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138th Year, No. 16
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
WALLOWA.COM
HISTORIC MILITARY CONVOY
VISITS WALLOWA COUNTY
Matt
McDowell
Enterprise
Horse trainer
enjoys the
outdoors
ENTERPRISE — Matt McDowell
has been in Wallowa County since
1990 and lived along Hurricane Creek
Road south of Enterprise for about 15
years.
“We had a packing business at
the lake for about 20 years,” he said.
Now he trains reining horses.
“We travel around the country
and show horses,” he said.
His wife, Amber, and their four
kids all show horses.
As might be expected, McDow-
ell’s favorite thing about Wallowa
County is the outdoors.
“We outfi tted for 20 years and
I love the hunting, the fi shing, the
small community to raise my family,”
he said, “and the old-time way of life
and the morals.”
As summer winds down, McDow-
ell still has a few things he wants to
do before fall.
“My kids like to archery hunt …
so we’re going to do that in August
and September into deer season and
do a little more fi shing on the Snake
River,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get a
few more Snake River trips in before
summer’s over.”
McDowell was as shocked as any-
one when the Aug. 11 hailstorm hit
Wallowa.
“That was devastating for the
town of Wallowa,” he said. “It’s some-
thing we don’t see up in this part of
the country very often. … I tried to
help out as much as we could. I think
the whole county came together to
help out.”
As the Oregon Department of
Forestry has increased restrictions
because of fi re season, he has his
concerns.
“Of course, you have to protect
the county,” McDowell said, “but a lot
of people coming to the county for
tourism and the hunting season, it
brings a lot of income to the county.
It hurts the county when they shut
down the forests.”
He has mixed feelings when it
comes to advising those thinking of
moving here.
“You know, you want it to stay
small — it’s an unbelievable place to
live and raise a family,” he said. “Mak-
ing a living is the hardest thing, with
the long winters, but I can’t say not to
because it’s been great for my family
when we moved here in the 1990s.”
— Bill Bradshaw,
Wallowa County Chieftain
Historic military vehicles pull into a
fi eld behind the Indian Lodge Motel
in Joseph as the Military Vehicle
Preservation Association’s biennial
convoy passes through Wallowa
County on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Military vehicles mostly served in Vietnam
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
J
OSEPH
—
They
weren’t pulling into Sai-
gon or Da Nang, but the
convoy of 24 historic
military vehicles that
pulled into Joseph could
well have staged a sim-
ilar entrance some 50
years ago.
The Military Vehicle Preser-
vation Association’s biennial con-
voy on Thursday, Aug. 25, left
Baker City and headed through the
mountains for a lunch stop at the
Hells Canyon Overlook before tra-
versing the windy National Forest
Road 39 to Joseph.
“Where’s the diesel?” asked
Dan McCluskey, convoy com-
mander, as soon as he stepped out
of his Vietnam-era three-quarter-
ton M37 cargo truck.
He hadn’t noticed that the Chev-
ron station in Joseph does indeed
off er diesel fuel, critical for many
of the convoy’s vehicles.
About 50 people — 30% of
whom are Vietnam veterans, along
with one World War II vet —
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Jimmie Smith of Texahoma, Oklahoma, explains how this Army
ambulance could accommodate four wounded soldiers as part of a
display of 24 historic military vehicles in a convoy passing through
Wallowa County on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022.
accompanied the rigs.
The convoy began Aug. 14 after
gathering near the home of Mark
Sigrist near Kamiah, Idaho. Sig-
rist, who conceived the idea of this
year’s convoy, died in 2020 before
it could take place.
“But his son is here, keeping the
dream alive,” McCluskey said.
After a couple hours of a static
display in the fi eld behind the
Indian Lodge Motel, the convoy
was back on the road to spend the
night at the Eagle Cap Shooters
Association’s gun range north of
Enterprise.
The next day, the plan was to
head north to Lewiston, Idaho,
where some would leave the con-
voy for home.
McCluskey may not be a mili-
tary vet, but he’s certainly a veteran
with military vehicles. His father,
who was a WWII vet, bought a
jeep shortly after the war.
“I grew up in that jeep,” he said.
His own fi rst vehicle also was
a jeep, a rig that had seen WWII
service.
All the vehicles are privately
owned, McCluskey said, adding
that the owners pay for fuel and
their own food.
“Each individual pays his own
way,” he said.
The MVPA plans a convoy
every two years. Usually the
trips last 28 days and cover 3,000
miles. This time, the run was for
two weeks and 1,600 miles.
The association, founded in
1976, is a nonprofi t with more
than 100 affi liates worldwide
“dedicated to providing an inter-
national organization for military
vehicle enthusiasts, historians,
preservationists and collectors
interested in the acquisition,
restoration, preservation, safe
operation and public education
of historic military transport,”
according to its mission.
See Convoy, Page A7
STORM RELIEF
Wallowa to receive
$2 million in aid
City to be on
list for state
emergency board
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Restored classic cars and pickups were a highlight of the weekend’s Wallowa Mountain
Cruise in Joseph: The fi rst fi ve cars on display here on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, from the
left, are a 1934 Ford pickup, a 1931 Ford Model A Coupe, a 1936 Ford Roadster, a 1931
Ford Tudor Sedan and a 1939 Chevy Coupe.
Car enthusiasts swarm Joseph
1946 Hudson
pickup named
top vehicle
of Wallowa
Mountain Cruise
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — About 165
classic cars and trucks from
all over were on display
and cruised around Joseph
during the three-decades-
old car show, now known
as the Wallowa Mountain
Cruise, this weekend.
A black 1946 Hud-
son pickup owned by Bob
and Becky Cunningham,
of Idaho, was named King
of the Mountain, top prize
for the car show, formerly
known as the Oregon
Mountain Cruise.
Another Idahoan, Mar-
ion Evans, took the Peo-
ple’s Choice award with his
aqua 1932 Ford Roadster.
The event started
Friday, Aug. 26. As the
vehicles arrived in Joseph,
beer and food fl owed
and people enjoyed and
danced to the classic
tunes from the local band
Good Question. The next
day, Aug. 27, streets were
blocked off , cars and pick-
ups parked downtown,
vendors pulled in and set
up shop and the crowds
gathered for a day of mill-
ing around, admiring the
See Cars, Page A7
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — The city
of Wallowa can expect to
receive $2 million in state
emergency aid next month
when the board of the Ore-
gon Department of Emer-
gency Management meets,
according to state Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena.
The aid would be to
assist Wallowa residents in
the wake of the hailstorm
that ravaged the town on
Thursday, Aug. 11. The
roofs of at least 400 build-
ings and scores of auto-
mobiles were damaged by
the large hailstones, Mayor
Gary Hulse said. A handful
of injuries were reported,
although none was consid-
ered serious.
Hansell said on Aug. 24
that he learned the previ-
ous day $2 million was
to be added to the funds
the board is expected to
request when it meets
Sept. 30.
He said it’s too bad the
money can’t come through
sooner, “but that’s when
the board meets.”
Hansell is a member of
the emergency board.
The senator said he
immediately called Hulse
to inform him.
Hulse confi rmed Aug.
23 that he’d been told a $2
million request was made,
but had yet to hear if it was
approved.
Hansell said the delay in
approving the funds could
prove troublesome.
“It hasn’t been appropri-
ated yet,” he said. “In the
meantime, maybe assum-
ing the money’s going to
be there, they can get the
work done.”
See Relief, Page A7