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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
COUGAR CAMP Wallowa’s kids football camp teaches football basics — and much, much more A9 Enterprise, Oregon 135th Year, No. 19 Wallowa.com Wednesday, August 21, 2019 $1.50 High Flight Marine patrol angles for a bigger, better boat Stronger, safer craft needed for Hells Canyon patrols By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain Submitted photo Wallowa County students prepare for their discovery fl ight in a C-172 as part of the ACE Academy they attended in July. Each student was able to pilot the plane with the help of an instructor. (L-R) Jet Peterson, Mary Thiel, Isaack Hoff man, Harley Miller, Corin Armentrout, Alex Albany and Steven Locke, educational liaison for the NEOAF. Wallowa County Students attend Aerospace Career Exploration Camp By Katherine Stickroth For Wallowa County Chieftain rone operations, pilot- ing a Cessna 172, hands-on exploration of the theories of aero-dynam- ics and aviation management are only a few activities that a group of Wallowa County stu- dents experienced at the Aero- space Career Exploration (ACE) Academy last month. ACE exposes students to STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math) through the lens of aviation. The stu- dents applied for the academy last spring, underwent a selec- tion process and received schol- arships to attend the academy in Ontario. Among the organizations supporting this year’s academy were the Idaho Aviation Foun- dation, Oregon State University, Contributed photo See ACE, Page A6 Jaylee Tschida, from Ontario, and Mary Thiel, from Joseph, go through a checklist and prepare a small drone for fl ight. D The Wallowa County Sheriff’s marine patrol bears the onerous responsibility of keeping locals and visitors alike safe on the water. Their patrol area includes the usually placid waters of Wallowa Lake, the mean- dering course of the Grande Ronde River and 80 miles of the sometimes treacherous, always challenging Snake River and its big rapids where it runs through Hells Canyon. For the past eight years, the patrol has used a 19-foot North River jet boat provided to them by the Oregon State Marine Board, who owns the craft, and who provides boats to most law enforcement that patrols any of Oregon’s waterways. Powered by a single 6-liter Chevy marine engine, it’s got plenty of power, said Chief Deputy Fred Steen. Steen works as one of four deputies on the county’s marine patrol. And he, and the rest of his crew — deputies Lem McBurney, Marc Christman, and Kyle Hacker — would really like the Marine Board to provide them with a slightly bigger, dual-engined boat. “The boat we have is pretty light and so it gets up on plane pretty quickly,” Steen said. “But when you are out on that 80 miles of the Snake River especially, its much bet- ter if you have a second power plant in case you suck up junk into your screen, you lose the single jet engine, and you have no con- trol while you are drifting down into the rapids.” The boat carries an auxiliary out- board engine which they have used on sev- eral memorable occasions. But that engine isn’t really big enough to power their boat through big water should their engine fail above a major rapids. Wallowa County shares patrol duties on the Snake with the U.S. Forest Service and State Police. It’s often diffi cult to coordinate schedules and fully cover the river. “It’s remote and people sometimes feel free to do just whatever the heck they want down there,” Steen said. “So there have been fatalities that we have dealt with. About three years ago we had a jet boat fl ip in Big Sheep rapids. Two men survived, but there was one fatality.” Wallowa County was called in to assist in what was fi rst deemed a rescue, and fi nally a recovery. “I spent 27 days down there on the river,” Sheriff Steve Rogers said. “Hells Canyon Adventures let us use their big boat because we were in very rough water much of the time. It had three jet engines. You could take it anywhere in the river, See Boat, Page A6 Show & Shine features cruise, local music and a labor of love By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Plenty of sunshine and mild temperatures greeted car enthusiasts and exhib- itors at the sixth annual Main Street Show & Shine car show in Enterprise on Aug. 16-17. More than 100 gleaming cars, trucks and hot rods put on quite a dis- play for the hundreds of vis- itors to the event, that also featured vendors and live music. Vehicles competed for numerous prizes. Friday, Aug. 16, featured a cruise down to the Imnaha Store and Tavern with the return fi nding local power trio, Casey Kiser and the Jakewalk Saints, playing to an appreciative audience at Warde Park. All the vehicles entered into the show deserved com- mendation for the work the owners put into them, but perhaps none more so than the 1936 Dodge half-ton truck entered by Enterprise residents, David and Deb- bie Vernam. Painted in rich, bright green and black, with just a hint of metal fl ake, the truck had plenty of admir- ers throughout the event. Vernam’s great-grandfa- ther bought the truck new in 1936 with the intention of using it as a ranch truck, a role it faithfully served for decades. Not that it was neglected. In 1959, the truck got a well-deserved engine rebuild with Vernam help- ing his father rebuild the engine — but it doesn’t stop there. Six years ago, he kept that tradition alive by again rebuilding the motor, a 201 cubic inch fl athead six-cyl- inder with 67,000 origi- nal miles, with his grand- daughter — who was 11 at the time. “She’s my number one mechanic,” he said with a smile. About fi ve years ago, Ver- nam decided it was time for some TLC for the vehicle. Other than the fancy paint job, and the oak bed, the truck is very close to original. “Everything on it is orig- inally the way it came,” he said. “I added blinkers on the headlights, and I built the rear bumper. If you wanted a bumper back then, you had to special order it.” His great-grandfather did order a heater with the truck as it wasn’t standard equipment. Building the bumper Ellen Morris Bishop A 1936 Dodge D-2 pickup has been in Dave and Deb Vernam’s family since it was purchased new. The pickup and the Vernam family live in Enterprise. himself is something else pointing to Vernam’s talent. “Everything on this I did,” he said with pride. Everything but the paint.” Because less than 5,000 of the vehicles were manufac- tured for the USA, Cana- dian and European mar- kets, Vernam had his hands full because of the scarcity of parts. He found this out trying to replace a fender smashed in 1949. He even- tually found a half rusted-out fender in far-off Pennsylva- nia; luckily, it was enough. “The hardest part of this whole project was cutting See Show & Shine, Page A7