July

July 4: Gray skies cloud East First Street in Wallowa just moments before the town’s annual Fourth of July Parade is set to begin, with onlookers sporting long sleeves and umbrellas. But right before the scheduled start, the sun breaks through. Just two years before, the parade was an unofficial affair after being canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

July 6: The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners begins taking steps to ban psilocybin services in unincorporated parts of the county. Measure 109, which Oregon voters passed in 2020, allows clinical use of the hallucinogen, which has shown promise in treatment of ailments such as depression and anxiety. But the measure also allows jurisdictions to opt out of allowing psilocybin services, and the commissioners’ action is the first step in that process.

July 7: The Joseph City Council hires a new administrator for the city, Dan Larman. The hiring brings to a close a situation dating back to April 2021, when former Administrator Larry Braden resigned, citing claims of harassment that prevented him from doing his job. Larman, who moved from Elgin in March, has been working with interim Administrator Brock Eckstein since then.

July 7: As the tourism season ramps up in the wake of two years of difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners and others are feeling optimistic — for the most part. “The sentiment does seem to be optimistic,” says Jennifer Piper, executive director of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce in Enterprise during an interview. Jude Graham, of the Joseph Chamber of Commerce, agrees. But one of the challenges businesses are facing is a shortage of employees.

July 7: Longtime Chief Joseph Days volunteers Tim and Shelley Marshall are named this year’s grand marshals for the 76th Annual Chief Joseph Days.

July 8: A 64-year-old Hermiston man, Dan Ridling, is stabbed to death at the Hells Canyon Overlook in southeastern Wallowa County, the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office says. Ridling got into an altercation with an Albany man and was stabbed in the torso, Sheriff Joel Fish says. No charges have yet been filed in the case. District Attorney Rebecca Frolander says she’ll release more details about the case — including whether it will go to a grand jury — after the start of the year. Since charges have not been filed, authorities have not identified the Albany man.

July 9: A crowd estimated at 1,000 comes to watch the Wallowa County Fly-In and Airshow at the Joseph State Airport. “It takes a lot of work to make something like this happen,” says J.D. Clay, the chair of the North East Oregon Aviation Foundation. “You just don’t see it at smaller airports, especially an airport this small,” Clay said. Part of the allure for pilots and spectators comes from the stunning view that gives the airshow its setting.

July 16: “School of Rock” star Jack Black proves to be a quick study when it comes to fishing lessons during his weekend trip to the Wallowa Lake Marina. Black and his family are in Wallowa County, where they dined and enjoyed a day on the lake with the help of marina staff.

July 22: Tamkaliks is back. After a hiatus of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration of Native American culture returns to its Nez Perce Homeland location in Wallowa to commemorate 30 years of friendship and homecoming. Important ceremonies include a veterans’ ceremony and dance, events acknowledging murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, and an event acknowledging the abuses of Native children at residential boarding schools.

July 27: The Chief Joseph Days Rodeo in Joseph begins its run, with famed rodeo clown John Harrison among the attractions. The award-winning event features four nights of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo and six days of Western entertainment.

August

Aug. 5: The Wallowa County Fair begins, with events including the Junior Rodeo and continues through Saturday, Aug. 13 with the 4-H/FFA Fat Stock Sale.

Aug. 11: The National Weather Service office in Pendleton issues a severe thunderstorm warning for much of Wallowa County, and the prediction is on target: Wallowa is hammered with tennis-ball sized hail up to 2½ inches, and Wallowa city officials say they heard reports of baseball-sized stones. The storm causes millions of dollars of damage to Wallowa and Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise confirms it treated “multiple” patients for injuries; no deaths are reported. Witnesses report shattered windows and windshields, downed trees and homes and businesses with severe damage. The town still is working to recover; see the story on Page A1.

Aug. 22-23: Lightning-caused fires are burning in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, the U.S. Forest Service says. The fires are currently burning in remote areas and pose minimal threats to private property and other values, the release said. Firefighters are monitoring fire activity and working to protect homes and property near to the fire. The largest of the fires is the Sturgill Fire, which burns 23,507 acres. The Nebo Fire burns 12,609 acres. Goat Mountain 2 burns 584 acres.

Aug. 30: Lightning sparks another fire, the Double Creek Fire, burning in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. In less than a week, the fire — fueled by hot, dry conditions and gusty winds — grows to more than 100,000 acres and becomes the biggest blaze in the state. The town of Imnaha and areas just north and south are under Level 3 “Go Now” evacuations. The fire eventually grows to 171,532 acres and is 100% contained in October.

Aug. 31: As summer winds down, so does harvest time for small-grains producers. Growers this year are increasingly finding their harvest much more bountiful than last year. The main reason for this, many say, is the increased moisture this past spring. Tim Melville, of Cornerstone Farms Joint Venture near Enterprise, says that with all the moisture last spring, crops are far from the “disaster” of last year.

September

Sept. 7: After a “heck of a summer,” as Enterprise School interim Superintendent Tom Crane said, the district’s Bond Oversight Committee gets an update on construction projects during the summer. The work is being paid for by an $8 million bond levy approved in November 2020 for the Enterprise School buildings, largely to replace leaky roofs and upgrade access to Americans with Disabilities Act standards, such as remodeling restrooms and adding ramps and lifts for wheelchair-bound students and removing asbestos flooring. The main project completed this summer was replacement of the roof at the elementary/middle school, primary and high school buildings. The work will continue in the summer of 2023.

Sept. 9: It’s a smoky day with all the wildfires in Wallowa County, but that doesn’t stop the 41st annual Hells Canyon Mule Days from braying its way through Enterprise. COVID-19 sidelined the event the past two years. Mule Days organizer Sondra Lozier says the contestant count was good and more than 80 mules were entered in various classes.

Sept. 10: A community celebration marks Wallowa County’s acquisition of more than 1,800 acres of the Wallowa Lake East Moraine. The former Ronald C. Yanke Family Trust property was acquired in January 2020 after years of fundraising by the Wallowa Lake Moraines Partnership, but COVID-19 restrictions postponed the celebration for two years. Since the acquisition, work has continued to develop the East Moraine Community Forest’s Management Plan, designed to meet the multiple uses of the property — forest and range management, wildlife and habitat conservation, cultural resources and recreation.

Sept. 22: An army is assaulting Northeastern Oregon — armyworms, that is. And they’re wreaking havoc with grass crops such as timothy grass, one of the most common hay crops in Wallowa County. Pete Schreder, the Oregon State University Extension livestock range and natural resource agent for the county, says that the worms are not just in Wallowa County, but also have been reported in Baker and Union counties.

Sept. 29: With smiles galore and bratwurst, beer and dancing just as widespread, the 41st Oregon’s Alpenfest opens with a procession down Enterprise’s Main Street, led by the band from Joseph Charter School oom-pah-ing all the way to the gazebo at the Wallowa County Courthouse. The event, which had been on hold for the last couple of years due to COVID, bills itself as the “only Swiss-Bavarian cultural festival in the western United States.” The majority of the Alpenfest events took place at the Joseph Community Events Center. After years at Wallowa Lake, they were to be held at the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Grounds, but the Thunder Room there was still in use as a fire camp.