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As a result, the mule - tough, intelligent, individualistic, often maligned, but the mainstay of the many packers and outfitters working in Wallowa County - was elevated to center stage for the first annual Hells Canyon Mule Days celebration on September 19 - 20, 1981. Hells Canyon was an appropriate title because that area owes most of its early settlement and development to the mule which predominantly served as a major means of transportation to gain access to this rugged region of the county. Given the well-known independence of Mule Days’ long-eared star, the entertaining, action-packed event has met its initial goal - both mule skinners and spectators a like can be part of this family oriented mule show, with events and games for all ages. HELLS CANYON MULE DAYS 1981 – WADE HALL & ETHEL THOMAS 1990 – JOE ONAIDIA & GUS MALAXA 2000 – FRED TALBOTT
2008 Hells Canyon Mule Days Grand Marshals The story of the Ulacia sisters is a book waiting to be written... The chapter that would tell about their life in the United States would start in 1949 when Gus Malaxa was returning from the U.S. to the Basque area of Spain where he was raised, and while waiting at the airport in New York, he met Joe Onainda, another Basque, who was also going to Spain. The two men traveled together on a TWA flight and while talking about their families they learned they had been born and raised just five miles apart. During their stay in Spain they met and courted two sisters, Maria (Marge) and Juana (Janet) Ulacia. On March 17, 1951, in a double ceremony, Gus married Juana and Joe married Marge. When the time came for the two couples to leave for the United States, Gus and Juana were expecting their first child, so Juana stayed in Spain and planned to move to America after the birth of their baby. When she left Spain with her baby to join her husband in her new home, she was a very frightened young mother. She had never traveled a great distance before, she couldn’t speak English, and she had no idea about life in America. Her baby became ill, and she was so frightened and worried she, too, became ill. She didn’t know how to ask for assistance and when she landed in New York, she was exhausted. Her ticket and supposedly enough money had been sent to her, but due to unforeseen expenses concerning the baby’s passport, she was left with $4.00 Spanish money and she needed $7.00! Through a Spanish customs agent, contact was made with Gus who promised to send the additional money, and Juana was allowed entry. She arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, December 16, 1952. The two family’s spent their first Christmas together in America. In 1953 Joe became a partner with Gus and Silver of the Cherry Creek Ranch and the two families traveled from Utah to Enterprise. The sisters lived in town with their children during the winter while the men were on the ranch. But in November, 1955, they decided to join their husbands for the winter. They took clothing, a tricycle and their two little four year old children by pick-up to Dead Horse Springs, and from there walked the six miles to the ranch. It was a trip never to be forgotten! When the children started school, Juana stayed at home in town and took care of both families children while Marge worked at the Ranch. In 1959 Juana helped for the first time at the Shearing plant, located out the North Highway. Shearing would take at least six days if the weather was dry, longer if it rained, since the sheep couldn’t be sheared unless their wool was dry. The sheep had been trailed from the ranch on the Snake River through Buckhorn to the North Highway where they were sheared before being trailed through the valley and up Bear Creek to the high mountains for summer grazing. Juana continued to work at camp each year along with Marge and their husbands. Both families camped there in two sleeping tents, a big tent for cooking and another for serving meals to their 20 to 30 shearers. The shearing crew would slept in sleeping bags under the stars, in small tents or campers. The sisters cooked on a very small wood burning stove, carried their water, had no refrigeration, but they were known for feeding their help well. They always cooked three big meals a day, including fried potatoes every morning for breakfast, plenty of meat (though no mutton), biscuits, bread, cakes and pies were the daily menu along with home canned fruits and vegetables. They would shop at the Crystal Market in Enterprise for their fresh food. After the sheep were sheared, the wool was hauled to town and purchased by Wallowa County Grain Growers and shipped out of the County by train. The summer camp equipment was taken by pickup to the trail-head and then by pack mules to Stanley Guard Station for the summer. Here they lived much the same way as in shearing camp, cooking on a wood stove and sleeping in sleeping bags, except this was family vacation for the women and children. Supplies were bought in Wallowa at Shells Mercantile and taken by pickup to the end of the road. By pre-arrangement, a pack string was waiting and the supplies were transferred to these surefooted animals to carry back up the mountain. It took five hours for the mules to make the round trip. The pickup was left until the next trip when someone walked down to take it to town again for the next supply run. The sheep herds numbered 3000 and were in the high mountains until October each fall. The lambs were separated the first of September and were shipped out of Wallowa on the train to buyers in Denver and Salt Lake City. The ewes would be trailed back through the valley to the ranch on the Snake River for the winter and lambing in the Spring. Gus and Juana’s daughter Mary, along with Joe and Maria’s children, Joe, Rick and Juanita all attended and graduated from Enterprise High School. As children they learned to speak Basque at home and with the other Basque sheepherder’s, but once they started school they learned English. In 1973, the Cherry Creek sheep business was sold, and the sisters along with their husbands retired and became full time residence of Enterprise. After selling the business Gus and Joe never had the desire to be part of it again, since the sheep business was handled differently than how they ran their business... They will always be remembered as hard workers, always took care of the sheep, always paid their debts and made a profitable living. In 1990 these two longtime Wallowa County sheepmen were the Grand Marshals for Hells Canyon Mule Days and were escorted in the parade by Max and Marcel Walker. Joe passed in 1995 and Guss in 2000. The “sisters” have many years of wonderful memories that will hopefully be included in the chapters of their book that is waiting to be written... The following is from the Wallowa County History Book depicting the history of the Basque sheephearder’s in Wallowa County... Gone from our county is the colorful, nomadic life of our Basque sheepmen, winding their way down from the mountains and through the valleys behind their sheep; the pack strings carrying food and equipment; camp being set up wherever the day’s end found the sheep; men and dogs mingling with the grazing sheep; smoke curling from a camp stove; the women in sturdy boots and bright kerchiefs around their hair to protect it from the wind and dust, busily preparing an evening meal; happy children darting here and there, enjoying a few hours relaxation before darkness and bed, and an early morning call to pack and start another day. Yes, it has all changed and almost faded from our history...
For Three Days of
Family Fun
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©2007 Hells Canyon Mule Days info@hellscanyonmuledays.com 1-888-323-3271 | P.O. Box 50, Enterprise, OR 97828 Original website design ©2004 Hells Canyon Mule Days/LB Productions, Inc. website maintained and hosted by second chance productions |
In the Spring of 1981, local ranchers and packers
met with representatives of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce
and USDA Forest Service to explore the idea of putting together
a new county event. 