Oregon Places: Forty-One Cents: The Pendleton—Pilot Rock Stage Line

Abstract

OREGON PLACES Forty-One Cents The Pendleton-PilotRock StageLine byJamesJ. Kopp AQUARTER, A DIME, A NICKEL, a penny. One coin from each of the slots in the cash register drawer. Fast, efficient, and simple enough that many of thosewho had topay itcould retrieve the coins without looking. Forty-one cents. For nearly three decades, from the early 1950s through the 1970s,forty-one cents was the charge for shipping as much as thirtypounds on the freight linebetween Pendleton and Pilot Rock, two easternOregon towns separated by fifteenmiles of wheat fields, a bowl ing alley, a grange hall, a reservoir, a golf course, some sagebrush, and, on many days, a strongwest wind. Over those years, forty-one cents repre sented the simple and sincere service that characterized this small business and the families that operated it. And in the twentyplus years since the last package was transported between Pendleton and Pilot Rock for that amount, forty-one cents continues to be remembered as the symbol of the Pendleton-Pilot Rock Stage Line. It is also the basis for family lore,because the storyof thePendleton-Pilot Rock Stage line isasmuch about family as it is about business. Family-run "short-haul carriers," such as the Pendleton-Pilot Rock Stage Line operated throughout the state formost of the twentieth cen tury,with routes from Coos Bay to Powers; fromBaker toHalfway; from The Dalles to Shaniko, Arlington, and Heppner; and from Portland to many different cities and towns. One of the few documents that provides a snapshot of these common carriers is a report issued in 1969 by the Trans port and Logistics Research Center of the College of Business Adminis tration at the University of Oregon. The forty-eight-page report, Oregon Short-Haul Regularly Scheduled Com mon Carrier Trucking Characteristics, examines some of the reasons for the severefinancial problems encountered by the short-haul carriers. Thirty-two ? 2oo6Oregon Historical Society Kopp, The Pendleton-Pilot Rock Stage Line 607 short-haul carriers are included in the study, fourteen of them with fewer than ten employees in 1968.Of those, fivewere included inClass III of the Oregon Public Utility Commission Classification, with operating revenues of less then $50,000 ? Halfway Garage & Sales, Pendleton-Heppner Freight Line, Pendleton-Pilot Rock Stage Line, Sandy Truck Line, and Tigard-Sher wood Truck Service.1 The average length of haul for the short-haul carriers was 59miles (one way), with the longest distance being 201miles and the shortest being 15miles. The 15-mile trekwas that covered by the Pendleton-Pilot Rock Stage Line. IT WAS IN1926 THATMY FATHER, Bill Kopp, was asked todrive a truck for a friend ofthe family,Evan Cameron, who ran a stage line between Pendle ton and Pilot Rock for freightand pas sengers. When Bill agreed to drive the Model T truck for a few days, neither he nor anyone else imagined that he would be operating the freight line for the next sixty years. Cameron was at tending a convention inPortland and injured his legwhile on the trip, somy father's short-term commitment was extended. The injurydid not heal in a timelyfashion, and Cameron askedmy father to join him in a partnership in the company. Soon, Cameron decided to get out of the business altogether and offered the company to Bill. In the agreement between Evan Cameron andWilliam J. Kopp, dated October 22, 1926,my father purchased "the Buss [sic] line between Pendleton, Oregon, and Pilot Rock, Oregon, for the sum of $600.00." He also agreed "to carry theUnited States Mail, on said Buss line From Pendleton, Oregon, to Pilot Rock, Oregon, and From Pilot Rock, Oregon, to Pendleton, Oregon." The operation of both the freight and mail component and the passenger business, then consisting of a seven passenger Paige touring car,was more than a one-person operation, so my father asked his older brother Joe to join him in the business. In late 1926, the Kopp brothers took over ownership and management of the Pendleton-Pilot Stage Line and were issued permit number 83 from the Public Utility Commission.2 Bill and his brother JoeKopp were the sons of Franz (Frank) Kopp (1858-1930) and Katharina Adams Kopp (1864-1951...