This Week in Odessa History

100 years ago

June 3, 1921

John Frieske and Miss Ida Suchland were united in marriage Sunday at noon with the Rev. J.G.V. Smith officiating.

The alumni are urging a new high school for Odessa. They recently met and elected John Schoonover as president and Mrs. C.E. Jenks as secretary-treasurer.

A caravan of 50 businessmen from Spokane was out this week to inspect the Columbia Basin Project. Their visit was chiefly for advertising purposes.

Hatfield the rainmaker has been at Medicine Hat, where a news dispatch says he drew so much rain that after a month the farmers urged him to shut it off.

Two wheat fields are growing on First Avenue. One belongs to W.L. Smith and the other to W.B. Kelly. As the fields are small and it is doubtful if a thresher would set up for them, they are considering chipping in and buying a combine.

75 years ago

June 6, 1946

At 8 p.m. Tuesday at the United Congregational Church, the Rev. E.J. Eslinger united in marriage Miss Bernice McKee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Muriel McKee, Bluestem, and Mr. Delmar Wacker, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry P. Wacker of Odessa.

June 13: Word has been received of the marriage at Fresno, Calif. of Henry Holman of Lamona to Miss Betty Anne Johansen. Holman served with army forces in the European theater for about three years.

The Odessa Lions defeated the Lincoln team 11 to 5 Sunday. Elbert Pyles started at pitcher and only two runs were scored against him in the first three innings. Iltz took over and the remaining three runs were scored against him in the eighth. Schell scored for Odessa in the first inning, while Weizel and Clarence Schmidt added runs in the fourth. In the seventh the locals broke loose with runs by Iltz, Schell, Porter, Bill Smith, Clarence Schmidt, Hook and Wacker.

50 years ago

June 10, 1971.

Mr. and Mrs. Don Schibel and family have been named 1971 Conservation Farmer of the Odessa Soil and Water Conservation District. The selection was made by a committee of district officials and members of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce. The Schibels have shown an outstanding job of farm management and applied conservation on the 1,200-acre farm, according to the committee.

25 years ago

June 13, 1996

A series of feasibility studies for reusing treated wastewater from Spokane by emptying it into the Lake Creek system were slated to begin Sept. 1. Lincoln County has secured grants and matching funds to begin the studies, said Bill Graedel, county commissioner. Lloyd Hornbeck, a property owner in Lake Creek Coulee, had gathered signatures of 800 Lincoln County citizens petitioning for a rehydration effort in the coulee that had been dry for nearly a decade.