INSIDE
BAKER HIGH SCHOOL GRAD SETS RECORD FOR CLIMBING MOUNTAINS |
August 28, 2021
Local
hospitals
see litt le
support
National Guard
members serve in
Grant County amid
virus surge
OUTDOORS & REC, B1
WEEKEND EDITION
$1.50
‘That guy was a hero’
The story of a daily ritual, a fiery crash and a miraculous riverbank rescue
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — As
cases of COVID-19 con-
tinued to rise in Oregon,
Gov. Kate Brown on Aug.
13 issued an emergency
order to deploy nearly 1,500
Oregon National Guard sol-
diers throughout the state to
help support hospitals.
In Eastern Oregon, only
the Blue Mountain Hospital
District in Grant County
has received any of those
resources.
As of Friday, Aug. 27,
several hospitals in North-
eastern Oregon have
not sent in a request for
National Guard support,
according to Oregon Health
Authority offi cials. Those
hospitals include CHI St.
Anthony Hospital in Pend-
leton, Grande Ronde Hos-
pital in La Grande, Good
Shepherd Medical Center
in Hermiston and Pio-
neer Memorial Hospital in
Heppner.
According to an OHA
spokesperson, Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center
in Baker City was one of
the few hospitals to put in a
request for guard members.
The soldiers would pro-
vide support in clinical and
nonclinical roles. The hos-
pital chain — which serves
Baker City, Ontario and
Boise — requested six sol-
diers to assist in Ontario. It
was not known how many
soldiers were requested for
the Baker City location.
Wallowa County on
Aug. 25 requested Oregon
National Guard support,
according to Brooke Pace,
director of communications
and public relations at Wal-
lowa Memorial Hospital.
The request came 12 days
after Brown’s announce-
ment about deploying
Oregon National Guard sol-
diers to hospitals during the
recent surge of COVID-19.
In Grant County, sev-
eral members of the Oregon
See, Hospitals/Page A3
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
Dan Steele stands on the Upper Perry Arch Bridge in Perry, which he crosses most days on a quiet bike ride along the Grand Ronde River for a time of refl ection
and prayer as he remembers his late son. One day last month, he witnessed a vehicle go off Interstate 84 and plunge down to the river. He immediately jumped
into action. “I believe my son’s soul was with me that day,” he said.
By TOM HALLMAN
The Oregonian
L
A GRANDE — When
his son was born in
1998, Dan Steele
thought it was a miracle.
He was 47. He believed he’d
been given the precious gift of
a second chance, vowing to live
in a way he hoped would one
day make his boy proud.
Steele, born near Eugene and
raised in Sisters, married young,
a woman from Bend. They had
a daughter but divorced before
the child’s fi rst birthday. In
time, he said, his ex-wife remar-
ried and moved with the baby to
another state.
He moved on, working in
Montana and California before
heading to Alaska, often in
remote sections of the state,
where Steele, a self-described
loner, did some logging, fi shing,
trapping and, from time to time,
a bit of construction. He even-
tually returned to the Lower 48
— living here and there, doing
this and that — before putting
down roots in La Grande where
he was hired as a Union Pacifi c
Railroad freight conductor.
“It was a rough transition,”
said Steele, now 70.
Steele worked the railroad’s
extra board, mainly night work,
which meant waiting for a
supervisor to call him at home
to report. When the call came
— and it could be with little
warning — Steele was required
to drop everything and be at the
yard within 90 minutes to head
out.
“I went from total freedom
in my life to zero freedom,” he
said. “The issues in my life, the
drinking and such, grew out of
all that.”
La Grande Rural Fire Protection District/Contributed Photo, File
Rescue personnel respond to the scene of a single-vehicle crash on Sunday, July 25, 2021. Four people were injured in
the accident on Interstate 84 about 5 miles west of La Grande.
Steele had a stretch of time
when the drinking, and what
the alcohol brought out in him,
led to arrests, citations and con-
victions in Union County for
drunk driving and altercations.
‘It broke my heart’
After the fi rst busted mar-
riage, Steele vowed never to
marry again. But the heart
doesn’t follow the head. He met
a woman. While they never
married, they were together
and she gave birth to a boy —
Keegan Pierce Steele.
INDEX
Classified ...............B2
Comics ....................B5
Crossword .............B2
Dear Abby .............B6
WEATHER
Horoscope .............B3
Letters ....................A4
Lottery ....................A2
Obituaries ..............A3
TUESDAY
Opinion ..................A4
Outdoors & Rec ...B1
Records ..................A3
State ........................A6
“Having my son,” he said,
“made me clean up my life.”
Steele and the boy’s mother
lived separately. Because Steele
would be gone for days on the
train, the boy lived with his
mother, coming to stay with
Steele on his days off . He had
dogs. Father and son hiked and
fi shed and hunted together.
“He brought out the patience
in me,” Steele said. “He had a
great sense of humor.”
Keegan Steele eventually
married, had two children and
divorced, something that made
Dan Steele think about his life,
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Sunday
41 LOW
84/50
Clear
Sunny and nice
CLIMATE CHANGE’S IMPACT ON ELK
the ups and downs, and the
legacy a parent passes down to
a child.
Steele retired from the rail-
road in 2014. Remembering
how he liked the isolation in
Alaska, he considered moving
125 miles away to a remote sec-
tion of Grant County. But his
son and his two grandchildren,
a boy and a girl, were the most
important people in his life. He
couldn’t imagine leaving them,
but he wanted out of La Grande.
He moved to Perry, a speck on
See, Hero/Page A5
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 101
2 sections, 12 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page 4A.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com