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SPORTS, A9
LOCAL, A3
137th Year, No. 10
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SPORTS, A9
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
The next 50 years
Joy
Warnock
Enterprise
She gives and
receives support
ENTERPRISE — Joy Warnock has
lived in Enterprise for the past 11 years,
having been born in San Diego and
brought here by her parents, Lyman and
Mildred Warnock.
She works full time at the Alpine
House in Joseph as the lead medical
technician. She studied courses related
to her fi eld and then became certifi ed
online.
“Everything I learned was through
experience and getting certifi ed online,”
she said.
She’s still single, but her mom is try-
ing to marry her off , she jests.
“But I’m just doing my own thing
right now,” she said.
Warnock recently shared her
thoughts about living in Wallowa
County.
What’s your favorite thing about
Wallowa County?
It’s got to be the support by the peo-
ple (here). Being from San Diego, where
it’s really big and everybody minds their
own business and doesn’t care about
anybody, it was a really big culture shock
when we moved here to a really small
community. It was really strange having
people just wave at you and be super
friendly and super nice. It was some-
thing I wasn’t really used to. It was really
pleasant.
What fun plans do you have in
the county for this summer?
I’m going to Greece in September.
I’m going on a tour with my cousin and
my aunt. We’ll see some of those islands
where the water’s so blue it should be
illegal.
What are your thoughts on the
beginning of fi re season, after
Central Oregon burned last
year?
I hope it’s not our turn, and if it is, we
can skip it. I just think people need to be
really careful.
How has the COVID-19
pandemic aff ected you?
Sickwise? No. Nobody around me
has gotten COVID. It aff ected us a lot at
work. Taking care is really big and we
were shut down for a long time. It was
sad their family members couldn’t come
visit, so we told them, “You are our fam-
ily; we think of you as family.”
What have you learned from
living in Wallowa County?
You’re never by yourself living in
Wallowa County. There will always be
somebody there by your side for sup-
port. People are just really caring.
What’s your advice for people
who are thinking about moving
here?
I think we have enough people liv-
ing here. I think it’s really great. It’s great
for families.
— Bill Bradshaw,
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa Lake
Tramway, one
of the county’s
top attractions,
looks ahead
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
W
ALLOWA LAKE
— More of the same
exciting rides and
new features can be
expected during the next half-cen-
tury of life in the Wallowa Lake
Tramway, co-owner Mike Lockhart
said Wednesday, June 9.
Like many businesses, last year
— when the tram marked it’s 50th
anniversary — was taken up with
just getting through the corona-
virus pandemic. He said nothing
special was done to mark the fi rst
half-century of county’s top tourist
attraction.
“I didn’t think about that until
this morning,” he said.
Originally constructed in 1970,
the tram was fi rst owned by a stock
corporation known as High Wal-
lowas, which was later forced to
sell, Lockhart said.
“It started with a bunch of ded-
icated people who wanted to build
an attraction that would be special,
which this is, in my opinion,” he
said.
He and three others bought
the attraction. In 1984, he said, he
and Bill Whittemore bought out
the other two partners and became
co-owners.
“We’ve been operating it ever
since,” he said.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
The crystal-blue waters of Wallowa Lake are easily visible on a clear day from the Wallowa Lake Tramway, which
was the case Saturday, June 5, 2021.
TRAM FACTS
Elevation: Base 4,450 feet;
Summit 8,150 feet.
Distances: Vertical 3,700 feet;
Horizontal 1.83 miles; Trails 2½
miles.
Time: One way 15 minutes.
Header: 150 hp electric motor
with a 55 hp auxiliary
Towers: highest is 74 feet; aver-
age tower height is 30 feet.
Top terminal counterweight:
28 tons
Maintenance is primary goal
Perhaps the primary goal Lock-
hart and Whittemore have for the
tram is to continue to maintain and
upgrade it. The attraction operates
from late May to early October and
some people would like to see that
expanded. But that’s unlikely, since
the “shoulder seasons” of late fall
and early spring are necessary for
their maintenance work.
