Wallowa County Chieftain
wallowa.com
THE SCENE
Entertainment
December 28, 2016
MCNEIL
S MILES ON WHEELS
Continued from Page A1
Subway of
Enterprise
employee
Chris Gomes
poses
with his
new three-
wheeled
bicycle,
an early
Christmas
gift from a
collaboration
between
Santa Claus
and Wallowa
Grain
Growers
employees.
Gomes said
he couldn’t
wait to start
using the
new bicycle.
The Oregon
State Police
gifted
Gomes the
star on his
shirt, which
identifies him
as a junior
trooper.
Friday, Dec. 30
• “Final Friday” Open Mic
Night, 7 p.m. at Stockman’s
Lounge
Friday, Jan. 6
• Open mic, 7 p.m. at
Terminal Gravity
Thursday, Jan. 12
Big Read Kickoff, 7 p.m.
Fishtrap, Enterprise
Friday, Jan. 13
• Bart Budwig and Marshal
McLean, 7 p.m. at Terminal
Gravity
Saturday, Jan. 14
Wallowa County Gamblers
Snowmobile Club Annual Pok-
er Run, Salt Creek Summit
Tunesmith Night, 6 p.m.
Featuring Marshall McLean,
Bart Budwig and Kory Quinn
at Stockman’s Lounge
Wednesday, Jan. 18
Eagle Cap Extreme sled
dog race, 9 a.m. vet check in
Joseph and 1 p.m. vet check
in Enterprise. Followed by
community potluck at the
Joseph Civic Center.
Thursday, Jan. 19
Eagle Cap Extreme sled
dog race, start at 1 p.m. at
Fergi Ski Area
Please submit Enter-
tainment Calendar event
information to editor@
wallowa.com
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Enterprise �ish hatchery expands
OUT OF THE PAST
Compiled by Cheryl Jenkins
Items of interest from the
pages of The Chieftain from
this week in years past.
100 YEARS AGO
Dec. 28, 1916
December 27, 1916, may
be set down as one of the
memorable cold days in En-
terprise and Wallowa county.
The minimum temperature
was not abnormal for mid-
winter. This was 20 below
zero, a temperature reached
nearly every winter. But the
maximum was the lowest re-
corded since this paper began
keeping check on the weath-
er. The thermometer rose only
to 6 degrees above zero in the
whole day.
A striking illustration of
the increase in population of
this community was afford-
ed at the railroad station last
Saturday. The waiting room
was overcrowded and many
persons stood on the platform
when the train came in. Agent
Rice found he had sold ex-
actly 100 tickets for the out-
bound train.
J. F. Bruce has rented
the Miller building on River
street, opposite the front of
the courthouse, and is moving
his harness store to it, from
his old location at Main and
West 1st streets. The building
has windows at the front and
rear and also a skylight.
Advertisement:
Don’t
Kill Your Wife — let our
machines do your dirty work
and raise you in your wife’s
estimation from a mud image
to one of the gods. Eagle Cap
Laundry.
70 YEARS AGO
Dec. 26, 1946
Improvements calculated
to increase the capacity of
A7
Wallowa County Chieftain archives
Freighting to Imnaha.
the Enterprise fi sh hatchery
from less than a million fi sh
to over 2 million are getting
underway, according to Supt.
Ralph Kay.
The Wallowa Cougar bas-
ketball team will make a tour
during the vacation. They will
leave December 27 and return
January 1. While away they
will play Boardman, Fossil,
Heppner and Ione.
An estimated 800 to 1000
persons visited the new dis-
play rooms of the Joseph
Sales Co. at Joseph Saturday
when the company held Open
House.
Local merchants are still a
bit groggy under the effects of
one of the heaviest Christmas
buying seasons here in many
years. Customers armed with
an abundance of cash, and
out to buy larger and more
expensive gifts than they usu-
ally seek, crowded the stores
throughout December.
Having in mind the recent
coal shortage, and remember-
ing the lovely big wood-burn-
ing fi replace in their home,
Dee Walker selected his
wife’s Christmas present this
year with great care. He was
seen coming out of the Mar-
shall-Wells store with the fi n-
est over-sized wood saw that
money could buy.
50 YEARS AGO
Dec. 29, 1966
Tuesday word was re-
ceived that the Flora post
offi ce will be closed and that
the mail will be delivered on
a star route.
Long distance charges
will be eliminated at 11:01
p.m. Thursday, December 29,
on calls between Wallowa
and Lostine and between
Wallowa and Enterprise,
West Coast Telephone dis-
trict manager Dale Rongey
said this week. The new ser-
vice will increase the number
of telephones available to
Wallowa customers on a lo-
cal call basis from about 500
to more than 1500.
