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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2022)
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He’s a senior at Enterprise High School and plans to study business at Oregon State University after grad- uation. He’s not quite sure what he’ll do with a business degree yet, but hopes to fi nd out. In fact, he has a job at Wheatland Insurance in Enterprise that is helping him on the way. “I’m a go-fer. You know, go-fer this, go-fer that,” he laughed. At least he fi gures a business degree will be a stepping stone toward the career he wants. As for living in Wallowa County, Jennings likes the quiet lifestyle. “It’s pretty quiet; it’s nice here,” he said. “I keep to myself pretty much, so the quietness is nice.” He also likes the people here. “The people are always nice,” he said. Once the weather warms, Jen- nings is looking forward to golfi ng and working. “Nothing too crazy,” he said. He’ll also get out in the woods occasionally. “I’ll go out and hike around or shoot squirrels,” he said. He doesn’t attribute the increas- ing cost of fuel to any one thing in particular. “I think it’s a combination of things, both politically and actually,” he said. “Blaming any one thing is just not fair.” He admits to feeling the pinch of the extra cost. “It costs me a bit more for gas and everything,” he said. “But maybe it’ll be a good push toward more green and renewable energy.” Interviewed on May 4, the last day for ballots in the primary election to be mailed to voters, Jennings said he won’t be voting because he didn’t receive his ballot in the mail, although he said he’s registered. He didn’t feel inclined to go to the courthouse to get one. “I fi gured it was a small enough election that it really didn’t matter,” he said. Anyone interested in moving here, Jennings said, should be prepared for the weather. “Be ready for winter,” he said. — Bill Bradshaw, Wallowa County Chieftain By BILL BRADSHAW Wallowa County Chieftain Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Sam Morgan tells how he held up his hand and asked, “Help me, Jesus,” after falling off the bridge in the background into Trout Creek behind his Enterprise home Jan. 12. On Wednesday, May 4, 2022, he recalled how he felt someone lift him up so he could get out of the creek. He said that was the fi rst of three miracles he experienced that day. THREE MIRACLES Morgan recalls fall into Trout Creek breaking back, ribs By RONALD BOND For the Wallowa County Chieftain E NTERPRISE — A string of miracles is what Sam Morgan of Enterprise believes has him where he is today, less than four months after a fall into Trout Creek that resulted in several broken verte- brae and ribs and had him on the verge of hypothermia. Today, he can walk. While he has rods in his back that help sup- port him and can be uncomfort- able, he doesn’t say he is in pain. “In my mind, it’s a miracle that I’m alive and not paralyzed. I had, in essence, three consecutive mir- acles that day,” he said, refl ecting back on Jan 12. The fall happened just two days after his 75th birthday. He had a plan to call one of his siblings who was celebrating a milestone of his own. “I was supposed to call my brother and wish him happy birth- day the day I fell off the bridge,” he said. “His birthday is two days after mine.” Morgan went out that morn- ing, he said, to pull a limb that had fallen from a willow tree into Trout Creek. He said the creek is unpre- dictable and often fl oods in the spring. “I thought ‘I got to get that thing out of the way,’” he said. He stepped on a patch of ice on a footbridge he had built some four decades ago, landing hard on the bridge and breaking a lumbar ver- tebrae before going into the creek itself. Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Sam Morgan of Enterprise points to where he fell Jan. 12 while crossing a bridge over Trout Creek behind his home along Golf Course Road. The bridge has been torn down with plans to replace it. “I knew I was going to fall off the bridge,” he said. When he did, he landed partially on the bank and broke several ribs. While he tried to fi gure out how to get himself into a better posi- tion, his condition worsened. “My vision went totally black,” he said. “My eyes were open but I could see (only) black. And worse than the loss of vision, I couldn’t breathe.” He said his breathing was “paralyzed.” That’s when one of the miracles he experienced took place. “I said, ‘Help me, Jesus.’ I raised my right hand in my air. He grabbed a hold of my wrist. I couldn’t see him, but something pulled me up on my back.” In his new position, he was able to breathe again, but as he was turned away from his house, his attempts to get more help failed. Eventually, he stopped yelling to conserve energy. “When I got back on my back, I fl oated down the creek a little ways. I hurt so bad I couldn’t lift myself at all,” Morgan said. He was still in the water of Trout Creek, which he said runs at a temperature of about 41 degrees. It was a couple hours before his son went to check on him, found him in the water and called 911. Medical personnel arrived and was able to extract Morgan from the water. His body temperature had reached near-fatal tempera- tures at about 80 degrees. Per- haps just a few more minutes and it would have been too late. See Miracles, Page A15 WALLOWA COUNTY — Wolf kills of livestock are becom- ing more frustrating to Wallowa County ranchers and livestock offi - cials when they see how those dep- redations are handled by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Crow Creek rancher Tom Birk- maier, who is the president of the Wallowa County Stockgrowers Association, runs about 500 cows, most of which have calves. He lost a half-dozen animals to wolves of the Chesnimnus pack in late April and early May. One of those lost was a calf shown in a photo in the May 4 Chieftain that was misidenti- fi ed as a mother cow. Birkmaier asked ODFW to “remove” the pack — meaning to kill them, he said May 3. In response, ODFW issued a kill permit April 29. The permit, good through May 24, allows Birkmaier or an agent on his behalf to kill two wolves in Dorrance Pasture or Trap Canyon Pasture, where the depre- dations on cattle occurred, he said. One of Birkmaier’s agents killed a yearling male May 3, said John Williams of Enterprise, co-chair- man of the wolf committee for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. Birkmaier declined to identify who took the wolf in an interview Mon- day, May 9. “I don’t want him to get threat- ened” by wolf proponents, Birk- maier said. He said that at the time of the killing, the wolf was not actively attacking cattle, but was in Dor- rance Pasture along Crow Creek. A targeted wolf does not legally have to be in the act of attacking live- stock, it just has to be in an area where depredations have occurred, he said. Eff ective management? Todd Nash, president of the OCA, a Wallowa County com- missioner and a local rancher, said May 4, that the state conservation and wolf-management plan has two main parts. “They’ve done one but not the other,” he said. “They’ve been highly critical of poaching, and I’m not defending that, but they need to step up to the plate when it’s appro- priate for them to take lethal action, and they have not done so.” See ODFW, Page A7 McCloud believes treatment violates party bylaws By JEFF BUDLONG Wallowa County Chieftain SALEM — Republican guber- natorial candidate Tim McCloud claims discrimination in a May 6 press release by his own party for violating bylaws put in place to treat all legally-qualifi ed candidates equally. McCloud, the fi rst Black GOP candidate in the state’s history to run for governor, believes a recent exchange with fellow candidate Marc Thielman during the April 22 Linn County forum led to him being uninvited from scheduled guberna- torial events and ignored altogether. During the forum, Thielman claimed not to know what a white suprema- cist is. “It has been a series of escalating comments he is making with me in the room,” McCloud said. “After he said (the white supremacist remark) he came and sat down with me and wanted to fi st bump me as if, at that moment, I was going to be an conviction.” endorser for his comment.” Following the forum, McCloud Instead of a fi st bump, McCloud said he was uninvited to the Jose- wagged his fi nger at Thielman to phine County forum, something note his disapproval. He he had committed to on subsequently voiced his dis- April 16. pleasure with the comment “Three days after (the on May 5 during a League white supremacist remark) of Minority Voters event in was made, I got an email Portland and has yet to hear from Josephine County tell- a response from Thielman. ing me that what would Thielman said he does be best for me is to pur- McCloud not recall making a com- sue a lower offi ce and I ment about the defi nition of was no longer invited,” said a white supremacist and said McCloud of the April 29 the media often “throws out event. name calls without giving McCloud said he can’t any defi nition to the term.” prove the two things are “If Tim had an issue with related, but he believes it all me he should have talked to shows that as a legally-qual- me like a man, a grown-up, ifi ed candidate he is not Thielman a professional rather than receiving equal treatment. draw a conclusion about Thielman said he has no that,” Thielman said. “I am glad ability to invite or disinvite McCloud Tim is signed up in the race, he is to events and does not see the con- the fi rst African-American, and he clusion being made as accurate. is a hero to me and I appreciate his Holli Morton, chairwoman of the Josephine County Republican Party, said the number of candidates was reduced for the forum by taking into account numerous factors. She noti- fi ed fi ve of the 12 candidates that they were not going to be included in the forum. Morton said name recognition, fi nancial ability, government expe- rience and business experience were the factors taken into consideration when inviting candidates. Candi- dates had to meet at least two of the four factors to be included. The busi- ness experience criteria was set for someone who has run a business and had at least $10 million annual reve- nue with 12 or more employees. “Our forum was two-and-a-half hours long with just the seven can- didates we had,” she said. “We made the same response to fi ve candidates and it is not personal. We felt those candidates did not meet the criteria that we established.” See McCloud, Page A7