One of the largest projects going on in town is the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland project. I can't do it justice here but the website www.wallowanezperce.org does an extremely good job at defining what's going on there. I highly recommend that you click on the link and visit the site.
On the south side of the tracks, but adjacent to the Homeland Project, sits the Wallowa River RV park. We think it's the best RV park in the county, if not the region. It is very well maintained and provides a good hub for getting to other sites around the county.
I guess I had better start explaining why I'm telling you all of this. The first blog post I produced let the reader know that our town has been in somewhat of a decline until residents started saying "enough is enough" and rolled up their sleeves and started in. And, thankfully, they did. Otherwise, we'd still be in a state of decline. As you know, with anything, you're either moving forward or backward. And we were moving backward...
We started timber bronze 53 as a "business with a mission". But as we moved forward, we thought "so what...". We decided to switch our outlook from that to having a "mission with a business" to help support it. Our mission is to help the town of Wallowa to revitalize itself by highlighting and taking part in the various projects and efforts that are going on. Our business is a means to help fund that effort.
Two years ago, we were fortunate enough to by an old grain elevator complex that sits right on the railroad tracks, complete with a siding, a 56' tall x 30" across metal grain silo and a 6,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Huge undertaking but we couldn't stand the site of one more building going to waste and falling into further disrepair. So we took a shot and it worked. We were able to secure the buildings and are now able to move forward with our plans. More on this later (including pictures), but we are using the first floor of the elevator to house our bronze business, the silo for our foundry and a portion of the warehouse for our office space.
Our vision is to use this complex as a gateway for people to start their journey of exploration and learning throughout the area, but especially here in town. Many years ago, just a block east of us, sat the train station. I'm not sure where it went or if it even still exists, but the interesting part was that the excursion train used to run from Wallowa to Joseph to the east and then from Wallowa west to Minam, which is a point where two rivers meet (also a great place to check out. They run great rafting and guided fishing trips out of there). We are working diligently to bring that excursion train back to the valley. Currently, there is a working partnership between the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority and the Friends of the Joseph Branch to run excursions from Elgin, which is about 1/2 hour west of Wallowa to Minam, which is only eight miles west of us. We are working with that group to get the train the other eight miles here to Wallowa. It'll cost about $200,000 to do so but we are checking into sources of funding for that. Currently, cargo could be moved on this stretch of tracks but the monies will be used to bring the tracks up to meet the specifications needed for passenger travel. We fully expect that to happen by the next excursion season.
Anyway, bringing the train back will be a HUGE boon to our economy. We will be using the grain elevator as the train depot AND as not only space for our businesses but for others as well. We will be creating upper floors in the elevator which will house artist' loft spaces. And "the front office" of the Elevator will be a showroom for those artists to display and sell their work. There has been significant interest in those spaces already. Who knows, we may even have our own "town potter" in the very near future....
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