FROM PAGE ONE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A5
Hatchet proves valuable for stranded hunters
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Wallow County Chieftain, File
Wallowa High School Principal and coach David Howe off ers advice
to basketball player Kyla Hook in February 2020.
HOWE
Continued from Page A1
the ability to compete in
Future Business Leaders of
America at the regional and
state level.”
The last thing Howe
said he was particularly
proud of was the increase
in test scores from when
he arrived until now. Most
scores on state and PSAT
tests are among the best in
the county, state and nation.
He attributed this suc-
cess to “the dedicated staff
who routinely go above and
beyond to help students suc-
ceed,” he said. “They are
miracle workers.”
Howe said later that his
Christian faith is critical to
his direction in life.
“I know that several of
your readers do not believe
in our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, but I do,” he
told the Chieftain. “He
brought me here and I con-
tinue to lean on his will for
my life. No, I’m not perfect,
never will be. He is still
working on me.”
Howe concluded his res-
ignation letter with a para-
phrase from the movie
“Hoosiers.”
“I’ve made some mis-
takes but they’re mistakes
I take full responsibility
for,” Howe wrote. “I was
hired to be the principal of
Wallowa High School and
I’ve done that to the best
of my ability. I apologize
for nothing. You may not
be pleased with the results
but I am. I am very proud
of the high school staff and
students.”
Violence
Violence also has raised
its ugly head, according to
Howe’s letter.
“Students have threat-
ened my life by shooting
me or stabbing me,” Howe
wrote in his letter. “As a
result, I have anxiety about
getting in my vehicle after
dark. I wonder is there
someone waiting to stab
or shoot me? I have night-
mares about someone
standing in my bedroom
doorway with a gun. So
violent that it wakes my
wife up — I have never
had nightmares. The fi nal
straw is when I came home
from the December board
meeting and started yelling
at my wife in response to a
simple question.”
During the interview,
he also concluded, “Basi-
cally, in my mind, stuff rolls
downhill.”
Responses?
Superintendent Tammy
Jones said she couldn’t
release the contents of
the resignation letter and
wouldn’t comment on it.
Howe did, however, provide
a copy to the Chieftain.
“It included names of
people that wouldn’t be
legal according to our
attorney,” Jones said. “It
would vio-
late our board
policy on
complaints.”
She deferred
a request for
a copy of the
Jones
letter to board
Chairman Woody Wolfe,
who deferred the request
back to Jones. Board
member Matt Howard, who
Howe also mentioned in
his resignation letter, was
unavailable for comment.
Jones did speak highly of
Howe to the Chieftain.
“He loves Wallowa and
there isn’t a harder worker,”
she said. “He’s passionate
about Wallowa and the
kids.”
She said his resignation
comes amid those of others
who are retiring or have
decided to leave for other
reasons, such as the pres-
sures of mandates related to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Others depart
Howe’s departure is not
the fi rst among Wallowa
County school administra-
tors in the past six months.
Enterprise School
Superintendent and Ele-
mentary School Principal
Erika Pinkerton left her
post Aug. 30 for a position
in La Grande. Sherri Kil-
gore, Joseph High School
principal, left earlier last
summer for an elementary
school principal’s job in
Pendleton. Enterprise High
School Principal Blake
Carlsen resigned Oct. 11,
to be eff ective at the end
of 2021. Carlsen would not
comment on his reason for
leaving or future plans.
BAKER CITY — With
his feet freezing and the
prospect of a long and
snowy winter night ahead
with a bloody elk hide the
only shelter, Noah Chaney
was never so glad to hear
the rumble of a boat motor.
Although his affi nity for
his brother’s new hatchet
was, if anything, greater
still.
Noah, 20, along with his
older brother, Neil Chaney
Jr., 22 (who goes by John),
and Noah’s best friend,
Isaac Logan, 20, were in
quite a predicament as the
sun went down on Sunday,
Jan. 30, at the eastern edge
of Baker County.
The trio had started the
day hoping to fi ll their elk
tags in the steep country
above Brownlee Reservoir,
several miles southeast of
Richland.
Isaac killed a big cow
around 9:30 a.m.
The friends, along with
the Chaneys’ dad, Neil Sr.,
43, of Baker City, came
up with a plan. They were
too far below their rigs to
haul 400 pounds or so of
elk meat up the precipi-
tous, snow-covered slopes.
Better, they fi gured, to
take advantage of gravity
to ease their burden. Neil
Sr. agreed to hike to the
ridge, drive back to Baker
City and haul the family’s
boat. He’d meet the trio on
the shore, more than 1,000
feet below. He left around
11:30 a.m.
Before they started
down to the water, Noah,
ELK
Continued from Page A1
intestines, so an elk can
starve to death with a belly
full of alfalfa.
‘Elk curtains’
At the Northwest Hay
Expo in Kennewick,
Washington, mostly men,
mostly unmasked, roam
around the great hall, slap-
ping hands and checking
AUCTION
Continued from Page A1
meals program, a youth
group and a food bank for
those in need.
The online portion
of the upcoming auc-
tion will start in about
two weeks, said Donna
Beverage, a member of
the Friends of the His-
toric Union Commu-
nity Hall’s board. Infor-
mation on participating
in the online auction
will be available on the
Catherine Creek Com-
munity Center’s Face-
book page or by calling
541-562-2038.
John and Isaac managed to
kindle a fi re that they used
to cook some fl ank steak
from the elk — probably
the freshest meat any of
them had ever enjoyed. But
they didn’t have a lighter or
even matches to get a blaze
going on the cold and blus-
tery January day.
They had a hatchet. And
a chunk of fl int that came
with it. The hatchet, Noah
said, was a gift this past
Christmas to John from
their sister, Abbigail. They
were able to coax enough
sparks from the fl int to
catch some dry tinder.
