A8
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Robbery show included CJD founder’s dad
Dave Tucker
did his time,
came back and
became bank VP
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
A new half-pipe, foreground, is the centerpiece of the
revamped Enterprise Skateboard Park along Highway 82
and School Street. The park will have its grand reopening
Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021.
Revamped skate park
set to open Saturday
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
long-awaited
revamped
Enterprise Skateboard Park
will celebrate its grand
reopening Saturday, Aug.
7, with new features and a
celebrity speaker.
Professional skateboarder
and MTV celebrity Brandon
Novak, of Maryland, will be
on hand for the event, said
Ron Pickens, of Enterprise’s
Alternative High School and
Building Healthy Families.
Pickens, who has been
the one to spearhead add-
ing new features to the park,
said the opening will be at
10 a.m. Novak, who has
earned a reputation both on
and off his board, is sched-
uled to speak from 11 a.m.
to noon.
Pickens said just Novak’s
speech is planned, but
“hopefully, Brandon Novak
will do a skating demo.”
A half-pipe has been
the major addition to the
park, although other obsta-
cles have been added or
upgraded. Pickens said
Monday that the park is not
quite complete.
“We’re two ramps shy at
this point, but we’re pretty
close,” Pickens said.
He said some signs and
benches also need to be
added and will be done this
week.
“If all goes according to
plan, the park should be fi n-
ished by Friday night,” he
said.
Pickens said artwork
designed by some of the
girls from the Alternative
School has been added.
“It’s nice to see a breath
of fresh air down there and
see some color,” he said.
“The girls’ artwork adds
some color and some fl air.”
The project has been
underway since December,
when original plans called
just for the addition of a half-
pipe. Then, this spring, the
project received a surprise
anonymous donation of
$51,500. Pickens expanded
his plans and with donations
from BHF, the city, commu-
nity groups, private individ-
uals and businesses, they’ve
brought in about $77,000
and have been able to add
to their original plans. Over
the past month and a half,
he’s been working with the
Alternative School kids on
benches and signage.
He said the donation dol-
lars do not count the cost of
donated labor.
“It feels good to see all
these pieces get arranged
and this project get success-
fully pulled off ,” Pickens
said.
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — One of the
more unique events during
Chief Joseph Days was the
reenactment of the infa-
mous 1896 robbery of the
First Bank of Joseph.
And, one of the more
unique aspects of that was
that one of the robbers was
Dave Tucker, father of Har-
ley Tucker, the man cred-
ited with starting the Chief
Joseph Days Rodeo. To
continue with the unique-
ness, Tucker was caught,
did his time and returned to
Joseph to eventually serve
as a vice president of the
bank he once robbed.
The old bank building,
which now houses the Wal-
lowa County Museum, was
built in 1887 and is believed
to be the oldest building in
Joseph, according to the
county website. After serv-
ing as a bank until 1917, it
became a doctor’s offi ce, a
city events center, library
and City Hall. Vacated in
1973, it was renovated
and in 1978, listed on the
National Register of His-
toric Places and became the
Wallowa County Museum.
Darlene Turner, daugh-
ter of Harley Tucker and
granddaughter of Dave,
said her granddad never
discussed his wilder days.
“He lived with us for
four or fi ve years,” she said
Monday, Aug. 2. “I didn’t
know about it until I was in
high school. That was never
talked about at our house.”
She said that given
the robbery is both local
and family history, she’s
researched it a lot.
“I’ve read lots of stories
GETTING
HELP FOR
PROBLEM
GAMBLING
TAKES GUTS
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
His loot laying on the street or still fl ying in the air amid the gunsmoke, one of the “robbers”
in the reenactment of the 1896 robbery of the First Bank of Joseph fi res his gun Saturday,
July 31, 2021, after the Chief Joseph Days Parade.
about it,” she said.
The robbery
Dave Tucker was about
25 when he got caught up in
the robbery plot. He’d been
working in the county herd-
ing sheep and two men who
were experienced stickup
“artists” — James Brown
and Cyrus Fitzhugh —
came to work with Tucker
shearing sheep, according
to the recollections of J.
D. McCully, who worked
as a cashier at the bank, on
www.oregonpioneers.com.
They got Tucker involved,
as well as at least one more
local, outside man Ben
Ownby. Ironically, it was
the locals who would be the
only ones to do time for the
crime.
