ENTERPRISE — Cal Henry, the 2023 Mule Days grand marshal, has lived a very full life, and is still living it.

At age 19, when Cal was employed as a packer for Boulder Park guiding service, several clients who had purchased a canyon ranch from Dick Blankenship asked him if he wanted a job. This ranch, located in the rugged area known as Tryon Creek in the lower Imnaha/Snake River country, was only accessible by horseback or plane.

John Houck, who was running the ranch for the owners, met Cal on the lower Imnaha River, near the confluence of Cow Creek at the old Litch place, and they made their way on horseback, up the Fingerboard Trail, to the remote Double O Bar ranch at Tryon Creek. After two weeks, John announced he was going to town, saddled up his horse, rode down the trail — and never returned — leaving the responsibility of running the ranch to 19-year-old Cal.

“I didn’t know the country … but the ranch horses did,” remembers Cal. “Those canyon horses taught me,” he said. Soon, young Cal was familiar with the many trails that laced the ranch and surrounding steep country.

Cal and his wife, Mary Ann, spent six years there. Their son, Jason, and daughter, Tammy were born while they lived at Tryon. Well-known bush pilot Bud Stangel from Enterprise flew in and landed on the canyon-side airstrip to transport Mary Ann out several days before the births of their babies.

The ranch wintered cattle at Tryon and summered on Lord Flat. They ran 150 cow permits on forestland. Cal remembers that their groceries and ranch supplies list was sent out on Dick Rivers’ Snake River mail boat to Lewiston, Idaho and on the weekly return run up the Snake left in a pile on the bank to be packed on mules and horses up the steep trail to Tryon.

The spring drive to Dug Bar, Christmas Creek and Rawlin Bar on horseback to drive the cattle down took eight days. In those early years, before the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, before those Snake River ranches were condemned by the government, Double O Bar consisted of 2,000 privately owned acres in addition to its forest grazing permit.

When the ranch was taken over by the government, Cal retained his hunting permits, as he had established his own guide service. This ended a way of life for those remote ranches. So, Cal moved his family on to the next chapter in his life.

To record what young Cal did from then on would fill several books.

During the following years Cal’s guiding and hunting business expanded and grew into one of the best in the West.

To make a living, Cal also worked for many well-known ranches, including McClaran’s and the Wolfe Hereford Ranch in Wallowa.

Many stories to tell

There isn’t much Cal hasn’t done.

He flew to Australia and spent three months as a salesman selling probiotics to large cattle ranches in the area.

Cal had the hunting permit for Red’s Horse Ranch for 10 years, as well as Minam Lodge where he guided, and set up camps for elk and deer hunting, and also a pack station at Wallowa Lake, and Lapover Pack Station up the south fork of the Lostine. He worked with former Hells Canyon Mule Days grand marshals Benny Banks and Merle Hawkins. He packed and guided at an outfit in Idaho.

Due to the remote locations of these camps, Cal learned to fly, so he could transport supplies.

Cal said at one time he owned 80 head of pack mules and saddle horses. He set up camps all over the Wallowas. It was the heyday of the packing and guiding business, a job not for the faint of heart. This job required skills seen today by very few. And in the winter, those animals had to be fed and cared for, even though it was the off-season. During these times he worked for Bud Stangel at his shop in Enterprise, as well as other jobs to make a living.

Cal has many stories to tell, like the time he was working for a pack station in East Eagle Creek in Baker County and watched the filming of the movie “Paint Your Wagon.” He remembers a humorous incident when the actors had to deal with an infestation of lice.

He has another story about packing the film crew up the East Fork of the Lostine for the Walt Disney movie “The Incredible Journey.” Cal’s crew fed 70 members of that crew over an open fire and packed in the animal actors, dogs and cats.

He has stories of being bucked off in a wild place, breaking his foot and climbing back on his horse to ride for help — and many, many more.

Cal brought the first portable sawmill into Wallowa County.

‘A very full life’

At age 79, Cal just keeps going, runs a few cows, lives with his wife in Joseph and is presently manager of the Wallowa Valley Improvement District, comprised of 5,000 acres under irrigation.

Cal has an old battered suitcase full of magazine articles featuring his many years of packing into Wallowa County wilderness areas, well-known publications such as Western Horsemen, Outdoor Life and Field and Stream. He has files of yellowed clippings of articles about his hunting camp adventures from newspapers, like The Oregonian, the Baker City Herald, and many more.

Cal lived in an era rooted in rich Wallowa County history. Most of the old-timers are gone now and, sadly, most of their stories will never be told.

“I’ve lived a very full life,” said Cal, and that is an understatement. However, Cal, who still rises early to tend to his chores, has a twinkle in his eyes as he remembers those not-so-long-ago times, and tells his stories.

We are so proud of you, Cal … and honored that you are to be the 2023 Hells Canyon Mule Days grand marshal.

The 2023 edition of Mule Days, which always is held the first weekend after Labor Day in September, begins on Friday, Sept. 8 for a three-day run. Most events are at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds.