Bull Tour 2021

By Tom Peterson

North Central Livestock Association President Jerod Warnock ranches near Madras and close to Bakeoven. His family has been on the ranch since the 1980s. Warnock and his Border Collies will work cattle this year at the Bull Tour.

The North Central Livestock Association is gearing up for its 2021 Bull Tour, which will focus on ranches in the Wamic and Tygh Valley area on Friday, April 16.

New North Central President Jerod Warnock said the traveling event has morphed some since it started decades ago. Warnock works outside of Maupin near Bakeoven on the family ranch, which he grew up on. 

“We move around to different ranches and see how ranchers are doing things and the new things they have implemented,” the 31-year-old said. “Different sponsors are on-site detailing information such as food supplements or latest machinery.”

This year the Tour will be focused at the Wasco County Fairgrounds, with several demonstrations, including team branding and demonstrations of how to best use dogs in moving cattle.  

“I think it is going to be a blast,” said Kyle Fields, who works on the Fields Ranch near Wasco. “People can learn something to help them ranch or farm, and it will be good to have everybody together. People are itching to see each other.” Fields was recently elected the North Central Livestock Association vice president.

 Warnock agreed that the tour was kind of a display of unique and best uses of natural resources when it comes to ranching and farming. Moving cattle from pasture to pasture, eliminating juniper to improve the watershed. “There’s never a best one,” Warnock said, noting ranches and practices vary depending on geography and terrain. “There’s no one size that fits all.”

“That’s what makes it interesting, all the different approaches,” he said. 

The tour will kick off at 9 a.m. at the Wasco County Fairgrounds in Tygh Valley and then move onto ranch tours before returning. Warnock said he and his Border Collies will working stock in the arena of the Fairgrounds. And all-new for 2021, is the action-packed Team Branding. Teams made up of four will brand from the ground as well as from their horses.

Fields, who raises feeder stock in registered Angus and SimAngus, on a ranch near Scappoose, said his work was his passion and the Tour was a great way to keep in touch with others in the same trade.

File photo of past Bull Tour - Credit Condon Chamber of Commerce and my personal favorite K’Lynn Lane.

“Getting to work with both farmers and ranchers, there is nothing else I would rather be doing. I care about the cattle industry and the people in the community running cattle. It’s a passion of mine.” 

North Central’s Breanna Wimber said she was excited for this year’s tour. 

“Once again you can expect a day jammed packed with tours, vendor engagement, amazing lunch and dinner, and various industry speakers,” she said. “We encourage people to bring a friend and invite new people. This annual event is always an amazing look inside the farms and ranches our beautiful region has to offer.” 

Tickets are $45 pre-purchased or $50 day of the event. Or buy 10 tickets for $400. 

For more information, call: 

Amy McNamee at 541- 325-2121

Breanna Wimber 541-806-3209 

Click here for their Facebook page.

Please Watch the Facebook for Additional Information and Ranch Branding Entry Info. 

The nicest man in Maryhill

Pepper the farm dog takes in a little sun while Ron Gunkel digs holes for some new peach trees on his orchard in Maryhill, Wash., just upriver of the I- 97 bridge at Biggs Junction this morning, Wednesday, Feb. 3.  

Gunkel said he was planting a variety called  Zee Prides.

He also took the occasion to say that Maryhill was not always Maryhill. In fact, it was Columbus Landing, a busy shipping port where wheat and sheep were loaded in the 1800s and early 1900s. It was later renamed Maryhill in 1909 when Sam Hill moved in, and he named the property after his wife and daughter, both named Mary.

Throughout our conversation, I came to a pretty good conclusion. Ron Gunkel seems like the nicest guy I had met all day. He’s the nicest guy in Maryhill.

Just a tad more on Maryhill - it’s kinda personal.

Just further down the road, stands the Maryhill Church, est. October 1888. And this is where it gets personal.

My wife, Peggy, from Hillsboro, inherited a print of a drawing of a church from her grandmother, and it has hung in our house for years. I had always wondered if the church still existed.

Guess what?

It does.

I ran into the church in Maryhill this morning, I knew I had seen it before. Just not in color. Check out the drawing and the real church below. 

This drawing of Maryhill Church was done by John Waddingham in 1971. It has hung on our walls for decades.

Here is the real church in Maryhill, Wash., this morning.

Gilliam County First Responders Baring Arms for Vaccination

Taking one for the team - Gilliam County Sheriff's Deputy Todd Lake received a vaccination today, Jan. 7.

From North Central Public Health District Interim Director Shellie Campbell:

South Gilliam County Ambulance Coordinator Shannon Coppock

The first COVID-19 vaccinations of emergency responders and healthcare providers in Gilliam County took place on Thursday, Jan. 7 in Condon and Arlington.

Wasco and Sherman counties have also begun vaccinating those priority groups.
Fifty-two vaccines were given Jan. 7 to emergency responders and healthcare workers in Gilliam County North Central Public Health District (NCPHD) nurses worked with Gilliam County Emergency Services

and Arlington Health Center on Thursday event  Sherman County administered its first 20 doses this week Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue in Wasco County has administered about 160 doses so far to emergency

responders NCPHD nurses and support staff worked in coordination with the Gilliam County Emergency Services Office and Arlington Health Center to administer 50 vaccines Thursday.

“We’re excited to be able to vaccinate emergency responders and healthcare providers in Gilliam County,” said Kristen Slatt, vaccine coordinator for NCPHD. “We appreciate all the effort put in by our community partners to help make this happen.”

PA Mike Tagaki of South Gilliam Health Center

Under state guidelines, the first group to get the vaccine includes emergency responders such as law enforcement, firefighters and ambulance personnel. NCPHD is instrumental in helping distribute vaccines to them.

