Closed for repairs since last winter, the Wallowa Lake Tram will hopefully open again for business this coming weekend or shortly thereafter. A new 30-ton, 20,000-foot-long cable is being installed to replace the original cable used since the tramway opened in 1969.

“We knew that eventually we would have to make the upgrade,” said Wallowa Lake Tramway Inc. President Mike Lockhart. He said tree damage caused by high winds over the winter “precipitated the whole process.”

Installed the new cable cost the company $100,000.

The one continuous piece of cable came in much later than anticipated, forcing the cable crews to work into the first portion of the tourist season. The tram normally opens over Memorial Day weekend, and Lockhart estimated that the delay will cost the corporation an estimated 5,000 riders.

In a normal season 32,000 to 33,000 persons ride the tram, said Lockhart.

The large, one-piece cable was brought to the county by truck from Pennsylvania. The tramway will again employ some 20 people through summer months to late September or the first of October, when it will close for most of the winter.

At a 3,700-foot lift in elevation, the tram is the steepest 4-passenger gondola lift in the United States. When the lift was opened it was known as the High Wallowas Inc. The name was changed to the Wallowa Lake Tramway Inc. in 1984.

Lockhart said that the new cable will not affect the ride to the top of Mount Howard.