George Dimick
By Steve Lent, Crook County Historian
George Walter Dimick was born on February 24, 1908 in Battleground, Washington. His parents were Walter and Velina Coiteux Dimick. There were four children in the family. George’s father died when he was 12 years old. His mother remarried and had three more children. George grew up near Battleground and did odd jobs to help support the family. He helped his mother and family move to Central Oregon when he was 18. He did some work in Central Oregon but went to do farming on the Oregon coast and then became involved in the lumber mill business in Southern Oregon and Northern California. He became a skilled millwright.
His skills were so important as a millwright that he was asked by the government to stay at home and run the mills during World War II. He was the millwright for Western Pine Limber Company in Northern California for most of the war. After the war he did horse logging near Fort Klamath. He came to Madras in 1946 and established the D & L Lumber Company Mill. The mill in Madras was operated in partnership with Winton Livingston and discontinued in 1949. George was married three times, first to Alynne Parker and was later divorced. His second wife was Velma Martin who passed away in 1968 and then he married Theresa Bush.
After the mill closed George began training race horses for races on the Southern Washington and Blue Mountain circuit. He was very successful as a horse owner and trainer. He was a leading horse owner at Portland Meadows Race Track for twelve years. He also trained for others and by adding these horses to his training he became the leading trainer in Oregon for four years. He retired from big time racing in the 1970s. He did continue to train two of his horses to chariot race and a long forgotten event was added to the Deschutes County Fair and Rodeo.
Not content to be idle after winding down his racing career he became involved in restoring and rebuilding buggies and wagons. He had customers from all over Oregon. He rebuilt the buggy that had been donated to the Crook County Historical Society and the buggy is now located at the Rancher Memorial Building at the Crook County Fairgrounds.
George lived a very long life and passed away at age 105 on March 9, 2013. Theresa had died in 2006. George is buried in Jefferson Memorial Park in Madras next to his second wife Velma. Dimick Lane in Madras is named for him.