Chieftain archivesEnterprise boys basketball team, circa unknown.

100 years ago – October 21, 1915

The contract for lateral sewers in Enterprise was awarded Wednesday afternoon by the city council to James Kennedy, a contractor with offices in Portland, Salt Lake City and Fargo, North Dakota. His bid was $18,652.60 for the 25,600 feet of laterals, and was the lowest of the seven submitted.

Construction work on Ross R. Falconer’s new brick building for his feed, fuel and storage business was begun the first of the week. G. C. Holst has the contract and Enterprise brick will be used. The present product of the local brickyard is considered of as good quality as can be found in the west.

Professor W. A. Henry has begun early with the large orchestra he expects to train this season. He expects to have about twenty musicians in the organization, and will give concerts later in Enterprise and in other towns in the county. Mr. Henry has arranged to give music lessons in Joseph in a few days.

A milking machine has been installed on W. F. Craig’s dairy farm just out of town. This will milk the cows much quicker than the old hand methods, thus enabling Mr. Craig to devote more time to his automobile.

70 years ago – October 18, 1945

Wallowa County’s War Fund drive has bogged down with less than half of the quota raised after more than two weeks of campaigning and soliciting, according to C. H. Zurcher, chairman of the drive. Only $2,100 has been turned in on the county’s quota of $5,200.

According to news from Hollywood, Walter Brennan’s two sons, Michael and Andy, have no desire for film careers. They’ll manage their pop’s 12,000-acre ranch near here when they return from the service.

Playing at the Vista Theatre in Enterprise: “Tarzan and the Amazons” and “A Guy, A Gal and A Pal”.

Showing at the McLean Theater in Wallowa: Benny Goodman and his orchestra in a glorious musical, “Sweet and Low Down”.

From the school directory for Wallowa county for 1945-46, we learn that there are 41 organized schools in the county, 15 of which are suspended and send their pupils (if any) to other districts. 71 teachers are employed in the 26 districts, of which 21 are in the high school and 50 in the grades.

50 years ago – October 21, 1965

Plans for the construction of a new grocery store in Enterprise were announced this week by Fred Kaup of Athena. The store will be located on River street near the “Y” of Hurricane Creek highway on the property where Leonard Brooks home is located.

About 25 members of the Wallowa County Shrine Club will depart early tomorrow morning with the annual Shrine caravan. The caravan climaxes the 11th annual drive for food for the Shrine Hospital in Portland. The group will leave here with 15 pickups laden with 10 tons of food valued at approximately $3,000.

Four Enterprise graduates have been chosen to play in the marching band at Oregon State University. They are: Dan Hays, a sophomore; Steve Barber and Jim Clegg, freshmen; and Jerry White of Sweet Home, formerly of Enterprise. Sam Morgan, also a freshman at OSU, has been chosen to sing in the college choir.

One of the first local people to seek information and sign up for the new Medicare program in Wallowa County at the “sign-up day” held last Friday was Etta Gribling of Enterprise. During the day of signing up for the program, a steady string of people showed up at the Cloverleaf hall in Enterprise to get information on the new program. At the end of a long day the program had been explained to about 60 people.

25 years ago – October 18, 1990

Members of the Wallowa County Junior Women’s Club are gearing up for the ‘50s-‘60s Bash Saturday at Cloverleaf Hall. Now in its third year, the event is expected to attract hundreds of participants, including musicians, lip sync artists, and dancers.

Record or near-record attendance marked the 1990 annual awards banquet of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce. Chamber board member Frances Crow presented the “retailer of the year” award to Bud and Ruby Zollman of Joseph, proprietors of Bud’s Hardware. Dave Shriner presented the timber leader award to Howard Johnson of Wallowa. The ag leader award was presented to E. H. “Van” VanBlaricom, an upper Prairie Creek rancher. Tom Swanson of Enterprise was named as the recipient of the chamber’s civic leader award. The outstanding educator award was given to Gail Swart. A new award presented this year to the “Unsung Hero” by chamber president Cassie Botts went to Paul Morehead of Joseph. Botts also presented the “president’s award” to her “right hand woman” Judy Wortman.

In the Chieftain’s football contest, Amber Clegg was our winner this week with four misses. She tied with Jonas Skelton and Chris Uchison, and won on the point spread.

From the “For the record” column: From October 2 to October 16 there were 103 patients treated in the Wallowa Memorial Hospital’s emergency room.