The
robbers
were
expecting to fi nd about
$8,000 in the bank, but
came away with only about
$2,000, according to www.
oregonpioneers.com.
The website also said
Tucker wanted the money
so he could aff ord to marry
his sweetheart, Minnie
Proebstel. As it turned out,
she came to visit him in jail
after the robbery and told
him if he’d man up and do
his time, she’d wait for him.
She did and they did.
After the plan went side-
ways, McCully recalled,
Brown lay dead in the street
of gunshots, Tucker and
Ownby were captured and
Fitzhugh got away with the
loot.
As McCully recalled,
“As (the) robbers (were)
attempting escape, some
one called out ‘Look,’ and
pointed toward the brow
of the hill which makes
the west embankment of
Wallowa Lake, a mile
away, and there silhouetted
against the blue sky line
sped a lone horseman. He
was observed until he dis-
appeared into the timbered
fastness of the Wallowa
mountains, and the last time
to ever knowingly seen by
a Wallowa County citizen.”
McCully also visited
Tucker in jail.
“There standing at the
barred door (of the city jail)
with his hands clutched to
the bars at head level and
his head pressed against
the bars, stood the most
dejected individual I had
ever seen, nor have I since
seen a picture more depress-
ing,” McCully wrote.
Tucker soon had his
wounds dressed — he lost
a fi nger to a gunshot —
and was taken away by the
county sheriff to Enterprise.
‘Redeemed’
Turner said she has a let-
ter from the state prison in
Salem to show her grand-
father was received there
May 1, 1897, and dis-
charged Sept. 28, 1901. She
said he was released a year
and a half early for good
behavior.
After being released,
Tucker decided to go
straight, Turner said. He
fi rst tried unsuccessfully
We have your
Summertime gear!
E
Ed Staub & Sons
Energy Community Service.
take the first step and
contact us
call 541-426-4524
or 1-877-MY-LIMIT (24 hour helpline)
It's Free - It's Confidential - It Works.
wallowa valley
center for wellness
wvcenterforwellness.org
District 6 of the Oregon State Grange would like to thank everyone
that helped make 148th Annual Oregon State Grange Session in
Wallowa County a huge success. A special thank you to:
Wallowa County Fair Board • Enterprise Christian Church • Enterprise VFW
Appleflat Catering • Tammie Couch Catering
Hurricane Creek Grange catering team • Wallowa Valley Networks
Wallowa Memorial Hospital • Wildhorse Casino, Pendleton
Hill Meats Company, Pendleton • June Colony Sheep • Sunrise Iron, Erl McLaughlin
Melville Cornerstone Farms • Moonshine Glass Art • Wallowa County Grain Growers
Wallowa Mountain Quilters Guild • The Stubborn Mule
Amalgamated Sugar Company, Nyssa
Thank You!
Also the many volunteers
who contributed their time
and materials.
201 East Hwy 82
Enterprise, OR • 541-426-0320
Not just propane!
to get work in Lewiston,
Idaho, but then decided to
come home.
“He thought, ‘I lost my
reputation in Joseph and I
want to go back there and
redeem myself.’” Turner
said.
So Tucker went to work
“redeeming”
himself,
Turner said. He spent much
of his time tending sheep.
Turner said Jay Dobbin
was one of fi rst who hired
him. Later, while work-
ing for Peter Beaudoin,
he and a French sheep-
herder together rescued
about 25,000 sheep during
a massive early-winter
snowstorm.
Turner said she’s not
sure how her granddad
transitioned to banking,
but she knows he managed
to buy and build his own
sheep ranch, was a director
of the local ditch company
to help farmers with irriga-
tion, became a school board
member, took out stock in
the bank and was gener-
ally active in the Joseph
community.
“He was a pretty big
businessman by that time,”
she said. “He owned quite a
few acres.”
Tucker lived until Janu-
ary 1953, having helped —
at least fi nancially — his
son start the Chief Joseph
Days Rodeo.
Reenactment
Turner said it’s been
a few years since the last
reenactment of the robbery
and previous incarnations
did a better job of telling
the story her grandfather
was involved in.
“In the beginning it was
done very well,” she said,
adding that they used to
have a narrator on the street
and music to accompany it.
“They told the whole story
of how it happened.”
She’s hoping that now
that the reenactment has
returned, its presentation
will improve, such as by
adding a narrator.
“The moral of the story
was he made good and did
lot for the community while
he was here,” she said.