from the semi but could not pull its weight. A potato loader from Lamb-Weston completed the task, enabling rescuers to gain access to the driver’s side door where Madrigal was pinned in by the crushed cab.

Madrigal underwent surgery early Monday morning for a broken pelvis and a fractured left femur.

50 YEARS AGO

Oct. 15, 1970

Further knowledge of living conditions among the Umatilla Indians and others in past centuries is being gathered with the beginning of the second excavation project in the old Umatilla townsite by the Mid-Columbia Archaeological Society.

The first “dig” was completed on E Street near the Columbia River the Memorial Day weekend. The research is being done under a permit issued to the anthropology department of the University of Idaho at Moscow.

In order that an undisturbed area for research may be assured, street areas in old Umatilla have been selected where blacktop and road base are removed and the site staked in 5 foot square grids, with each grid mapped and the squares numbered. The present dig site is on C Street. Members are assigned alternate plots and are responsible to keep dig data as they go down in 6-inch layers. The material is screened and each item is placed in a paper sack, with appropriate notations made as to location and depth. These are taken to the trailer lab, where they are catalogued and those items of value are measured and numbered and an outline of them drawn on a 5-x-8-inch file card.

Bone items are covered with a preservative glue as exposure to the air causes them to crumble after long burial. Large items such as grinders and matates (bowls used for grinding) are uncovered with great care, so that their position and original condition can be determined correctly. As depth is gained distinct strata are discernible on the sides and these are carefully measured and recorded on a graph sheet for that plot. This process is called stratigraphy, and by piecing these records together the entire camp site can be pictured with location of house and fire pits appearing in the position they held in that long ago community.

A spirit of comradery pervades the dig site as families individuals and couples bend their backs to dig and screen and sort the material. There is much light-hearted banter, with an occasional jokester displaying an item of no value as though a real strike has been made. Few are fooled in this manner. However a find of real value brings a ripple of excitement and activities cease for a time as neighboring diggers rush to view the find.

Among interesting things found the past weekend was a bone bead approximately 3/8 of an inch in diameter and 2 inches long. It was highly polished and intricately carved. After being catalogued the items are returned to the finders with the exception of approximately 10% which are retained for display purposes. These displays will be returned to the county at such time as a suitable permanent home is available.

At the end of the permit period a detailed report of the activities involved will be published in book form and will be available as well as placed in libraries locally. This area has been inhabited continuously for some 6,000 years, so this book should prove to be of interest.

75 YEARS AGO

Oct. 18, 1945

M. K. Ransom, local Chevrolet dealer, returned from Portland yesterday where he attended a preview of the new 1946 Chevrolet at the company’s zone headquarters. He was reluctant to discuss the mechanical and style features of the new car, but by his eager attitude it was apparent that he expected the formal announcement and public showing of the car to be at an early date.

Mr. Ransom said he and other dealers in the area were confident that the 1946 Chevrolet will maintain the record of top volume sales, which Chevrolet reached in 10 of the last 11 prewar years of automobile production, to meet the unprecedented pent-up demand for new cars.

Throughout the war period, car owners have been forced to get along with their old automobiles. At the same time dealers have expended every effort to service these cars, and to keep them rolling for the duration.

100 YEARS AGO

Oct. 15, 1920

Oregon Must Have a Port Equal to Any Port on the Pacific Coast. Initiative measure No. 310 on the ballot gives to the Port of Portland means to create such a port. The primary object of this bill is to furnish the means to insure the opening and maintaining of a 30 foot channel from Portland to the sea and of building and establishing port facilities at the City of Portland sufficient to handle the foreign and coastwise shipping of that port. The cost of this improvement will be met by the people living within the boundaries of the Port of Portland.

The passage of this bill means lower rates for the products of Oregon in reaching the markets of the world and a consequent greater profit to the producer. This is the most important and the most valuable measure that has ever been put up to the voters of the interior portions of the state.

— Oregon Port Development League, G. S. O’Neal, Secretary