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.”