Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2016)
Free football contest. Cash prizes. Page A10 The Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Blue Mountain EAGLE Local calf roper places fi rst at Grant County Rodeo W EDNESDAY , S EPTEMBER 14, 2016 • N O . 37 • 18 P AGES • $1.00 Page A9 www.MyEagleNews.com CARVING A NICHE PC man’s obsidian daggers bring out inner caveman Ichua Little Missing John Day woman safe in California By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle A John Day woman missing for a week has been found safe in Cali- fornia. John Day Police Chief Richard Gray said he received news Tuesday morning 30-year-old Ichua Little had been found. Little’s family report- ed her missing at 10 a.m. Sept. 7, stating she was last seen the evening of Sept. 6 outside the area of Community Coun- seling Solutions and the Health Department on East Main Street in John Day. An all-points bulle- tin was issued by police at about noon Sept. 7. Police received good news earlier this week. On Monday, John Day police officer Mike Durr said a woman from Eure- ka, California, who knew Little called the depart- ment and said she had spoken with Little that day. Little’s mother trav- eled to California, where the family owns proper- ty, to look for her daugh- ter and contacted other family members there. Gray said he received news Tuesday morn- ing that Little had been found safe. “I’d like to thank the community for keeping an eye out and helping us in this endeavor,” Gray said last week. ‘Nobody is set up to do what we do’ By Rylan Boggs Blue Mountain Eagle W Dale Duby sculpts the blade of an obsidian knife using a technique called flintknapping on Thursday, Sept. 8. hile Dale Duby’s ob- sidian knives aren’t cutting-edge technolo- gy, he always keeps a box of bandages close at hand. Great Basin Art started out with Dale making obsidian arrowheads in his spare time and grew into what he says is the largest obsidian knife making busi- ness in the world. “Nobody is set up to do what we do,” Dale said. “That’s not what we set out to do. It’s just that nobody else produces like we do.” Dale, his wife, Claudia, and their four employees make Stone Age-style knives with horn and bone handles in Prairie City. Each starts as a chunk of obsidian that is cut into sheets with a lapidary slab saw. From there, the profi le of the blade is formed using a glass cutter. Dale shapes the blade us- ing a bench grinder and then sculpts the blades using a technique called fl int- knapping. Dale sells most of his blades in trad- ing posts and tourist spots, especially Alaskan gift shops frequented by cruise line passengers. See NICHE, Page A18 Eagle photos/Rylan Boggs Bottom row, from left, Amber Ford, Lynn Thornton and Claudia Duby, and top row, from left, Gary Rapp, Caleb Sanders and Dale Duby pose for a photo in the Great Basin Art workshop Thursday, Sept. 8. TOP PHOTO: Dale Duby holds two of the largest knives he makes. The scrimshaw design on the bone handle is done by Lynn Thornton. Dale Duby holds an obsidian blade to the light to demonstrate the color of the obsidian glass. Wyllie retires from National Guard Former mortar-man: ‘It was a blast’ By Rylan Boggs Blue Mountain Eagle After more than 25 years of ser- vice in the National Guard, Com- mand Sgt. Maj. William Wyllie has retired. Throughout his service and vari- ous deployments, Wyllie has worked at Chester’s Thriftway. Wyllie joined the Guard after graduating in 1989 from Pierce College with an associate degree in technology. He was looking for ad- venture outside his day job at Ches- ter’s, and found it working as a mor- tar-man for 10 years. During his time as a mortar-man, he worked with various explosives ranging from 60-mm shells to 4.2- inch, 22-lb. explosives capable of blowing up half a football field. “It was a blast,” Wyllie said. The Eagle/Rylan Boggs Bill Wyllie poses for a photo in Chester’s Thriftway on Friday, Sept. 9. From there, Wyllie became a com- bat engineer and explosives expert. He was responsible for determining if bridges could hold the weight of tanks, setting up minefields and teaching other soldiers how to use explosives. “Anything from a small charge to blow down a door to charges big enough to blow a hole in a mine- field to get a whole fleet of tanks through,” Wyllie said. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, Wyllie was deployed to Ft. Lewis in Washington where he served as a su- pervisor for all entry points. He deployed to Iraq in 2011 as the 41st Brigade Combat Team com- mand sergeant major to assist with Operation New Dawn. During this time, he helped pull out of Iraq — his was the second to last unit to leave Iraq, he said. He was responsible for between 600 and 800 soldiers, all of whom he said he brought home safely. After his deployment, he worked alongside a one-star general to help command all the land forces in Or- egon. Since his retirement, Wyllie says his workload has been much lighter. When not at Chester’s, he says he plans to spend time with his three grandchildren, teaching them how to hunt and fish. Wyllie said it was a great experi- ence, but he’s looking forward to the next chapter in his life. “It was an amazing ride, but it’s time for someone else to take a turn,” he said. “I want to go hunting and fishing.”
