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