New Fermentation Tanks Part 1 Time-lapse (by WidmerBrosBrewing)

“Simulated Space Flight Slated”, 3 March 1973. In which OMSI’s mockup Gemini space capsule was borrowed for a 48 hour “mission” by Wilson High School’s space club. Gotta say the lightning bolts on the one kid’s space helmet are a nice touch; NASA doesn’t actually go with that look, but maybe they should.

“Model-Building Portland Teen Gives $60,000 Gemini Prize to OMSI”, 26 October 1967. If you’ve ever been to our local science museum, you might have seen what appears to be an old Gemini space capsule gathering dust in a corner. This article explains what it is and how it ended up in little old Portland Oregon.

For those of you who aren’t space geeks, a Gemini is a small two-person space capsule that NASA flew in 1965 and 1966, while the famous Apollo spacecraft was still being developed. The program was basically a series of test flights to try out various things: Learning how to spacewalk effectively, multiple docking tests, and simply living in space for two weeks (which at the time nobody had ever done before). In addition, many Apollo astronauts — including all of the Apollo 11 guys — flew first on various Gemini flights. The flights came in quick succession, and by 1967 the Gemini program was over, and all the ground hardware associated with it was officially surplus.

Among the surplus items was exactly one faithful, full-size mockup of the Gemini capsule, built by McDonnell Douglas (the prime contractor on Gemini) for some purpose the article doesn’t get into. It might have been strictly for display, but it’s also possible they used it for actual ground tests. We’ll probably have to leave that to some historian with access to corporate archives. Another mystery is that the article says the mockup is identical to a real capsule “except for a few classified instruments in the cockpit”. That’s the first I’ve heard of anything classified flying on Gemini missions, and I’d be really curious to know what those instruments were. Probably still classfied though.

In any case, a lot of money and effort went into building this mockup, and at the end of the program the company apparently felt it belonged in a museum and not a landfill. But which museum? To answer that question, they came up with a rather unusual contest in conjunction with the Revell model company. The capsule would be the grand prize in a sweepstakes contest for kids, on the condition that the winner had to donate it to a local museum, or have the city put it in a park, or make some sort of arrangement so the general public could come and see it. As luck would have it, a local kid won the contest. OMSI got the capsule, and the lucky winner got every current Revell model, a new guitar, a five year supply of ice cream, and a lifetime OMSI membership.

I suspect the Revell connection resulted in a widespread idea that the capsule was “just a model somebody made” rather than an actual artifact from the Gemini program. I worked at OMSI in the early 1990s and I seem to recall that — at least at the time — it sat in a corner and people mostly ignored it, myself included. If I’d known I probably would’ve been a bit more interested, although it hadn’t actually been in space, nor were you allowed to sit inside it, so quite honestly it’s not really the most compelling museum exhibit.

Haven’t been to OMSI in a few years, but as far as I know they still have the capsule on display today.

An item from the Oregonian’s daily local trivia quiz, 26 July 1927. You may have heard that the young Lt. Ulysses S Grant was stationed at Ft. Vancouver in the early 1850s. You may have also heard stories about his complete lack of aptitude for anything involving money. So it may not surprise you to learn that while Grant was in town, he was sued in the territorial court at Hillsboro over an unpaid $1400 debt. This was a serious chunk of money in 1853, and Grant’s horse was seized as part of the proceedings. Grant ended up settling the case, coughing up some cash and handing over an IOU for the balance. It surprises me a bit that the court or Grant’s aggrieved creditor would accept a new IOU to pay off an earlier unpaid IOU. I suppose that in 1853, Grant’s reputation did not yet preceed him. I can’t help but wonder whether Grant ever paid off the new debt.

“Boulevard Drive is Recommended”, 19 March 1916. In which the Oregonian presents yet another thrilling adventure for the modern motorist. Basically you start at Broadway & Oak (at today’s Benson Hotel), head north and cross the Broadway Bridge, then turn north on Williams Ave. and make your way north and west to Willamette Boulevard (via one of today’s trendiest, most hipster-infested neighborhoods). Stay on Willamette Blvd. until you get to St. Johns. Then make your way to Columbia Blvd. and head east, admiring various scenic views along the way. Keep going east when Columbia merges into Sandy Blvd. When you get to Fairview, head south until you’re in Gresham. Then turn west on Powell and head back to town. Making sure to cut up to Hawthorne at some point since the Ross Island Bridge doesn’t exist yet. And then it’s off to the bar to regale everyone with tales of your adventures on the Eastside.

