The following stories happened this week, 25 and 50 years ago, as reported in the Snoqualmie Valley Record. From the Record’s archives:
Thursday, Aug. 6, 1992
• More than 750 seniors will soon have a permanent place to gather after many years of moving from building to building. The Carnation Seniors, formed in 1975, recently purchased Odd Fellows Hall, on Bird Street and Stephens Avenue, and will finally have a “center” to meet in. The building, built in 1925, has been used for many different purposes including a roller skating rink, a few taverns and a dance hall.
• Tollgate Farm, with its cows and barn visible from State Route 202, is high on the list of Valley sites North Bend wants to acquire as a park. The pasture, about 80 acres on the 400-plus-acre Pendleton-Miller estate, lies just west of the city, straddling the South and Middle forks of the Snoqualmie River. City planners don’t want to transform the historic property into ballfields. Instead, they’re interested in making it into a nature preserve, where the public can learn about the farm’s significance to the Valley while enjoying its scenic beauty.
Thursday, Aug. 3, 1967
• A high-speed chase for six miles along the Carnation-Duvall highway last Thursday resulted in a head-on collision with minor injuries to a Fall City couple, and the arrest of two young men whose speeding caused the accident, police said. The two were fleeing from Carnation Marshal Wes Pruitt, who had clocked their 1956 automobile at 50 miles per hour through the center of Carnation. Pruitt gave chase at 80 miles an hour, but the pair did not stop until their auto careened across the center line, nearly five and a half miles out of town, and struck a 1965 model car driven by Vernal Deschenes, 51, of Fall City. The crash bounced the Deschenes car back 70 feet across the highway. It crashed into a power pole, which sheared off and burst into flames.
• Echo Glen Children’s Center was formally dedicated Monday night, a beautifully designed and constructed detention facility, whose 13 cottages house the children who, with their lives barely begun, are already in trouble with society. In the dedication ceremonies, Governor Dan Evans said the institution represented a “second chance” for many youngsters.
• The price of water in North Bend will take a sizeable jump effective October 1, as the result of construction and maintenance costs of the town’s projected new water system. At its Tuesday night meeting, the Town Council approved construction contracts totaling nearly $177,000, sold to Terry Thompson and Co. of Seattle $425,000 in water and revenue bonds, and approved new water rates.
