LOCAL AG LEADERS WIN
STATEWIDE AWARDS | A5
Enterprise, Oregon
134th Year, No. 35
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
$1
Joseph looks
to set rules for
first pot shop
ENTERPRISE TEACHER WINS HISTORY CHANNEL COMPETITION
Restrictions make
location, application
process more difficult
By STEVE TOOL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Joseph became the first city in Wallowa
County to approve a recreational marijuana
dispensary. The problem: No one expected
Measure 32-42 to pass, leaving the city
council in a thorough state of unprepared-
ness on how to proceed with the measure’s
implementation.
Newly elected mayor Teresa Sajonia
slated an open meeting on Dec. 11 to discuss
the city’s response to the issue. All the coun-
cil members appeared at the meeting as did
city attorney Wyatt Baum.
The first order of discussion entailed the
location of such a dispensary. The council
Courtesy Photo/Paper Street Enterprise
Enterprise High School teacher and coach, Mike Rowley, hard at work creating a tomahawk for the History Channel show, “Forged in
Fire.” Rowley appeared as a winning contestant on the show, which pits bladesmiths in a competition to hand forge steel weapons.
His victory netted him a large check, the admiration of his students and community as well as the satisfaction of a job well done.
TRIAL BY FIRE
By STEVE TOOL
Wallowa County Chieftain
M
ost people wouldn’t pic-
ture a English teacher in
the burly role of black-
smith, spending hours
on end behind a flaming
forge creating works of art in iron and
steel. But most English teachers aren’t
Mike Rowley.
A long-time teacher and former foot-
ball coach at Enterprise High School,
Rowley has had an interest in smithing
nearly as far back as he can remember,
when he made a knife at the age of nine
or ten. He took his skills into the History
Channel’s “Forged in Fire” competition,
which pits four bladesmiths against one
another forging various weapons from
raw materials.
After three elimination rounds, Row-
ley was named the winner.
“It was terrible,” he said while laugh-
ing. “No power tools or anything. I
didn’t know what I was doing.”
When he started watching the show
in its second season he had a small forge
and an anvil made of railroad rail.
“I would watch an episode and say, ‘I
could do that,’ or, ‘I couldn’t do that, and
I better learn how,” he said. He eventu-
ally started making his own tools such
as tongs and hammers. He also attended
what he described as “YouTube Univer-
sity” as well as read a number of books
on the subject to sharpen his skills.
“I like the idea of knowing stuff,”
he said. “The knowledge that I thought
might be lost because we’re moving
away from it. When that show came out,
it lit a fire in the U.S., and now a lot of
guys are doing it.”
Rowley doesn’t teach a forging class
at the school because the school doesn’t
have one, but he’s more than willing to
have students visit his home forge to
learn the basics. He recently helped a
student create a knife for her grandfa-
ther. “She showed me a picture of what
she wanted, so I forged it and got it ready
for her to come over and do the handle
part and some other work on it,” Rowley
said. He said he’s helped about a dozen
students create their own works.
Sworn to secrecy by the show’s pro-
ducers, he couldn’t let students know of
his victory.
The show takes place in New York,
although Rowley stayed in Stamford,
Connecticut, about 10 minutes away
from the set each night. Filming took
a solid two weeks with a week in New
York followed by a short break and film-
ing resuming at the bladesmith’s home
forge for the finals. Rowley said that
the home segment took about 45 hours
to film but was condensed down to
about two minutes on the show. Filming
started in June and ended in early July.
Surprisingly, Rowley didn’t have to
contact the show to get a spot. The show
contacted him after seeing some of his
work on Instagram. He exchanged sev-
eral emails with the show’s produc-
ers before submitting to a Skype inter-
view before being chosen. They didn’t
give him acting lessons to appear more
natural.
“They just said, ‘be yourself,’” Row-
ley said. “I joke all the time, so I joked
my way through most of the show.” He
added that he was also nervous about
making a fool of himself on the show.