Frontline hospital staff and residents and staff of skilled nursing facilities are also in the first group. Hospitals get vaccines directly from the state, and nursing facilities are getting vaccines directly from pharmacies under a federal program.

NCPHD is using the Moderna vaccine, which is 94.1 percent effective against COVID-19 illness. Each vial has 10 doses, and an opened vial is only good for six hours, and also cannot be transported elsewhere once opened.

That requires careful scheduling of enough people to vaccinate in one location, to ensure no doses are wasted.

Gilliam County Emergency Services Manager Chris Fitzsimmons said the Thursday events “went great. It ran very smoothly.” Everybody showed up who was scheduled, and they also called two alternates because they were able to get extra doses from some vials.

PA Dani Sperry of South Gilliam Health Center

All the recipients are already scheduled for their second dose on Feb. 4, to be administered by NCPHD.

Caitlin Blagg, administrator at Sherman County Medical Clinic in Moro, said they made sure to have additional people lined up to get the vaccine for each of its two days this week of administering the vaccine, in case they had a no-show. “We could call them at a moment’s notice.”

Those vaccinated in Sherman County included emergency responders, health care workers and home healthcare workers.

The vaccine will help contain the pandemic once enough people have received it. In the meantime, it is critical that people still mask up, keep physical distance, avoid gatherings, wash hands and stay home when sick.

Summit Springs Village Administrator Hanna Bass

Cutting out the Catalytic

By Tom Peterson

A recent hiker at Deschutes State Park found out how valuable his exhaust system was - the hard way. 

After a three-day campout up river, he returned to his Acura MDX parked in the gravel parking lot near the entrance to the park on July 21. 

But the car would not run. On further inspection, he found a crook had cut out his catalytic converter. The car had to be towed. 

Catalytic converter for an Acura MDX, similar to the one that was recently cut out of a vehicle at Deschutes State Park. Cost for a new one: $1,200.

It’s an old game, according to The Dalles Police Chief Pat Ashmore, noting thieves have been cutting the converters out and selling them for scrap for years. 

They can fetch from $50 to several hundred dollars a piece at scrap yards depending on the quality. They contain precious metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium to help convert toxic gases and pollutants from the engine to less-toxic pollutants.

“It’s the first one we have had out here,” said Sherman County Undersheriff James Burgett. “I’d have to think cutting it out would have caused a lot of noise.”

The Acura was near the train tracks, and the thief could have used the noise of a train to blot out the noise from his cutting tool. 

It is speculated that thieves are using reciprocating saws to cut the converters out of the exhaust line. Saw blades have been found at multiple crime scenes. 

Burgett said it is fairly simple to find recyclers looking to purchase them, as he found one such business on Facebook. 

“It’s like when we used to have copper thefts, and thieves would do $20,000 of damage to a new home to get $200 worth of copper,” he said. 

Tim Urness of C.H. Urness Motors said the theft of catalytic converters out of newer vehicles cost the dealership more than $10,000 in damages at the start of the year. Thieves used a reciprocating saw to cut the parts out that can then be sold for scrap at $50 to $150 a piece. Meanwhile replacement costs run more than $4,000. No one has yet been pinned for the crime.

Tim Urness of C.H. Urness Motors in The Dalles has the receipts to prove that point. Derelicts cut out catalytic converters on two Urness’ vehicles  in January - a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and a 2017 Ford F250. They were parked facing the railroad track in the parking lot across from The Dalles Chamber of Commerce.

Reciprocating saw - thieves likely used a tool similar to this to cut catalytic converters out of vehicles in our region.

Thieves likely got $300 for the converters. Total repair costs: $8,577.

“They’re ballsy, absolutely ballsy,” Urness said. “I would have paid them the $300 not to cut them off,” he said from his office on Wednesday. 

Witnesses said they saw the culprit cut out the converters from the Urness vehicles when the train was passing by to block out the noise. But no positive identification was made.

Once Urness discovered the theft, he said he had the remaining vehicles on the lot turned around to face second street so that police would be able to easily see anything unusual.

Two weeks later, Urness said somebody cut a hole in their fence near the Super 8 Motel to access catalytic converters that had been removed from vehicles. The company planned on returning them for $450 a piece. Thieves took all five, he said.

“It’s very, very frustrating.” 

The crime is a class C felony theft in the first degree. It carries a maximum of five years in state prison and a fine not to exceed $125,000. However, the property crime falls fairly low on the priority chart, when compared with crimes against people. Criminals charged with the crime are oftentimes left to return to court upon their own recognizance when charged with the crime. What some call a “catch and release.” 

Urness said the situation was both frustrating for him and police. “Their needs to be consequences or responsibility.”

Tommy Brace with The Dalles Auto Sales stands next to a Ford Explorer that had its catalytic converter sawed off. The cost of the damage was enough to make the vehicle unsellable, he said.

On west Sixth Street, Tommy Brace recently reported the theft of a catalytic converter. He and Yvonne Walton both said it was a common occurrence out back of The Dalles Auto Sale’s shop. 

Thieves recently cut out the driveline in a Ford Explorer to get at the converter. 

“They’re ballsy,” Brace said. Yvonne noted they have caught others sleeping in their “scrap” vehicles and leaving behind drug paraphernalia. 

While businesses, such as The Dalles Auto Store, use cameras to catch people red-handed, that does not always work when thieves are working under the cover of darkness. 

Walton said even their car carrier trailer had its catalytic converter stolen while it was parked on Pamona Street. 

Adam’s Auto on west Sixth Street had three catalytic converters cut out of vehicles earlier this spring. Owners Adam and Rachel Knopf owned all three.  So the theft came right out of their pockets.

Another similar theft in the same area occurred within the last two weeks.

And it ends up costing everybody more through higher prices, said Tim Urness. What’s worse, “It makes you feel violated,” he said.