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137th Year, No. 42
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
WALLOWA.COM
Morgan
recovering
after fall
results in
broken back
EAGLE CAP EXTREME
Enterprise resident not
experiencing paralysis
Hannah
Shoff ner
Enterprise
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
She’s seen
community
come
together
ENTERPRISE — Hannah Shoff ner
moved to Enterprise about a dozen
years ago from Spokane, Washington,
with her husband, Joshua.
One thing that brought them to
Wallowa County was the presence of
his grandmother, Lorretta Foster, who
with her husband had owned numerous
businesses here. Hannah and Joshua
have two children, ages 4 and 16.
She spent several years working in
social services for Building Healthy Fam-
ilies as a family support specialist and
Safe Harbors as a victims’ advocate. In
2020, the Shoff ners took over JO Pad-
dle, which rents clear-bottomed kayaks
at Wallowa Lake.
She recently shared her thoughts
about living in Wallowa County.
What’s your favorite thing about
Wallowa County?
The community when hard things
happen. They come together, no matter
what their diff erences are.
What are you looking forward
to in 2022?
The growth in my business and get-
ting to know people who are coming
into the county and who we’re learning
a lot about even in the short amount of
time we’ve been here.
Did you make a New Year’s
resolution?
Not a real resolution; just something
to keep in mind: to keep my family fi rst
and to be generous.
Have you broken it yet?
Nah. I don’t make resolutions I can’t
keep.
What do you think of the return
of the Eagle Cap Extreme Sled
Dog Race?
I’m excited. I’m glad that they’re
doing it because it’s normal — or some-
what normal.
What’s your advice for people
who are thinking about moving
here?
Be prepared for cold winters. If you’re
moving here from Portland, you’re going
to have a couple years of adjusting, but
after that it becomes home.
— Bill Bradshaw
Wallowa County Chieftain
I’m older. Most of the other com-
petitors are half my age,” the
62-year-old Perry said.
He also had older dogs than
many in the fi eld, as well. Yet that
experience — for both him and
his team — was also a benefi t.
Perry is a veteran of the ECX who
not only has run the 200-mile race
the last few years, but had done
the 100-mile race several times
prior, including his win fi ve years
ago.
“Experience, knowing what
to expect,” he said. “Being here
before (is) a defi nite advantage.
Older dogs. More experienced
dogs.”
He outlasted a fi eld that
ENTERPRISE — An Enter-
prise man is recovering in Seat-
tle after falling into a creek by
his home and breaking several
vertebrae.
The family of Sam Morgan,
however, is counting their bless-
ings that Morgan, 75, not only is
still alive after a frightening ordeal
that left him in Trout Creek for an
estimated 90 minutes or more, but
that he doesn’t appear to have any
paralysis or adverse eff ects from
hypothermia.
“That’s our fi rst blessing — No.
1, he is alive,” his sister, Susan
Wagner, told the Chieftain Friday,
Jan. 21. “No. 2, he is not paralyzed.
He can move all extremities.”
Wagner said her brother is not
dealing with skin turning black or
has lost fi ngers or toes from the
time in the icy water.
“He doesn’t seem to be experi-
encing any of that,” she said.
Morgan, who just celebrated his
75th birthday, Wagner said, was
“doing stuff outside” at his home
around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday
morning, Jan. 12.
“He has a little bridge that
crosses Trout Creek,” she said.
While crossing the bridge, he
slipped.
“(He) fell across the bridge
and broke several vertebrae in his
back, and fell into Trout Creek,”
she said. The fall was between 10
and 15 feet.
Morgan was unable to pull him-
self from the water, Wagner said.
Eventually, he got himself rested
on the bank, though still up to his
chest in water.
When he was delayed return-
ing home, his son, Samuel Drake
Morgan, went to check on him. He
heard his father yelling, and even-
tually found him in the creek. He
was located at around 12:30 p.m.,
Wagner said.
“He jumped over the bank to get
Sam out, but he couldn’t,” Wagner
said. “They called the ambulance,
it came, (and) it took them six guys
to get him out of Trout Creek.”
According to Wagner, Mor-
gan’s temperature had dropped to
81 degrees. He had three broken
vertebrae in his upper back, one
or two in his lower back, and three
cracked ribs.
