February 19, 1946

February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.

The next morning Carl got maps and got the trailer swivel greased.  Left Ontario and drove to Burns where we stopped for lunch.  The country was very barren all the way from Ontario to Bend, a distance of 237 miles, all high desert. There were cattle grazing and now and then a road leading to a ranch house.  Stopped at an oil station along the way, Juntura, and at another oil station not listed on the map.  Met very little traffic. The weather was cloudy and gray – rather dreary. 

Goodge (ND) [Directions from Ontario, OR, to Bend, OR] Retrieved January 27, 2021.

Just before we came to Bend, there was ten or fifteen miles of scrub cedar and juniper.  Bend is on the edge of the big timber country.  Passed the Pilot Butte State Park road.  It apparently went around and around the butte and the park was on the summit.  Bend is on the Deschutes River and is a beautiful little town.  Stayed at a very nice tourist home – went downtown to buy groceries and the clerk gave me a half pound of butter. 

Walt’s Comments

Butter had been rationed for most of the war, and had only become freely available around the end of 1945. So getting butter was still kind of a big deal. You can read more about wartime rationing here.

Wild Geese on the Dechutes River, Bend Oregon

Digging Deeper

A good source of information on gas station road maps can be found here

Pilot Butte State Park information can be found here.