History Tidbits

Written by local historian Marilyn Hulse for the Wallowa Senior Center.

You may have noticed last month in the 100 years ago column of the Wallowa County Chieftain about a Mr. Eastman having a meeting in Enterprise about how to grow lettuce. Yes, lettuce!

This was a sort of experiment — some say a mania — about making Wallowa County a major producer of lettuce to sell, ship, and, of course, make money.

Joseph had a lettuce information office. Wallowa had Pastor Falwell, who planted many acres in the Lower Valley to earn money for his church. Many farmers gave this effort a try. High schoolers weeded and harvested crops.

Ultimately lettuce and our climate did not agree. This effort continued from the start up year of 1923 until the final crops in 1939.

Wallowa County's "high lakes", ridges and streams located in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area have an assortment of names, some lyrical, or historical or ... a little odd. Our source for these odd names is, of course, the US Forest Service map and the informative book Into the Minam by Jon and Donna Skovlin.

First up is Adam's Backbone, a sharp ridge between the Minam and Little Minam rivers, named for W.A. Adams who owned the Horse Ranch meadow in 1900.

Our next oddity is The Pots, that is, Little Pot and Big Pot creeks, which drain into the Minam above the Horse Ranch from a basin which resembles a pot.

Another creek is Blutch Creek near the Land Ranch. The Land brothers had a dog named Blutch.

One trail in Union County is named Chalk Lick for a deposit of chalky soil that provides a place for livestock and wildlife to "lick". Apparently there is a nutrient in the soil.

John Henry Wilson's name is used for John Henry Lake. Wilson was a prospector, miner and Indian agitator from Wallowa.

And finally, our favorite: Wonker Pass. Robert Wonker from Medical Springs named this pass in the 1950s when he built the trail over the pass.

Wallowa County may seem to be a place with little diversity today, but in our formative years we were a destination for many cultural groups. Some of these groups came from within the United States, others from foreign countries.

Those from foreign countries had often been in the US for some time, having immigrated in the heavy overseas migration years of the mid 1800’s. Wallowa County did not experience settlement until the later years of the century. The families in these cultural groups tended to settle close by one another for mutual support and social life.

We had a settlement of Swedish folk out on the North highway near Braham Meadows. Upper Prairie Creek welcomed a group of Canadian French Catholics. German culture was well represented in the Lower Valley; a group of German Catholics in and near the town of Wallowa and another German group of families in the Grossman area. LIke other Western States, we welcomed Basque sheepherders in the days before the 1970’s when large numbers of men came to the Western US to be sheep men.

Alder Slope welcomed a group of families from within the US from a specific area, Laurel County Kentucky. Another cultural group in northwest Wallowa County were the West Virginians, mostly in Promise and Powwatka. All of the above mentioned groups have many descendants living in the County today. One short lived cultural group were the Greek railroad builders. They camped north of Wallowa on private land still known today as the Greek camp. There are 3-4 families in the valley today that are descendants of the Greeks.

If you have read Stories of Wallowa Lake by Rita Ehler and Ellen Morris Bishop you know the story of the Wallowa Lake Amusement Park. One feature for several summers at the Park was a horse driven merry-go- round. This fanciful ride has a history from two ends of the County, the Promise settlement and the Lake.

Walter Carper built the merry-go-round at Promise and assembled it in the meadow at Cougar Pond near the head of Bishop Creek, about 10 miles from Promise Grange Hall. This meadow served as the gathering palace for Promise residents to celebrate the July 4th. They had a huge picnic, horse races and of course, the merry-go-round.

The story is in the original Wallowa County History book, page 90. Once Carper realized he could make money with the merry-go-round at the Lake, he took it, the horses to power it and assembled it in the Amusement park area.

In recent years, the marks on the trees in Wallowa Lake State park were still visible. (bark had been removed from the trees by the ropes that stabilized the ride) Older residents remember a seat from the merry-go-round at the residence of Carper’s daughter on Upper Diamond Lane in Wallowa.