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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2017)
INSIDE : 2017 WALLOWA COUNTY VISITOR GUIDE Enterprise, Oregon Budget ax falls hard on county library Wallowa.com Issue No. 2 April 26, 2017 Van Doozer: Five years to justice JOSEPH MAN WINS MALICIOUS PROSECUTION SUIT By Paul Wahl Wallowa County Chieftain When David Van Doozer purchased Roger “Pop” Mc- Common’s bakery in April 2012, he never expected to be fi ghting over the deal fi ve years later. A Wallowa County Circuit Court jury handed down a de- cision in favor of Van Doozer April 14 in a malicious pros- ecution suit against Judy and Larry Willis, owners of the building where the bakery had operated in Joseph on Main Street. Van Doozer was awarded $75,000 in damages in the civ- il suit, which was fi led after he COURT REPORT PAGE 16 had been acquitted of criminal charges in the matter in June 2013. “It feels wonderful to fi nal- ly be vindicated,” Van Dooz- er said in a statement issued through his attorney Carl Kiss. A request for comment on the verdict was forwarded to the attorney of record for the Willises; but, no response was received prior to deadline. See LAWSUIT, Page A16 By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Everyone knew it was com- ing. A dip in federal funding to Wallowa County has caused cutback in hours for county employees, a hiring freeze in some departments and elimi- nation of the county library. The county lost a million dollars from the Secure Rural Schools funds traditionally given in lieu of revenue from logging on federal timber lands. Facebook rumors aside, the county did not cut funding for any rural fi re departments, nor did the Enterprise Fire Department volunteers quit in a sign of frustration and sol- idarity. SHARP SHOOTING AND TALL TALES See LIBRARY, Page A16 Super stays, initiates program By Kathleen Ellyn Wallowa County Chieftain Wallowa School District Supt. Bret Uptmor isn’t going anywhere. Uptmor, who made the fi - nal fi ve out of 22 applicants for a job as su- perintendent for the La Grande School District, found out April 19 that he had not gotten the job. The La Uptmor Grande School District has 2,300 students in comparison to Wallowa School District’s approxi- mately 200 students. “It was a professional op- portunity that was intriguing and yet kept me in Eastern Oregon,” Uptmor said. “But I knew I’d be happy either way. This gives me an opportuni- ty to continue with the good work we’ve been doing here at the Wallowa School Dis- trict.” See UPTMOR, Page A16 $1 Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain Friends Terry Sellers of Hauser Lake, Idaho and Darrel Plank of La Grande discuss the characteristics of different lead balls. Rendezvous brings 200+ visitors to Troy By Kathleen Ellyn Wallowa County Chieftain he steep hills either side of Griz Flats in Troy echoed with the sound of black powder shots last Saturday as mountain men and women from across the north- west pulled the trigger on the 41st Annual Wenaha Rendezvous. The muzzleloaders event is the largest in the northwest with an attendance of more than 200 revel- ers. Of those, a whopping 97 shooters, both male and female, were registered for the ri- fl e and trade gun trail. The gun trail is a trail that winds through the fl ats with note card signs alerting shooters to look up the walls of the canyon for targets. Those targets are near, far and squint-your-eyes. The rifl es used are mostly shooter-made from kits; Hawkins .50 caliber, CVA .54 caliber and the like. Darrel “Mountain Man” Plank of La Grande shoots a .62 caliber fl intlock trade-gun with a smooth bore. Hit- ting a target with it requires a steady hand as all shooting is free shooting (no braces or stands on which to lean your barrel). But Plank likes a challenge, and he and a few others, mostly “well mellowed” fellows with signifi cant experience, hit the targets with amazing accuracy. “The fi rst year we came we were all younger, and the trail went way up the hill and back,” recalls Mountain Man. “It was really hard.” Nearby a group of youngsters are throw- ing knives and hatchets at log butts, starting out close and moving back as their aim improves. Joseph “Dirty Hawk” Haycock, 13, of Moscow, Idaho, says he’s been to more than a dozen rendezvous with his scout troop. He wears the full period appropriate regalia right down to his moccasins. “Our scout master regularly attends this. I love it to say the least,” Dirty Hawk said. “This is my third year here at Griz Flats.” Other sports included bow Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain Bill “Two Dogs” Kaufman of Orofino, Idaho, wears his authentic gear to the Wenaha Muzzleloader’s Rendezvous in Troy. Kaufman has been shooting for 25 years at rendezvous all over the northwest. IF YOU GO TO A RENDEZVOUS AND ASK FOR SOMEONE BY THEIR LEGAL NAME, NOBODY WILL KNOW WHO YOU MEAN. shooting, bean bag tosses, a Dutch oven cook-off, a Homemade Spirits Contest and telling tall tales around the campfi re. No one goes by a legal given name. Ren- dezvous names are earned among rendez- vous folk and complimentary or derogatory. An example is the story of “Dew Foot,” a man who went out one evening to an- swer the call of nature and came back with one wet moccasin. He claimed it was dew from the grass, but only one moccasin was wet. “If you go to a rendezvous and ask for someone by their legal name, nobody will know who you mean,” Mountain Man noted.