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MyEagleNews.com
MONUMENTAL
MOVIEMAKER
Grant County graduate earns second Oscar
nomination with latest documentary ‘Hunger Ward’
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
F
ilmmaker Skye Fitzgerald carried the lessons he water, electricity or access to health care.
learned in high school in the tiny town of Monu-
“In some small sense, I experienced some of that lack
ment all the way to war-torn Yemen, the setting for myself, and I wanted to make sure that whatever I devoted my
his latest documentary “Hunger Ward,” which is in career to, there’s an attempt to use my career for good to get
the running for an Academy Award at Sun-
change,” Fitzgerald said.
day’s ceremony.
His 2018 fi lm “Lifeboat,” which was also nom-
It’s Fitzgerald’s second Oscar nomination, and
inated for an Oscar, followed search and rescue
he said his time growing up in rural Grant County
operations off the coast of Libya.
taught him the value of hard work and gave him
“Hunger Ward,” competing in this year’s
an appreciation of “the simple things in life”
short documentary category, focuses on two
when his family moved to a house 16 miles out-
therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen for chil-
side of Monument that lacked running water and
dren suff ering from malnutrition. He said the
electricity when he was in eighth grade.
Oscar nomination gives the documentary another
“The fact that we didn’t have running water or
chance to raise awareness about the confl ict.
electricity made me appreciate them all the
“It’s important that I use my own tools
Contributed photo as a fi lmmaker to try to intervene and
more when I went to college in La Grande at
Monument graduate Skye Fitz- bring the issue to the largest audience
Eastern Oregon University,” he said.
Fitzgerald said he knew he wanted to pur- gerald directed the Academy possible to alter this unfolding tragedy
sue a career where he could bring to light the Award-nominated fi lm ‘Hunger that doesn’t need to occur because of this
challenges faced by others in the world who Ward.’
See Moviemaker, Page A18
lack fundamental resources such as running
Contributed photo
Skye Fitzgerald fi lming a search and rescue operation in the Southern Mediterranean.
Cattle mutilations perplex investigators
Six more mutilated cows
found in rural Crook
County
By Garrett Andrews
EO Media Group
The udders appeared to have been
removed with precision — straight,
even cuts, as if made by a sharp object.
The reproductive systems had been
cut out cleanly as well, and without dis-
turbing other organs.
There was no indication of predator
activity, and perhaps strangest of all,
scavenging animals appeared to have
hardly touched these six cow carcasses
found in a seven-day span this year on
ranchland in rural Crook County.
Detectives with the Crook County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce, longtime ranchers and
a Prineville veterinarian who reviewed
evidence from an ongoing case say
they’re stumped by the “unnatural”
deaths.
But the mutilated cattle might be
more ordinary than they seem, accord-
ing to Brian Dunning, a Bend-based
podcaster committed to defl ating wild
claims.
“This reads like a very typical case,”
he said.
Crook County Sheriff John Gaut-
Contributed photo/Clancy Roth
A cow was found dead and mutilated in early 2020 at Bar DR Land and Cattle, a
Deschutes County ranch in Hampton.
ney said his offi ce has no leads but cau-
tioned there’s “no reason to panic.”
“We’ve had cases like this over the
years,” Gautney said. “They seem to
come in groups and then go away. We
are not speculating on how these are
happening, as we try to keep an open
mind and look at all possibilities.”
Mutilated cattle have been reported
in the American West since at least
the 1960s. There have been multiple
recent cases of bull mutilations in Har-
ney, Wheeler and Umatilla counties
in Eastern Oregon. But now, beef cat-
tle have turned up dead in the remote
ranchlands outside Prineville bearing
signs common to the cattle mutilation
phenomenon.
The current string of cases began
Feb. 27, when Crook County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce Deputy Scott Durr was dis-
patched to suspicious circumstances at
the 96 Ranch on Southeast Van Lake
Road. Owner Rickey Shannon said
See Mutilations, Page A18
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Kobe Fell bunts the ball on April
14 in the fi rst game of the season
against the Baker/Powder Valley
Bulldogs. Other scheduled sports
events are on hold after an uptick
in COVID-19 cases.
Grant Union,
Humbolt
Elementary
close for
COVID-19
Seneca remains open,
but sports contests are
canceled this week
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant Union Junior/Senior
High School and Humbolt Ele-
mentary transitioned to distance
learning on April 19 because of an
uptick in COVID-19 cases.
Grant School District 3 Super-
intendent Bret Uptmor said they
are targeting April 26 as a return
date for in-class sessions, but this
is contingent on the district’s eval-
uation of the COVID-19 situation
on April 22 to see if the date would
need to be extended.
Grant Union Junior/Senior
High School sporting events are
also canceled this week.
Uptmor told the Eagle April 16
that Seneca will remain open for
in-class lessons.
“During the time of distance
learning, the district along with
the health department will monitor
cases for community spread,” Upt-
mor said in the release. “Opening
our schools for onsite instruction
will be announced as it is deter-
mined safe for our students and
staff to return. Grant Union Jr./Sr.
High School and Humbolt have
prepared for the delivery of instruc-
tion remotely.”
On April 13, Uptmor said 44%
of students at Grant Union Junior/
Senior High School and 16% of
students at Humbolt Elementary
were on quarantine.
The Grant County Health
Department began considering the
two-week pause for the district
with the percentage of students on
quarantine.
“We have a great appreciation
for parents and their willingness to
work with us and getting students
the material they need at home
through this process again,” Upt-
mor said.
The school district will con-
tinue providing breakfast and lunch
Mondays through Thursdays. The
program is for all children 18 years
old and younger in the community.
The school will prepare meals
based on last November’s student
counts. If somebody did not partic-
ipate last fall, call and leave a mes-
sage at 541-575-1799 to participate
in the food service program.
The breakfasts and lunches
will be available for pickup from
9-9:30 a.m. at Humbolt Elementary,
the Seventh Street Complex by the
pond, the bowling alley parking lot
and the Mt. Vernon Park.
“We appreciate your under-
standing and patience through this
change,” Uptmor said. “The pro-
cess of taking in information and
making safe decisions will con-
tinue, and our school will get back
to onsite quickly and only with
safety in mind.”
No other school districts in
Grant County announced closures
as of April 19.