STOCKGROWERS
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SATURDAY » Ranche
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ready to show off
PAGE A10
Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
Issue No. 18
August 17, 2016
$1
MINAM RIVER LODGE
BUILDING IN THE
WILD
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Amy Keiter smiles through the open doors
of husband Robert Donatz’s Cessna 195
as she explains the rare plane to visitors
at the Wallowa County Fly-In on Saturday.
Pilot stories
abound at
latest Fly-In
Dozens of pilots,
hundreds of attendees
enjoyed a beautiful day
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
E.J. Harris/East Oregonian
Crews work on rebuilding the Minam River Lodge in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area east of La Grande.
Luxury lodge rising
deep in wilderness
Minam
River Lodge
owner
Barnes Ellis
unloads
supplies
off of a
plane at the
airstrip at
the Minam
River Lodge.
All supplies
for the
lodge must
be flown
in from La
Grande.
By Tim Trainor
East Oregonian
W
UMATILLA
82
204
NATIONAL
R.
Area in
detail
Wallowa
ORE.
82
LL
A
.
Joseph
MO
84
Enterprise
OW
er
nd
e R
3
WA
82
iv
Mina m R
FOREST
Wallow
Elgin
Grand e R o
237
IN
S
Site of new
Minam River
Lodge
350
Wallowa
Lake
TA
La Grande
UN
hen the Minam River Lodge was built
in 1950, livestock hauled in most of the
equipment.
A sawmill was constructed on site to
build the lodge and cabins, but mules provided the
muscle when a 400-pound refrigerator needed to
travel up and down the mountains to its new home
deep in the woods.
Now, 56 years later, as the crumbling lodge and
old refrigerator is being replaced, some things have
changed but many have not.
The helicopters are new. Check out our
Construction manager Ben online video
Gates, of UP Architecture in of a landing
Portland, conscripted copters on the Minam
to make 97 supply drops into Lodge runway,
the 127-acre inholding that Wallowa.com
is surrounded entirely by the
Eagle Cap Wilderness. Every-
thing from timber to glass touched down at a small
airfi eld within sight of the main lodge. At a cost of
more than $2,000 an hour to rent a helicopter, just
bringing in supplies cost “six fi gures,” said lodge
owner Barnes Ellis.
Ellis is a former reporter for The Oregonian
turned investment banker who lives in Portland.
He vacationed at the property growing up and pur-
chased the property at auction in 2011.
EAGLE CAP
WILDERNESS
10 miles
See LODGE, Page A12
WHITMAN
237
84
203
“
See FLY-IN, Page A9
There is no
forgetting
this place.”
BARNES ELLIS
lodge owner
WALLOWA-
N
Amy Keiter of Beaverton is famous —
and not just because her pilot husband Rob
Donatz can park his 1950 Cessna 195 with
an impressive tail wheel to bursts of ap-
plause.
Yes, the Cessna 195 is pretty stupendous,
powered by a Jacobs 300-horsepower radial
engine that makes the gear heads salivate.
But Amy is famous in her own right due
to the column she submitted to The Orego-
nian back in 2002 about their fi rst experi-
ence at the Wallowa County Fly-In. Back
then, the event was nowhere near its current
size, with scores of pilots in rare, restored
or just plain interesting planes and hundreds
upon hundreds of visitors.
Nevertheless, the Joseph airmen put on
a heck of a show back in 2002, and Keit-
er and Donatz were glad they came with
friends that year. Their friend’s Cessna 182
“crapped out” at the event, refusing to start
when it came time to leave.
They were all on their way to remote
Moose Creek in Idaho for a camping trip to
celebrate Amy and Rob’s fi rst anniversary.
Now, stuck at Joseph Airport after the show,
they experienced “the kindness of strang-
ers” so extraordinary it felt like a novel.
“People were just like crazy nice,” Amy
recalls. “We woke up the morning after
when a farm truck pulled up and a guy from
Enterprise said, ‘I heard you had engine
trouble and I thought I’d drive over and see
what I could do.’”
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
NATIONAL
FOREST
EO Media Group graphic
Greg, 9, takes a ride with experienced
pilot Tim Locke and his “almost a pilot”
adopotive uncle Emmet Wold.
Rowena Patton named Homemaker of the Fair
Enterprise woman
excelled at quilting,
flowers, repurposed
denim creations
By Scot Heisel
Wallowa County Chieftain
If you walked through the Wallowa
County Fair exhibits at Cloverleaf Hall
last week, it’s a near certainty that at least
one item in the room from that caught
your eye came from Rowena Patton.
The Enterprise woman has been en-
tering crafts, goods and quilts for years,
and her efforts this year earned her the
coveted Homemaker of the Fair Award.
To be eligible, contestants must sub-
mit entries for the Floriculture, Baked
Goods, Food Preservation and Textiles
Courtesy of Gail Hillock
Homemaker of the Fair Rowena Patton. The red and black quilt on the wall
was among her many award-winning entries. More Fair photos, B1
categories.
Her favorite category this year? Cre-
ating textile goods out of repurposed
denim jeans.
“I made one for every category,” Pat-
ton said. That’s 12 entries in the textiles
category alone.
And her fl ower arrangement was
named Best of Show.
“For fl ower arrangement, you don’t
have to use your own fl owers,” she said.
“But I have a lot of fl owers, so I like to
use my own.”
To ensure the freshest arrangement,
she waited until the last minute to cut her
fl owers.
“I was out picking fl owers in the
rain,” she said.
This isn’t the fi rst time Patton has
won the top homemaker award. She’s
been entering items since she and Wes-
ley, her husband of 65 years, moved to
the county in the 1970s.
“I’ve won it two or three times now,”
she said, before revealing one of her se-
crets of fair success.
“I’m a reader. We don’t have a TV.
It’s amazing what you can get done when
you don’t have a TV.”
Editor’s note: The Chieftain has yet to
receive full results from the fair exhibits.
Additional results will be published at a
later date.