He was originally LifeFlighted
to St. Alphonsus in Boise for sur-
gery, but ran into a snag there.
Due to the hospital being over-
run by COVID-19 patients, “they
didn’t have room for him in recov-
ery,” Wagner said.
Morgan was transferred to Har-
borview Medical Center in Seat-
See ECX, Page A8
See Morgan, Page A5
Ellen Morris Bishop/Contributed Photo
Montana musher Clayton Perry hugs his dogs after winning the Eagle Cap Extreme early Saturday morning,
Jan. 22, 2022.
PERRY EARNS TITLE
Montana musher
takes 200-mile
race, among
three winners
at the ECX
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
J
OSEPH — Clayton Perry
was in fourth place and well
behind the race leaders com-
ing into the fi nal checkpoint
of the Eagle Cap Extreme
Sled Dog Race.
One of his fellow mushers in
the 200-mile race, Bino Fowler,
asked him a question before he
took off .
“He came over and asked if I
was making a move,” Perry said
of Fowler.
The move to have his dogs
pick up the pace and really test
them paid off , and Perry crossed
the fi nish line at 2:38 a.m. Satur-
day, Jan. 22, as the winner of the
ECX in its return from a one-year
hiatus.
“(I) took a high risk that they
might not fi nish at all or get it
done,” Perry, the 2017 100-mile
winner, said.
Perry was down nearly half
of his team, as he started the race
Jan. 20 with 12 dogs. He fi nished
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Nicole Lombardi of Lincoln, Montana, rounds the fi rst turn at the start
of the 100-mile competition Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in this year’s Eagle
Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race. Lombardi won the 100-mile race.
with seven, losing fi ve along the
way to soreness.
But he trusted in the rigorous
training he and his partner, Mor-
gan Anderson, had put in. They
had done several lengthy runs
and, Perry said, put in more than
1,200 miles in recent months. He
knew his team was capable.
“(I) had a lot of confi dence,”
he said. “This year’s training with
Morgan Anderson gave us a lot of
confi dence. We knew they could
do it.”
Perry has been close in recent
years, taking fourth in each of
the last two Eagle Cap Extremes.
He called the win “totally
unexpected.”
“Because there’s a lot of com-
petition. It’s not easy to get done.
Ranchers concerned over Dean ranch cattle
Wolves enter the mix
feeding on lost cows
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA COUNTY — Wal-
lowa County ranchers are con-
cerned both for the cattle under
their care and their reputations
in animal husbandry, not to men-
tion the future of ranching in the
county, rancher and Wallowa
County Stockgrowers President
Tom Birkmaier said last week.
Caring for the cattle
“As a whole, ranchers and live-
stock owners in this county
the Bob Dean ranch hands
deeply care for the health
and gotten the cows out of
and well-being of their ani-
there.”
mals. It is important that
Birkmaier and Adam
we view this for what it
Stein, another county resi-
is; an unfortunate situa-
dent who was instrumental
tion brought on by a com-
in rescuing the cattle and
Birkmaier
bination of mismanage-
spotting them from the air,
ment, poor decisions and
said that at least 29 cows
challenging weather condi-
are known to have perished
tions,” Birkmaier said in a
in the deep snows and steep
written statement Wednes-
terrain of the Grouse Creek
day, Jan. 19. “As diffi cult
Ranch in the Upper Imnaha
as it may have been, the
owned by Louisiana devel-
cows should have been
oper Bob Dean.
brought out of that country
B.J. Warnock, who until
Warnock
a month or two sooner. Our
Wednesday, Jan. 26, was
local cowboys are some of
manager at the ranch, said
the best. They would’ve assisted in a Jan. 2 email that when he and
his ranch hands began gathering
cattle in September, there were
1,613 mother cows on summer
range, of which 10 were unrecov-
erable. He said 1,548 Dean Ore-
gon Ranches mother cows were
successfully gathered by the ranch
crew before the snow. After the
snow, 34 mother cows were gath-
ered, of which 26 were Dean cat-
tle; the others were owned by
neighboring ranches. Warnock
said at that time aerial and ground
searches were conducted with the
hope of bringing in the remaining
29 cows.
Stein confi rmed Jan. 20 that
See Cattle, Page A5