The Wallowa History Center is an amazing place that is becoming an important institution in the county’s capture and celebration of local history and culture. It sits in the old Forest Service compound at the west edge of Wallowa, as you make your way through town going west and instead of following the highway as it curves, go straight towards Bear Creek. The “office” is the old ranger station—where I met ranger Roy Sines more than fifty years ago. The place vibrates with old photos and friendly staff and volunteers. And now with the Findley book, “The Sky Beyond the Mountains: The Life and Times of an Oregon Pioneer Family.”
The recently remodeled warehouse is, I believe, where Rayford Gillory managed people and properties at the time. Now, it is a meeting room and gallery, with a large table-top raised relief map of the county to pore over, and historical photos of people and places on the walls.
The old ranger living quarters, which I do not recall being occupied by a ranger 50 years ago, is being remodeled as a place to stay for visiting investigators and scholars. The whole enterprise is managed by a group of enthusiasts who have all, in their ways, been collecting stories for decades. I am sure I will miss some, but have to mention Mary Ann Burrows, who has grabbed old letters, newspapers, and documents from wherever she found them, and actually founded the Wallowa History Center years ago. And Marilyn Hulse and Linda Bauch, who have been Mary Ann’s allies in preservation in the journey—all have of course their own interesting connections to an older Wallowa country,
Sadie Kennedy is the current CEO, and her mother, Jennifer Gibbs, emcees programs; they are descendants of A.C. Smith, the Wallowa Country pioneer who built a toll bridge across the Minam welcoming newcomers in—while he maintained a friendly relationship with Chief Old Joseph, who bade him not to. Jennie Hawkins and Sally Goebel are on the board, and other Hawkins and Goebels have been contributors.
They found a champion in David Weaver, himself a fourth or fifth generation resident who has long been obsessed with the County’s beginnings, the early interactions of whites and Indians, and the photographers who recorded things in the day. David recently retired from State Forestry, and, aside from his role in shaping the development of the History Center, is continuing to uncover the past. If you are at a meeting or presentation at the Center, and there is a history question, all eyes go to David.
This whole outfit—and I know I am forgetting some—is committed to collecting Wallowa Country stories. (I say “Country” because Wallowa “Country” preceded Wallowa “County.”) And now, it is engaged in publishing. There is the delightful Wallowa Quarterly, which Mark Highberger edits and comes with an inexpensive History Center membership, and now a book: “The Sky Beyond the Mountains.” The book is a compilation of newspaper articles H.R. Findley wrote for the Joseph Herald and then the Chieftain in the 1950s.
H.R. Findley was one of the first babies born in the country, and his parents, A.B. Findley and Sarah Reeves Findley, were the first settlers to bring a wagon into the valley and stay—in 1872. Folks at the History Center learned that Findley descendants wanted the old newspaper pieces gathered into a book, and engaged John Gaterud to do the editing. John is a retired journalist who started his career in John Day and landed here several years ago. Unfortunately for us, John and his wife have moved west to be closer to a daughter and grandkids. With the full cooperation of descendants, and with help from Weaver, John put together a delightful book. H.R.s children, Kenneth and Dolores Findley and Diane Bradshaw, sent photos and information; and they all decided to add a few additional writings that were not part of the newspaper series.
What is clear from the beginning is how careful a collector and researcher H.R. Findley was, and next to that, how deep his admiration for his parents and other early settlers—well, most of them.
One of the lessons from the book, in fact, is that while most of the settlers were of good moral character and were eager to help each other and the community as a whole—with housebuilding, mail carrying, schools, church, and road building—there were some men (seems always it was the men) who were not of such sterling character. The law was a long way away, and the settlers of the 1870s and 80s were not immune to prejudices of the day. There were a couple of murders, and once they had them, banks were robbed. And the now much publicized killings of over 30 Chinese miners working the tailings along the Snake River for gold. Even with a trial and deathbed confession, no one served any time. It was, in the 1890s. one of many killings and expulsions of Chinese in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and California. The number of those killed—33 or 34—and the fact that bodies floated down the Snake River to be discovered in Lewiston, Idaho, finds room in Findley’s book, along with the connection to the Imnaha schoolyard and some of H.R’s classmates.
