90 YEARS AGO

Aug. 18, 1921

Thursday, Aug. 11, there occurred up in the mountains a deplorable accident that cost one man (Mike Fullerton) his life and badly injured another (Roscoe Foster). They were part of a group of men who were doing assessment work on a group of mining claims along Hurricane Creek, which are owned by outside interests.

C.C. Burnside has bought a Ford car and his friends are telling a joke on him in his first attempts at handling the brute. It is said that he tried to drive to Joseph and had six blowouts; that he drove it into a field and tore down about an acre of grain trying to turn it around and getting back on the road.

FLORA The post office has again been moved into its old place in the store building owned by W.H. Baker. Mrs. Nicolson, the postmistress, is vacating the building formerly occupied by the post office. Mr. Hockett, who owns the building, plans on moving back soon.

W.S. Hayes, who claims to be the first subscriber to the Chieftain in 1884, was in town Tuesday from Joseph with his wife, shaking hands with old friends and seeing the circus.

70 YEARS AGO

Aug. 21, 1941

Reminding older residents of the previous war, the railroad depot was the scene of a farewell gathering Monday when 15 young men left for the selective service induction station at Portland. … Some of the young men had been celebrating there departing before the train left. They had liquor aboard and became more boisterous until they staged a real rough house, breaking windows in the car and roughing up the premises considerably.

Continuing the development of the fish hatchery (in Enterprise), the Oregon State Game Commission has called for bids of a battery of outdoor ponds.

Thirty years after he helped establish the experimental sheep station at Billy Meadows, Joe K. Carper, now living in Rochester, Wash., returned to the scene last week. When the pasture was established, Carper was a government hunter, one of the first, and many are the stories told of his war on predatory animals.

With the arrival of steel girders, construction of the bridge over the Grande Ronde River on the Enterprise-Lewiston highway has resumed. Completion of the bridge will leave only 3 ½ miles of road to be built between the Grande Ronde and the Oregon line to bring Washingtons share of the long-sought highway to a finish.

50 YEARS AGO

Aug. 17, 1961

The lightning storm early Tuesday set several fires in the area at the onset with chances for more lightning in the offing. The largest fire in the Bear Sleds district, where 12 fires were counted, was located in Baker Gulch and Tuesday evening covered about 50 acres still out of control.

Photo caption Ending a week of scouting activities at Camp Wallowa were these boys from Enterprise: Larry Twidwell, Dale Curtis, Ron Kinsley, Gerry Rahn, Kirk McGraw, Ronnie Thompson, George Stewart, Danny Courtney, Homer Thorpe, Cliff Johnson (camp director), Elwood Gough (scoutmaster) and Dave McFadden, area field executive for the Blue Mountain Council.

The Cattleman of the Year award was presented to Cliff Hillman of Wallowa at the Stockgrowers dinner Saturday evening. Grassman of the Year went to Truman Poulson of Crow Creek.

The Wallowa County CowBelles held their annual meeting at Wallowa Lake Saturday, Aug. 12. Eighty-four ladies were served a delicious stroganoff dinner. Mrs. Herb Reavis, president, welcomed the guests.

25 YEARS AGO

Aug. 21, 1986

Hundreds of loggers and truck drivers from Wallowa, Union, Baker and Umatilla counties converged on the Eastern Oregon State College campus in La Grande to protest a bill that will designate an additional 300,000 acres of wilderness in the Hells Canyon area. Many of them waited outside, carrying placards stating Save Our Snake SOS from wilderness while over 200 people crowded in Zabel Hall to testify in a Senate hearing on the bill proposed by Bob Packwood (R-Ore.).

Hot, dry conditions and gusty southwest winds continued to cause problems for firefighters in fire-charred Wallowa County. They concentrated their efforts on controlling the 123,230-acre Pumpkin Creek fire near Imnaha and the ever-expanding Joseph Creek fire Wednesday morning.

Harold Klages was the recipient of the Cattleman of the Year award from the Wallowa County Stockgrowers Saturday night, while Van Van Blaricom received the Grassman of the Year trophy.

Rowena Patton nabbed 53 blue ribbons, 43 red ribbons and 17 white ribbons for $187.50 in winnings for top honors as Homemaker of the Fair last week.