Re: End of line

Dave, not NG certainly, but rr content anyway. The Joseph Branch was built by OWRR&N in 1909. Not sure the dates to the various towns. The extension from LaGrande to Elgin I think was actually built earlier by another entity then sold to OWRR&N. The Wallowa Valley was homesteaded starting in the late 1870's and had some of the last homesteading in the lower 48, so I have been told in the late 19teens. The area was especially blessed with timber, and in the early days there was a lot of mining speculation that never really went anywhere. Road acess to the area was difficult untill a road was built through the Wallowa River Canyon which I think only predated the rr by a few years. There were at least 3 logging railroads in the area that connected with the Joseph Branch. The Palmer Lbr. Co had a mill near Lookinglass Crk. on the Grande Ronde River adjacent to the branch, then up in the Wallowa River Canyon, they built a logging rr up into the high country from a location on the branch called Vincent which I think is now called Kimmel. The company had a mill and company town up in the high country. In Wallowa there was a very large mill also with a logging rr. In Enterprise the East Ore. Lbr. Co built a huge mill and had a logging line running 30+ miles to the N. There were various small mills in Joseph over the years. The last one closed a couple years back and has been scrapped. E.O Lbr. in Enterprise closed in '29. The Mt. Emily Lbr. Co. (owners of the Mt.EmilyLbr. Co at LaGrande and the Mt.Emily Shay which is at Prineville) built a new mill at Enterprise in the late 40's. My dad wired this one. It shut down about 1960. The big mill at Wallowa shut down about 1964, but a new mill was built down below Wallowa in the late 60's which is still shipping lbr. and occasionally buys timber out of the area and has logs shipped in. There are a number of grain elevators along the line, but none of them currently shipping grain by rail. Propane gas comes into Enterprise on a regular basis. Some malting barley was shipped this year but was loaded driectly on to railcars from trucks bypassing the elevators. I hear fertilizer may be shipped again by rail this comming season after no traffic on this for many years. In the old days (in my memory) livestock was shipped out of here by rail and UP had a stock yard just out of Enterprise. The local bulk gas and oil companies used to rececive off of the railroad. Coal was brought in for heating untill about a dozen years ago. UP sold the line from Elgin to Joseph to INP a few years ago, and leases them the LaGrande to Elgin portion. INP filed and recieved permission to abandon the line, but local business and local government opposed this and eventually managed to set up a bicounty rail authority to buy and operate the line. It is now owned and operated by WURA (Wallowa Union Rail Authority). A freinds group was formed and operate a tourist excursion train using WURA personel on the engine and volunteers to staff the cars. They are doing a dinner train in a couple weeks I believe.
Sorry about the lack of NG content. (Actually I have a freind that is on historical trail of one of the logging engines that worked out of Wallowa that may have been NG'd and operated on one of the NG logging lines in the Sumpter Valley area.) (Also a person of some historical interest to those of us tracing SVRy history a Mr.William Roundy was the second machinist apprentice turned out of the SVRy backshop who later worked also as an SVRy engineer, later worked as a machinist and locomotive mechanic for Palmer Lbr. Co and then with East Ore. Lbr. Co. The brake gauge in our caboose 5 has this man's initials in it signifying he tested it in 1917.)