Historic Hood River
November 1
Notes
I thought it would be fun to see what was going on in Hood River on November 1 of previous years. Every match in our database was a view of Alva Day and friends hunting in eastern Oregon: 1939, 1941, 1944 and 1948. He was nothing if not a man of routine.
From out earliest Alva Day negatives (1917) he used an “autographic camera” and film, which allowed him to record details of each capture (what we now call “metadata”) directly on the film with a metal stylus. It seems Day was one of the few people with the discipline to take advantage of this feature. It quickly declined in popularity and was discontinued by 1932. Not to be deterred, Day took to annotating each negative (after processing) with a white ink. He must have taken careful notes, because you can see he included not only the date but the time of the capture (which he always rounded to the nearest quarter hour).
We know from other images taken the same day he and his friend were hunting on “Fly Ridge.” There is a Fly Ridge in Crook County and in Union County. A couple of days later they were in Pendleton, so my bet is on Union County. It looks like they were hunting until at least November 10, and the later part of their trip included the use of a rail car to access the forest. We saw a view of their rail car 11 years ago.
I think that’s a Dodge pickup. Note the chains, which would have helped navigate the muddy roads after they left the pavement.
Dale Nicol
Arthur, I think the truck is a 3/4 ton Chevrolet.
kmb
Is there a dead animal in the back of the truck, and a pile of entrails in the foreground?
Dale Nicol
good call kmb…..maybe an elk?
Pat A
Definitely a dodge step side.
without four wheel drive the chains were needed to make it around those steep hills in that area.
Looks like elk hooves!
Dave Flowers
1941 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup. Dodge headlight housings were shorter and rounder.
JKG
Must have had a chain hoist or tractor handy to load that monster elk in the back without carving it up!
Pat A
37 days later 12-7-41 Pearl Harbor.
Probably the last distant hunting trip for a while!
ArthurB
kmb, you are correct. I’ll just say this was the least gory of the series. It is an elk. No details of how they got it into the truck.
Thanks for the lesson on how to tell a Dodge from a Chevy. The headlights and hood trim are very similar. We have a 1943 image of the front of this truck with the “Chevrolet” logo and a very large elk head tied to the bumper.
It looks like they must have pooled their ration coupons because these guys appear to have made a similar trip every November right through the war years.
L. E.
A hard day’s work.
Looks like there is not much top soil in that area.