The Wallowa County Jay-
cees went on their annual
Christmas lighting inspection
on Wednesday evening, De-
cember 21. The outstanding
displays selected in each of
the towns were as follows:
Jack Coleman, Wallowa; Or-
val McArtor, Lostine; W.E.
Warnock, Joseph; Vaughn
Haggerty and C.A. Winings
of Enterprise. Each winner
will receive a check for $5.00
from the Jaycees.
As the year draws to a
close a general feeling of opti-
mism prevails as farmers and
business men look forward to
1967. The general opinion is
that the worst economic con-
ditions are behind us.
25 YEARS AGO
Dec. 26, 1991
Dennis Brennan of Enter-
prise has been named 1991
“man of the year” of the Wal-
Happy New Year
to all our loyal customers and
friends in Wallowa County!
lowa County’s search and
rescue posse by Sheriff Roger
Decker.
If a merry Christmas can
be captured in boxes, then 109
“Merry Christmases” were
delivered Monday morning
to doorsteps throughout Wal-
lowa County by numerous
pickup driving elves as part
of the annual Elks’ Wallowa
County Christmas Basket
program.
The red-hot Enterprise
Savages scored an 88-41
victory over Stanfi eld and an
85-48 win over Pilot Rock
to take championship hon-
ors at last weekend’s Pilot
Rock Christmas Tournament.
Nathan Locke, Lance Ho-
man and Tim Martin were
All-tourney team selections.
The Wallowa County Ju-
nior Women’s Club recent-
ly donated $750 each to the
county EMT association and
to the county fair board as
part of its 2-year Commu-
nity Improvement Project.
The goal is to compile
information that can lower
the risk of accidents and fa-
talities, while promoting safe
backcountry travel, Prid-
more-Brown said.
“Oregon has had relative-
ly few avalanche fatalities,
but the fatalities that have
been in Oregon have been
clustered in northeast Ore-
gon,” he said.
One incident happened
earlier this year, when Rand
— an experienced back-
country skier, guide and
observer — was killed after
being swept 1,200 feet in an
avalanche. It was the fourth
backcountry skiing fatality
in the Wallowa Mountains
since 2009.
Rand was hired as direc-
tor of the Wallowa Avalanche
Center in 2015, and his death
was a personal blow for ev-
eryone,
Pridmore-Brown
said. The center had high
hopes under Rand’s lead-
ership, and the tragedy left
behind a void for the group’s
board of directors to fi ll.
“We, as the board of di-
rectors, had a very clear pic-
ture of where we wanted the
center to go and what our
mission is,” Pridmore-Brown
said. “That was never in
doubt.”
Enter McNeil, who has
spent past seasons as an ob-
server for the avalanche cen-
ter while guiding backcoun-
try trips for Wallowa Alpine
Huts. McNeil was already
prepping weekly avalanche
advisories for the coming
season before he was hired.
Connelly Brown, owner
and operator of Wallowa Al-
pine Huts, said the avalanche
center plays a critical role in
preparing backcountry ski-
ers for what to expect on the
mountain.
Wallowa Alpine Huts has
been in business since 1980,
renting camps and offering
guides for backcountry ski-
ers in the Eagle Cap Wilder-
ness. Brown said they have
forged a symbiotic relation-
ship with the avalanche cen-
ter, and several of his staff —
McNeil included — double
as observers.
“What the center pro-
vides is a resource for de-
cision-making about where
to go skiing, and what to do
when we get there,” Brown
said. “That’s part of the ex-
perience.”
Conditions are already
excellent for backcoun-
try skiers in the Wallowas,
Brown said. A series of
storms battered the moun-
tains, dumping up to 3 feet of
snow at the cabins and 5 feet
in basins. Such a strong start
has made the snow deep and
stable, Brown said.
Melissa Webb, hydrol-
ogist with the Natural Re-
source Conservation Service,
said the current snow-water
equivalent, or amount of wa-
ter contained within snow, is
111 percent of normal for the
area, including the Grande
Ronde, Powder, Burnt and
Imnaha river basins.
“We’re always happy to
have such a strong early start
to the snow season,” Webb
said. “Certainly for folks
out enjoying the snow, it’s a
good start to the year.”
Eastern Oregon might not
be the most famous back-
country terrain, or the easiest
to access, Pridmore-Brown
said. But it defi nitely has its
rewards.
“The mountains are truly
spectacular,” he said. “We’re
just trying to reduce the risk
and number of accidents out
there.”
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
Fashioned Values
d
l
O Sales & Service
www.main-street-motors.com
sales@main-street-motors.com
311 West Main St. • Enterprise
541-426-2100