These are actually much better directions than the article provides, and I’m terrible at giving directions. It seems that for a brief time people thought an odometer reading was a good substitute for actually giving people the names of the streets they were supposed to turn onto. So if you’re thinking about recreating this heroic journey in 2012, you’ll need to find your own way from Willamette Blvd to Columbia Blvd in the wilds of St. Johns. Which is actually pretty hard if you don’t know the crazy street grid up there.

The article sort of shrugs and suggests you drive back from Gresham any way you prefer, I guess figuring the scenic part of the voyage is over at that point. Contrast this with a previous motoring odyssey from 1914, in which readers were given careful instructions on how to drive to Gresham on Division and then return on Powell. Oh, how the sophisticated motorists of 1916 must have rolled their eyes at the innocent bygone days of 1914. If you’re trying to figure out exactly when Portland lost interest in Gresham as an exotic distant locale, I think we’ve narrowed the date down to within a two year bracket here.

I should note that the (poorly) detailed instructions were provided by a pair of gentlemen from the local Paige Motor Sales Co. at 5th & Washington. And since the internet is what it is, there’s a detailed website about the history of the Paige Motor Co., with a page about the firm’s various 1916 models. The high-end model topped out at a whopping 29 horsepower, similar to a modern riding lawnmower.

In any case, the full excursion will take you precisely 42.0 miles, and — due to all the scenery you’ll want to stop and gawk at — they estimate it’ll be a three hour tour, a three hour tour…

Then some of the wiles of the engineering profession came to light. It was noticed that all of the steel in the big span was painted a bright red. From Crown Point on the Columbia River Highway, many miles up the river, the red bridge would be visible.

“But it won’t be red when it’s finished,” Mr. Cortelyou explained. “That’s just the first coat of paint. The second coat will be green and the third coat will be black. You see, they agree to put on three coats of paint. If they were all the same color the contractors could skip some spots. But now we know when each separate coat is put on and we know that we are getting three coats of paint.”

“Las Vegas Hotel Nears Completion”, 8 June 1952. A short blurb about the soon-to-open Sahara Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which was financed with Portland mob money. You may have heard about this before, since it’s one of our handful of cool mobster stories. I mention it now because it’s coming up on one year since the Sahara went out of business. There’s supposedly a plan in the works to reopen it under a new name some time in 2014.

But if that falls through, I wonder if the McMenamin Bros. have any interest in the casino business? We’re having our 15 minutes of global pop culture fame right now, so maybe it’s time for a Portland-themed Vegas casino. They’ve already got casinos themed after New York, Paris, New Orleans, Hollywood, Venice, Monaco, the Italian town of Bellagio, medieval England, ancient Rome, and ancient Egypt. You could argue that a Portland-themed one would only be somewhat more ridiculous than all of those are, and it would probably divert a lot of tourists who’d otherwise come here to the real thing and clog up the line for donuts and ask random people on the streetcar for directions to Powells and otherwise make nuisances of themselves. So as silly as it sounds, I can see a lot of real advantages to it existing.

And just imagine: Yard-high plastic KOIN Center novelty cups full of frozen strawberry daiquiri. (Locally sourced strawberries, obviously.) A replica Portlandia statue that’s twice as tall as the original & covered in 24k gold, sporting DD cups, and shooting fire at the top of every hour to the music of selected local indie bands. An upscale shopping arcade that amazingly looks just like the *real* Bridgeport Village. Wild Vegas pool parties with a unique Northwest theme at the High Rocks Experience. A Cirque du Soleil show based on the music of Quarterflash and Nu Shooz, with comical leaping salmon and maybe some acrobatic aerial cheesemakers. The possibilities are endless, sort of.

Sawyer’s slide projector ad, 1962. AKA the Portland company that eventually became ViewMaster.

Billy Rancher & The Unreal Gods Television Special (by LocalsOnly9)

“Boy, 16, Has 3rd Birthday”, February 29th, 1912. A twist on the usual “local person was born on February 29th, has birthday every four years” story: The rules governing leap years specify that century years are only leap years when the century is divisible by 4. So 1896 was a leap year, and 1904, 1908, and 1912 were leap years, but 1900 was not. However someone born on this day in 1996 gets to celebrate birthday #4 today, since 2000 was a leap year, a situation that’s less remarkable but rarer. FWIW.