Secondly, I am struck with the distances and rough terrain that the Findleys and their pioneering neighbors traveled, from Northern Ireland across the sea and eventually to Oregon. Oregon in the 1870s was a hard-scrabble place, but people, according to H.R., moved freely up and down the Willamette Valley and to and from Eastern Oregon. Once here, in Summerville and “The Cove,” they settled and resettled, looking for new and better land. The Findleys eventually made their way into the Wallowas. Getting in and out of the Wallowas before roads and train-tracks was its own difficult journey. Taking loads on and off wagons, taking wheels on and off wagons, the Findleys made their way to the Lower Valley, settling near the confluence of the Lostine and Wallowa rivers that would become known as “Indian Town.” They went to and from Summervile for lumber and schools, to La Grande and Baker to sell their butter and buy—or trade for—staples.
And on and on, from Lower Valley to the Buttes and to Sheep Creek, and then to Imnaha. H.R. names the settlers and those who had lumber mills and grain mills and stores. The time it took and the difficulties of these travels are just kind of covered as we would describe a weekend trip to Portland. Matter of fact.
Another lesson from the text is the impact of individuals. It is Sarah Findley, after losing six children to diphtheria, who insists that they leave their settled Lower Valley home and strike for more isolated—and warmer country.
And it is F.D. McCully, who comes into the country as a very young man, who drives the growth of Joseph and swamps previous settlements at Alder and Prairie Creek—that already had stores and mills and post offices—with a general store that out competes them.
And McCully is in turn outsmarted by R.F. Stubblefield and John Zurcher, who platted a midwestern courthouse centered town, invited Island City Mercantile to their new city, and captured the county seat when Wallowa County was broken off from Union County.
And then there is the money. We don’t think much about money and early settlers, but in the 1870s there was no national currency, only notes issued by banks, and any paper notes were not much trusted by early settlers. But there were gold and silver coins, some minted in Spain, others in a variety of public and private mints. And gold dust. H.R. mentions the increased amount of gold in circulation with the Alaska gold rush. I imagine that every shop had its scale for weighing gold. This detail is passed over.
But they needed good sets of books to keep track of the barter! H.R. does not come out and say how much his parents relied on barter, but he sure tells us about taking their fruit and vegetables to McCully’s store for trade, and further trade in Baker City and other places.
Finally, the Findley lesson for me was that the Indians did not all leave with the Nez Perce removal. Maybe there were Indians from other bands—or even some close to Joseph–who did not make it across the Snake River at Dug Bar in spring of 1877. It was spring and some could have been digging roots, or far away along the Minam and Grand Ronde rivers. And, certainly Indians from Umatilla, and treaty and non-treaty Nez Perce from Asotin and further north came in to hunt, fish, and gather, even during removal.
In the 1870s, many white settlers here and across the West feared Indians; some called for their total removal. But the Findleys had apparently always maintained good relations, specifically with Young Joseph, even after a shooting incident that is well-covered in the book. In Imnaha, as she had in Lower Valley, Sarah Findley welcomed Indians into her home and gardens. And that was in the 1880s, soon after removal and the Nez Perce War.
We like our history in absolutes: “Here are the boundary lines; these the dates; these the antagonists.” In fact, although there are facts and dates certain about Nez Perce treaties, General Howard’s removal command, and the Nez Perce crossing of the Snake River on their aborted travel to the reservation at Lapwai, the day-to-day relationships of Indians and whites are more complicated. Ditto the boundary lines of treaty lands, and especially the story of a briefly offered segment of the Wallowas to Joseph and his Nez Perce band. That “executive order” “Reservation for the Roaming Nez Perce in the Wallowa Valley in Oregon,” signed by President Grant in 1873, is shrouded in a complex tangle of maps and land descriptions that was right in the middle of the Findleys’ homesteading ventures in the country. H.R. doesn’t have much to say about it, but David Weaver is exploring!
Now these are my takes on things. Others will find other things to enjoy and interpret. But all of us need to thank H.R. Findley, the Findley family, John Gaterud, and all the folks at the Wallowa History Center for this wonderful gift. And look forward to many more!
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