Search party locates young rabbit hunters

Published 12:13 pm Tuesday, December 1, 2015

100 years ago – Dec. 2, 1915

• J.K. Carper walked into Enterprise Tuesday evening from a six weeks’ hunting jaunt in the reserve between the Imnaha and Snake rivers. He went in the employ of the forest service and his mission was to destroy predatory animals. He started the hunt with six dogs and got back with only three, the others having failed to return after they had taken the trail of wild animals.

• A new system of comparing grades has been put in operation in the Enterprise public schools. It tends to bring the work of the pupil directly before the eye of the parent. Every pupil has been graded for a period of six weeks and these grades, together with the individual grades of his classmates, have been averaged and the resulting averages indicate the grades of a normal pupil. The parents’ duty is to find the reasons for their child’s deficiency and banish them, no matter what the cost Sickness if the lazy man’s motto. Late hours and lack of physical and mental cleanliness are the backbones of our penal systems.

70 years ago – Dec. 6, 1945

• Twenty-nine school board members, representing 11 of the 42 school districts in the county, met Friday night at the Enterprise high school and organized the Wallowa county association of school boards, with Max Wilson of Joseph as president and Melvin Crow of Lostine secretary-treasurer of the new association.

• For the first time in several years Wallowa county’s school census did not drop. In fact, there are four more pupils enumerated this year than there were last. The number of boys remains the same, 840, but this year there are 775 girls, a total of 1615.

• Red Cross workers have been busy. Mrs. S.M. Crow and Mrs. Eddie Blokland of Lostine were in town Tuesday afternoon bringing up eleven filled Christmas bags for the soldiers, 23 dresses which the Lostine ladies had made for Philippine ladies, and some socks and sweaters. They took home more material to be made up, A part of the Christmas bags have been turned in from Wallowa and Enterprise.

50 years ago – Dec. 2, 1965

• Three Enterprise youngsters became lost Sunday afternoon while hunting rabbits in the Mud Springs area north of Enterprise and were the object of a search which lasted into the wee hours of Monday morning. Dan Courtney, Dave Courtney and Shane Homan left home about 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon to go rabbit hunting. At 7:30 a search party consisting of Stan Farris, Bill Dunn, Jerry Homan, Mark Marks, Leroy and Marge McGraw and Jim Courtney set out to make a systematic search of the area where it was thought the boys might have gone. The boys were finally found about 3:00 a.m.

• John Anderson and Rhonda Kiser were recently named FHA Dreamboat and FFA Sweetheart at Joseph High School. Rhonda had to make a speech, hammer nails, saw boards and answer questions about farming. John won his title by ironing a shirt, sewing on a button, folding a diaper, threading a sewing machine and quartering a grapefruit.

25 years ago – Dec. 6, 1990

• Fierce Chinook winds Tuesday morning tore through northeast Oregon leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Photo caption: Smoke billows from a burning haystack as Joseph public works superintendent Keith Waters and Joseph firemen Paul Karvoski and Jim Thompson attend to the blaze at John Smith’s farm, located about two miles east of Joseph. Firemen from Enterprise and Joseph were summoned to the scene.

• The familiar Christmas star on Tick Hill above Wallowa may not shine this holiday season for the first time in many many years, Due to vandalism by an unknown person or persons wielding .22 caliber rifles during the past year, the structure and wiring of the star must be completely replaced. The Wallowa Lions Club is undertaking to rebuild the luminous star with a fully encased steel version, but the job is a big one and it appears it will not be done in time for this Christmas season.

• Operation Desert Shield personnel from Joseph should get a big morale boost in Saudi Arabia in the near future when they receive the special “Christmas care packages” sent to them this week by the students of Joseph Elementary School. Among Joseph soldiers being sent packages by the kids were Troy Davis, Michael Barstad, Garry Morrison and David Little.