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Developer 'grew up in a pair cowboy boots' and runs a cow-calf ranch
JOSEPH -- Real estate developer Brent McKinley started buying Wallowa County ranch property in 1998. So far, he's put his brand on 7,500 acres and says he isn't finished.
"It is a combination of a real estate investment and a second home for us," said McKinley, who lives in Arlington, Wash., north of Seattle.
His holdings in the county include the Triple Creek Ranch near Joseph, where he erected what arguably is the fanciest crossbeam gate in the county at the entrance.
As with many among the new breed of Western ranch owners, McKinley, 64, and wife Connie, 53, are absentee landlords. They spend about eight weeks a year at Triple Creek. Atypically, though, both have strong ties to the rural life and run the ranch as a cow-calf operation. They're partners with a local couple in about 700 mother cows.
"I grew up in a pair cowboy boots," said McKinley, who was raised on a farm in the Spokane Valley. Connie shows quarter horses and paint horses on the national circuit. They keep most of her show horses and breeding stock on a farm near Arlington.
Wallowa County's mountain terrain reminds McKinley of his favorite haunts in the Rockies, but is a bit easier to get to, he said. "We very much enjoy the ranch and the cowboy ethic of the valley" as well as the art community in and around Joseph, he said.
The couple bought a life-size bronze of a bucking horse and rider and donated it to the town. It's on display on Main Street near the post office.
"I know that we will own the ranch there for the rest of my lifetime," McKinley said.
'One of the most beautiful places' also feels safe to filmmaker
JOSEPH -- Independent documentary filmmaker Geoff Dills understands some of the forces driving the migration to the West.
"For the first time in my life, I feel totally safe," said Dills, out for a walk with his two dogs on Joseph's main street.
Dills, 51, moved to Wallowa County in October with his filmmaking partner and wife, Cathy Feister, 52, after years in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Film crew jobs have taken them from Africa to the Middle East.
After the carnage of Sept. 11, 2001, and the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings, Dills and a companion were robbed at gunpoint near the District of Columbia. His friend was shot but survived, Dills said.
Dills began to feel he was at "ground zero" in an age of terror and urban crime.
Now, just waking up every morning in Joseph, population 1,080, and looking out the window is enough to keep the couple here, even though Dills said he's a bit nervous about cougars and bears.
"This is probably one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and I've traveled the planet quite a bit," he said, glancing up at snow-covered Chief Joseph Mountain.
Joseph, part art colony, part ranching hub, nestles close to picturesque Wallowa Lake. The couple rent a home on Main Street and may buy a home of their own in the spring.
Meanwhile, Dills' creative filmmaking juices have gotten revved up watching the independent border collie and Australian shepherd cow dogs riding in the back of local ranchers' flatbed pickups.
"I want to do a story about the dogs of Wallowa County," he said. "It's an interesting mix of work dogs and pets."
Walter Brennan's grandson makes a living 'just like anybody else'
JOSEPH -- Dennis Brennan is all local: He's lived in Wallowa County his entire life. He works at an art foundry in Joseph when he's not shoeing horses, braiding and selling rawhide bridle reins or training his mules.
But the 55-year-old is the product of a famous outsider who helped transform the area.
His grandfather was Walter Brennan, an Oscar-winning film star who bought the 12,000-acre Lightning Creek Ranch 20 miles south of Joseph in 1940. The actor built the Indian Lodge Motel, a movie theater and a variety store in Joseph, and continued coming here between film roles until his death in 1974 at age 80.
"His acting career was one life, and his home life was another life," Dennis Brennan said, "and he tried very hard to keep them separate."
Walter Brennan's ranch was sold after his death. Dennis has a small ranch outside Enterprise.
The grandson has a reputation as a top horseshoer and describes himself as "just like anybody else on the street trying to make a living."
He doesn't mind the wave of newcomers, but hates to see property values shooting out of reach of longtime residents.
And the newcomers make him shake his head sometimes. "They are trying to escape a way of life, but they want to bring that way of life with them," he said.
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Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news