“It’s diffi cult,” was
Noah’s succinct descrip-
tion of starting a fi re the
old-fashioned way, with
no assistance from butane
or some other petroleum
accelerant.
Noah, a student at
Eastern Oregon University,
La Grande, John, who lives
in Eugene, and Isaac, who’s
from Prineville, wrapped
the elk hide around the
meat and maneuvered it,
which is to say rolled it
as best they could, down
through the sage and the
rock outcrops, to Brownlee.
They arrived at water’s
edge around 1:30 p.m.,
Noah said.
When they got to the
river they sparked a second
blaze to warm their frigid
feet while they waited for
the elder Chaney to arrive
by boat.
Noah said his dad had
fi gured he could get there
by about 3 p.m., so it ought
not be a long wait.
But 3 p.m. passed.
And then 4 p.m.
“We were sitting,
waiting, hoping that we
would hear a boat eventu-
ally,” Noah said.
At the farthest edge of
Oregon, at the bottom of
a canyon more than 2,000
feet deep, the dark came
fast. The temperature
dropped. The wind rose.
They found an old dead
tree near a decrepit cabin.
They hauled the tree to
their makeshift camp on
the rocky shore and used
the hatchet to chop a pile of
fi rewood. Then they sliced
some backstrap from the
elk and had another meal.
By this point, Noah
said, the group concluded
that their dad wasn’t going
to show up with the boat.
They hunkered down for
what they expected would
be a chilly and unpleasant
night. But fi rst they
retrieved the elk hide.
They came up with a
schedule — one would
wrap up in the hide and try
to sleep for an hour while
the two others stayed close
to the fi re. They’d swap
the hide every hour. It was
about 9:55 p.m. when John
said he heard an engine and
they saw a white glow.
It was the light bar on
a Baker County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce boat. Inside the
vessel were Sheriff Travis
Ash and Marine Deputy
Wayne Paxton.
They had braved 8
miles of icy whitecaps and
blowing snow from the
boat ramp at Moonshine
Mine Park near Swede’s
Landing on Brownlee.
“Thank goodness,” was
Noah’s reaction. “It was so
nice to see.”
Neil Sr. had brought
his boat from Baker City.
But it wouldn’t start, said
Frances Chaney, Neil Sr.’s
wife and Noah and John’s
mother. Knowing the trio
of hunters was waiting to
be picked up by boat, the
Chaneys got word to Ash
by phone at 6:39 p.m.
Ash said that after
hearing the couple’s story,
and knowing that a snow-
storm was moving in, he
decided that a rescue oper-
ation couldn’t wait for the
morning. He and Paxton
brought the boat to Moon-
shine Mine Park.
Another group of search
and rescue volunteers was
on standby in case the
trio had hiked back up the
mountain rather than wait
on the shore.
Ash said the boat trip on
the black water was one of
the more harrowing in his
experience.
Brownlee is about 32
feet below full, and at that
level rocks, normally well
below the surface, pose a
danger to boats, Ash said.
“We were running at
about 7 mph,” he said.
They were able to
establish a GPS track to
follow back to the park, so
they could run a bit faster
on the return.
The Chaneys were
reunited around midnight.
Noah said he is grateful
not only for the rescue, but
also for that hatchet and
the fl int that not only kept
the trio somewhat warm,
but also kept their stom-
achs satisfi ed with fl ame-
cooked venison.
out the latest in twine,
balers and tarping tech-
nology. Pamphlets, ball
caps and squishy stress-
balls shaped like little
tractors litter vendors’
tables.
A vendor motions to a
passing farmer, “Hi, ya,
how you? Enjoying your
day so far?”
Clint Vieu is from
Walla Walla. He’s with
a major tarping services
company called ITC Ser-
vices out of Moses Lake,
Washington. He says one
solution for growers is
to install “elk curtains,”
which are tarps covering
the sides of big stacks. Left
unprotected, Vieu says,
“Stacks have fallen on elk
‘cause they’ll eat into it so
much that it will actually
destabilize the stack and it
will collapse and fall in on
the animals.”
‘It’s life’
People who want to
participate in person
instead of online can do
so on the fi nal day of the
auction, Saturday, Feb.
26, when all the auction
items will be displayed
at the Catherine Creek
Community Center,
667 N. Main St. People
coming to the center that
day will be able to submit
their bids in writing.
Donations for the
auction are still being
accepted. For informa-
tion on donating items,
go to Catherine Creek
Community Center’s
Facebook page or send
an email to cccc667@
gmail.com.
Every year, elk bust up
Anthony Leggett’s fences
to get to his hay and crops.
And every year, he fi xes
them again.
Still, Leggett has made
his peace with the elk.
“We just happen to live
in a spot where there’s a
trail that they come down
on,” he says. “For us, it’s
life.”
Mobile
Mobile Service
Service
Outstanding
Computer Repair
Fast &
& Reliable
Reliable
Fast
Open
for
all 24/7
your
Call or Text
Call or Text 24/7
Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831
Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831
Stay up-to-date
Microsoft’
If your with
computer
is s most
advanced
operating
system to date,
in despair
call Outstanding
Windows
11
Computer
Repair!
Desktops and laptops in stock
www.outstandingcomputerrepair.com
Or upgrade yours today for the best security!
Refurbished Desktop & Laptops For Sale
House calls (let me come to you!)
Drop Offs & Remote Services are Available
All credit cards accepted
IT’S IN YOUR INBOX
before your
mailbox
Subscribers can
receive daily
email updates
and uninterrupted
digital delivery on
a computer, tablet
and smartphone
Sign up for free digital access
Call 800-781-3214
LaGrandeObserver.com