When the big night came, on Wednes-
day, Dec. 12, about 100 current and for-
mer students as well as parents crowded
into his classroom for the show’s unveil-
ing. Despite some technical glitches
in the showing, students stayed glued
to the screen as Rowley took on three
other competitors. Their first task was to
forge a knife blade of steel wool. “Who
thinks of this stuff?” Rowley said on the
air. The teacher made several quips on
the show that made the audience laugh
and showed his humor and ease with
himself.
The teacher got right down to busi-
ness and with meticulous preparation
and heat, the steel wool made fine stock
for a knife blade. Not all the contestants
were so lucky. Two fell by the wayside
as their knife blades could not stand up
to solid use, which consisted of chop-
ping through bone and other tasks.
Rowley plugged the school and com-
munity several times on the show but
only a mention of red epoxy glue being
an EHS school color and a remark about
his profession made it past the cutting
room floor. Soon enough only Rowley
and another competitor were left for the
final project — twin steel tomahawks
with a smoking pipe opposite the blade.
The contestants made their way home
with Rowley’s first attempt essentially
a failure. That didn’t stop the instructor,
See Fire, Page A17
See Pot, Page A18
School report
cards require
a grain of salt
Small districts lead
to volatile data
By KATHLEEN ELLYN
Wallowa County Chieftain
Sussing out the bottom line in school
report cards is a little bit harder than usual
this year. The key is to realize that when
dealing with smaller schools, when the per-
centages are judged by a single class year
(3rd grade; 5th grade, etc.) the percentages
can be skewed violently when class size is
small.
For instance, if one student struggles in
fifth grade math in a class cohort size of 10
students your percentages drop far more
than if seven students struggled in a class
cohort of 100.
“It’s mandatory we participate in state
testing,” said Wallowa Superintendent Jay
Hummel. “However, the information it pro-
vides small school districts is very limited.”
For that reason, local schools rely heav-
ily on individual student progress, the
school’s comparison with state averages,
their on-track and on-time to graduate sta-
tistics, and their individual student progress
tracking.
Wallowa County schools continue to rate
well above state averages in regular atten-
dance, individual student progress and
on-track to graduate.
However, there are some areas of focus
for educators.
Especially in lower grades, both Math
and English Language Arts continue to be a
high hurdle for many students.
See Grades, Page A16
Exchange student sets sights on Asia
Fundraiser moves
Espinoza’s dream past
halfway point
By ELLEN MORRIS BISHOP
for the Chieftain
Ellen Morris Bishop/Chieftain
Wallowa County Rotary Club’s foreign exchange student
Sophia Espinoza and her mother, Jessica Espinoza, watch
Jane Bane (cello) and Gianna Espinoza (bass) play a variety
of classical pieces and Christmas music at the Singin’ Sweets
Concert and Dessert Bar fundraiser last Saturday evening.
On the evening of Saturday, Dec. 15,
Sophia Espinoza’s dream took one big step
closer to becoming reality. The Enterprise
High School freshman and Wallowa County
Rotary Club’s 2020-2021 foreign exchange
student must raise $5,000 to help finance her
junior year of study abroad.
Her Singing Sweets Concert and Des-
sert Bar fundraiser at the Odd Fellow’s Hall
put her a little more than halfway towards
her goal. She has also raised funds through
donations, including Soroptimists and her
Fundly.com site.
Espinoza has set her sights on study in
Japan, with South Korea and India as alter-
native choices. Her chance of going to
Japan for her junior year abroad is about 85
percent.
“The Japanese live such a different life
than many of us do,” she said. “They are
precise and meticulous about the things and
work that encompass most of their lives.
They have a strong work ethic. And they
respect their elders and care deeply about
their families. I want to learn more about the
people and their cultures.”
A budding artist and writer, Espinoza
finds the traditional art of Japan, as well as
that of South Korea and India, inspiring.
“The Japanese work done on wooden blocks
is insanely awesome,” she said. “There is so
much detail and meaning in very piece.”
Espinoza grew up in the Seattle area. She
See Student, Page A17