How a flag reached Bend’s Old Mill smokestack after September 11th

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- 25 years ago, a flag went up on one of Bend’s Old Mill District smokestacks, just hours after the September 11th attacks.

Visit Bend says Bill Smith remembers looking out his office window and seeing the flag flying more than two hundred feet in the air.

It was Tim Keeton of Keeton & King Construction who put it there, assisted by his brother Tom, and a project manager named Mick Howard.

Tim and Tom knew the cable system at the smokestacks.

The trio borrowed a flag from the National Guard, and Tim and Tom climbed the stack with a steel pipe and pipe clamps, securing the flag.

A permanent flagpole was installed soon after.

The flag has flown there ever since, becoming one of Bend’s most recognizable symbols.