Oregon: 150 Years in 2009. (3 / 8) A report conducted in July 2008 (Text and photo: Bernard Jacqmin)
The Wallowa County
By continuing road to North-east towards Wallowa County, adjoining the border with Idaho, this time one enters a world of rugged mountains, deep valleys, canyons (the Hells Canyon with its 1600 meters high is the deepest USA), forests and lakes. Some have not they called the area "Little Switzerland of America"? This county was once occupied by the Nez Perce, a tribe of hunters and fishermen. Wallowa is also a term used by them to designate the tripod to which the fish were hung to dry.
The weather here is sometimes inconsistent. Even in July, sometimes the tops of Wallowa Mountains to be retracted by compact cloud masses and see the gorges clogged by fog for hours or even days.
In this case, then takes his "evil" with patience, we moved into one of the many campsites in the heart of the managed forest and it is working to build a fire then coffee. "A cowboy! The kind of camping, whose operation is based on a principle of absolute confidence: monitoring point, or host, let alone to pay the cashier camper. Only a sign erected at the entrance warns that for a night here will cost you ten dollars. To succeed, just take an envelope in the box provided for that purpose and then put it back with some tickets requested.
That said, peace, it will not always issue today!
Late afternoon, the depths of the pine forests has tumbled a cohort of quads ridden by guys rather hefty. Bandolier, belt and gun in the rifle at hand.
This was not the hunting season! These guys have invested a clearing just to "make boxes" on just about everything that passes them on hand. In the midst of this escapade, a boy of six or seven years was experimenting the handling of a colt at his father .... proud to show to the world at the marksmanship of his offspring.
- In Europe, I know there is sometimes shocked by this cult that is devoted to arms, but I found that has not quite yet here!
"It is reassuring, and then all those who talk of banning the sale of weapons know nothing. The day this law will f ***, there will be more than the thugs who are armed!
As to punctuate the words "felt good," the father-shooter, a stroke, emptied his can of Bud 'and made revved the engine of his quad and disappear into the undergrowth.
Wallowa County is also the county of large farms, the pastures and fields out of sight as irrigation systems give drink without stopping. It is a country where milestones are silos and barns. True cathedrals dedicated to the straw. Sometimes they are subject to a cabalistic sign of appearance: the initials of the owner,
same as that found tattooed on the hindquarters of cows.
From time to time, small towns are emerging here and there. They just called Enterprise or Joseph (In memory of the famous Joseph, Nez Perce unchallenged until 1904)
His real name was Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (The thunder down from the mountain) but Joseph probably sounded more Christian. Beyond that, little trace of the culture of the Nez Perce here, except perhaps in the corner or the bookseller in the reserve of the local antique dealer. In the reserve, because in his shop, there is one in
this time that antique saddles and realistic paintings representing cowboys ride or scenes the kind where farmers appear to return the occupied cattle in the corrals, all against a background of blazing sky.
In the main artery of Joseph, the main monument is also a glorification of the cowboy in all its splendor. It appears here in a pose freestyle on the verge of mastering a spirited stallion.