The Wallowa Record — How Wallowa County came to be, and what comes next

Wallowa Lake and the mountains, seen from the county park at the north end. — Wallowa Lake · 16 May 2012Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives · CC BY 4.0 · Image & source ↗

Four ways in

Where do you want to begin?

Or look something up

A town, a building, a business, a parcel.

Places & map Land & parcels Enterprise Joseph Wallowa Lostine Imnaha

Wallowa, in motion.

All films

Published on YouTube by Wallowa Land TrustWatch on YouTube (opens a new tab)

The featured film · 2019

Wallowa Lake's East Moraine: Securing a Community Legacy

A film from Wallowa Land Trust’s campaign to protect the East Moraine, the ridge overlooking Wallowa Lake. Read the context ↗

More to watch

17:07

Indigenous life

Tamkaliks Film

From Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland · 2025

59:51

Land & water

Hawkins Sisters: Minam Stories

From Josephy Center · 2025

36:55

History & memory

The Legend of the “Hen Party”: Horsewomen of the Wallowas | Oregon Field Guide

From Oregon Public Broadcasting · 2024

Three short stories

A storm, a building, and a steer.

From the last few years: a hailstorm in Wallowa, the apartments above Main Street in Enterprise, and a steer that had to leave the county.

Who lives here now

Wallowa’s combined city hall and fire station in September 2013, nine years before the hailstorm. This is a place photograph, not a damage or recovery photograph.

An atlas essay Wallowa · August 2022 and its aftermath

After the hail

On the night of August 11, 2022, hail smashed windows across Wallowa, and a lumber yard in Joseph showed up with plywood. Covering the holes took one night; fixing the houses before winter took money, contractors and time the town did not have.

Read the story

Enterprise’s downtown streetscape. Context photograph; the owner’s photographs of the EM&M itself are linked in the story.

An atlas essay Enterprise · 1935–2026

The apartments above Main Street

In 1935 Enterprise argued about tearing the EM&M down; Wallowa County fixed the roof and built apartments inside instead. Ninety years on, the building is being fixed again, with 27 homes still upstairs.

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Working land near Enterprise. Landscape context; this photograph is not identified as 6 Ranch or Carman Ranch.

An atlas essay Wallowa Valley & Elgin · 2010–2012, with a 2026 source check

The long way home for Wallowa beef

A Wallowa County rancher could raise the steer, but selling you a steak from it meant sending the animal out of the county first. Two ranches dealt with that in two very different ways.

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October 2026 · about twenty conversations

The price of staying.

Nearly everyone named the same first problem, a home that someone who works here can afford, and the same condition: keep the place as it is. What people said, counted without names, beside the county’s own numbers.

Read the account

October 2026 · about twenty conversations

Twelve of twenty raised housing without being asked

How many of about twenty people brought up each theme on their own. A count of who raised it, not of how strongly.

A home that someone who works here can affordTwelve or more; nearly all paired it with keeping the place as it is12 of 20
Keep the pace of change10 of 20
Second homesMost would charge them something; the two who sell houses say the share is overstated9 of 20
The same few hundred people run everything, and are tired7 of 20
Elders have nowhere to go6 of 20
The county lives on money decided elsewhereMedicaid, transfer payments, federal land payments6 of 20
Remoteness protects the place and costs it5 of 20
Young people gone, or unable to come back5 of 20
Rural Oregon is not a deficit4 of 20
Why people come back: family, schools, remote work4 of 20
Being known by name is not the same as belonging3 of 20

Counted from private notes; themes, never names. Most of the people were running an institution and few were under 40, and the county’s conservative majority is thinly represented. The counts describe who was heard, not the county.

Source: The Wallowa Record, October 2026

The numbers as a table

	People, of about 20
A home that someone who works here can afford	12
Keep the pace of change	10
Second homes	9
The same few hundred people run everything, and are tired	7
Elders have nowhere to go	6
The county lives on money decided elsewhere	6
Remoteness protects the place and costs it	5
Young people gone, or unable to come back	5
Rural Oregon is not a deficit	4
Why people come back: family, schools, remote work	4
Being known by name is not the same as belonging	3

An open conversation · 2046

What should home
feel like in twenty years?

The work worth carrying on. The people who should be able to stay or return. The changes you hope to see—and the things you hope will last. Start with where the county’s money comes from, and what twenty people said in October 2026, counted without names.

Explore Home in 2046 ↗