Lockhart estimated the tram
would cost about $10 million to
replace.
However, he said, “It isn’t worth
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa Lake Tramway co-owner Mike Lockhart prepares to board a cabin
for the trip to the summit of Mount Howard on Wednesday, June 9, 2021.
$10 million and that’s why we’re
doing everything we can to restore
it to keep the place operating safely.
There’s very little here that dates
back to 1970.”
He said they are continually on
the lookout for parts they can use on
the tram — or have made new.
“A lot of the parts we have right
now we have to have made our-
selves” at a local machine shop,
he said, but “there are still parts
around” that can be purchased.
Safety is key
Their eff orts to keep the tram
operating safely have proven
successful.
Gondolas: Swiss-made
four-passenger cabins with a
detachable grip. One car leaves
the terminal every 90 seconds.
Land: One-third is privately
owned; two-thirds is owned
by U.S. Forest Service Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest.
From the top, you can see four
states: Oregon, Idaho — in-
cluding Seven Devils, Wash-
ington and on a clear day, the
Bitterroot Mountain Range of
Montana.
See Tram, Page A7
Longtime city worker to be July Fourth grand marshal
Terry Larm honored
for going above and
beyond for Wallowa
duty. They wondered about having
him deliver shutoff notices. But
that means going up steps.
“I think the clincher was when
I told them that when I pick up my
left foot, sometimes I have to lift
it over onto the clutch,” he said.
“That was the end of my career
right there. I was given a ride home
that day and that was the end.”
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — Decades of ser-
vice to the city and his willingness
to go above and beyond are what
garnered Terry Larm the honor of
being this year’s grand marshal for
Wallowa’s annual Fourth of July
Parade, City Hall announced last
week.
City Recorder Carolyn Harsh-
fi eld said the parade committee is
made up of four city employees
and Mayor Gary Hulse and they
were recently discussing who they
wanted to honor.
“We were just doing votes on
who we thought would be fi tting
and we picked Terry because of all
the time that he put in for the city,”
Harshfi eld said. “He was always
so helpful, even after he retired, he
would do anything to help people.”
Hulse said Larm’s helpfulness
and dedication to Wallowa went
into his retirement years and con-
tinued despite a disability.
“Terry had physical disabilities,
but he was always willing to work
way above what he appeared to be
able to,” the mayor said. “He was
an excellent worker.”
Navy veteran
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
An American fl ag fl ies proudly over the Wallowa home of Terry Larm as he
sits on his four-wheeler. Larm, a lifelong resident and longtime city worker,
was recently selected to be the town’s grand marshal at its Fourth of July
Parade.
Larm wasn’t really sure why he
was selected.
“I was just told by the city
recorder, Carolyn, that I’d been
selected and she wanted to know if
I would accept it,” he said.
Partially disabled
Larm worked for the city as its
one-man maintenance crew for 29
years — from 1980 until he was
diagnosed with a degenerative
muscle disease and forced to retire
in 2009. The disease keeps him
from picking up his feet very well.
He rides a four-wheeler around his
place or uses canes.
He said that as he neared retire-
ment, he had one fi nal meeting with
the City Council and city attorney.
They wondered if his disability
would allow him to be put on light
Will he ride his four-wheeler
in the parade? No, he said, he’ll
ride in a locally owned classic
convertible.
“I was hoping to someday build
myself a little, homemade subma-
rine and ride in the parade, but I
think this’ll take the place of that
idea,” he said.
The idea was an allusion to
his four years in the Navy. From
1972-76, he served aboard an
atomic fast-attack submarine out
of Hawaii. While at sea, he went to
Guam, Philippines and the Indian
Ocean. He worked as a cook.
He recalled that during one
80-day deployment — subs don’t
get resupplied at sea — they were
running short of food.
“I was getting kind of nervous,”
he said. “I was thinking of 101
ways to fi x something out of egg
noodles.”
See Marshal, Page A7