CHIEF JOSEPH DAYS Wallowa.com Wednesday, August 3, 2022 A9 Ocean or mountains? Not a hard call for one Joseph man Chief Joseph Days volunteer spent much of life in military service By KATY NESBITT For the Wallowa County Chieftain JOSEPH — In a tradition stretching back 76 years, volunteering at the rodeo starts for many at childhood. For Joseph native Max Prout, his û rst involvement started in Cub Scouts. “My uncle Wick (Wil- lard) Prout helped start the rodeo,” Prout said. “We would come down and clean up the rodeo grounds and in high school I worked the gates for the bucking chutes.” For the û rst 12 years of his life, he and his brother, Gary, grew up in the dam tender’s house at the foot of Wallowa Lake. Their father worked for the Associated Ditch Co. The boys enjoyed access to the lake, learning to swim and boating. “We had a milk cow, pigs, chickens and a big gar- den in front of the house — Mom canned everything,” Prout said. Long retired from mili- tary service, Prout said he joined the Navy after grad- uating from high school during the Vietnam War. After 10 years with the branch, he moved over to the Coast Guard and served another 14 years. “Growing up in Joseph you could work for a mill, go into logging or ranching or go to college, which was way too expensive. I had the option to go into the military and once you were there, you could get a GI Bill for education,” Prout said. During his time in the Katy Nesbitt/For the Wallowa County Chieftain Max Prout is a volunteer who helps his brother manage the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo stagecoach that travels to some of the rodeos the court attends. military, Prout said he took advantage of both military education courses as well as correspondence courses. “I took courses wherever I was stationed,” Prout said.