Verna LimbaughEnterprise

ENTERPRISE — Verna Limbaugh is a lifelong resident of Wallowa County and wouldn’t live anywhere else.

She has one son here and a daughter on the other side of the state. She also has two grown grandsons.

“But no great-grandkids yet,” she said.

She’s pretty much retired, now. She said she worked for her ex-husband, who owns an excavation business, for 40 years running his office.

Limbaugh said the mountains are her favorite thing about Wallowa County.

“I lived with my husband when we were newlyweds for almost a decade in Nevada and I never adapted to the desert,” she said. “So when my dad offered to let us buy the place, we came home.”

Her father was Wayne Limbaugh, who moved here in the 1940s to work for Boise Cascade and did so most of Verna’s life.

She was happy to see the calendar turn to spring. 

“I don’t do winter very well anymore, so I’m really glad to have dry roads and I’m looking forward to everything getting green and pretty again,” she said.

She’s heard about the recently opened Dollar General store in Wallowa and isn’t too fond of such chain stores coming to the county.

“I’m not really fond of chains,” Limbaugh said. “It was so much fun when every store had different things. I miss the mercantiles they used to have when I was growing up. If you couldn’t find it in Joseph, you could find it in Wallowa. Everything was different. It was a lot more interesting and a lot more fun.”

She is aware of the need for more affordable housing in Wallowa County, but isn’t sure what the solution is.

“We’re really in such a bind with the way the economy has gone — I own some land and I can’t make it pay for itself. Thank goodness it’s paid for,” she said. “If I were buying, I couldn’t afford to be here. … I think we need to encourage more small businesses and we need some relief from our government to allow businesses to grow.”

She also has an idea of what people should know before moving to Wallowa County.

“It’s the most beautiful place I know,” Limbaugh said, “but it is economically tough so you have to be tougher than it is.”