>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Austin Barton ().

Story by

Gary Fletcher

JOSEPH — Austin Barton grew up as tough as the terrain around him — the high mountains and deep canyons of Wallowa County.

As a baby he was carried on his mother's lap as she rode a mule into their homestead at the mouth of Spring Creek in Hells Canyon — the continent's deepest gorge.

Austin's 6-foot-8 great-grandad was the first Barton to come to the county.

Austin's grandfather had a ranch on Lower Prairie Creek. He built the first couple of houses in Joseph's Barton Heights subdivision.

Another Barton Heights is a promontory seen from Hells Canyon Dam. Above that is Barton Corrals. Both are namesakes of Austin's grandad's brother's family. They had places at the mouths of Summit Creek and Battle Creek, where Barton Cabin was built.

There's a photo of the cabin in the book "Snake River and Hells Canyon," co-authored by Ace Barton of Riggins, Idaho — Austin's father's cousin.

On horseback since age 5, Austin became a ranch hand, cowpuncher and bronc buster.

A Joseph School classmate, Mrs. Catherine (Daggett) DeBoie, recalls Barton as being very athletic. In junior high school he was on the high school basketball team, on which he played five years. As center, virtually no one could outjump him — except in the second half, Bob Denney of Enterprise could get the tip-off.

Back in the days of the "scissors" high jump Barton did 5-foot, 6 1/2 inches.

Another side

But there was another side emerging.

From the first grade, DeBoie remembers Barton drawing Indians, horses and cowboys "constantly."

"He was always drawing. He was a born artist, with a God-given gift. He was very bright, could pick up on things quickly, but he had an added gift of creativity that the rest of us didn't," she said.

In 1944 Austin left school and joined the Navy.

After World War II he went to barber college. His first customer was an old man named Dave Tucker.

Tucker's thumb and forefinger were blasted off by a shotgun in the Oct. 1, 1896, Joseph bank robbery .

Tucker served his prison time, and went to work for the same bank, eventually becoming vice president.

A 5-year-old playing in the yard, Austin's father, Everett, saw the marshal run into the Barton house, grab an octagon barrel .32 special rifle off the wall, and shoot Jim Brown, who died carrying the money.

Cy Fitzhugh picked up the loot — some $2,000 — and escaped. He had fresh horses stashed, probably atop Wallowa Lake's west moraine about where in 1946 Dave Tucker's son Harley organized the first Chief Joseph Days rodeo, Barton said.

A participant in that first rodeo was 96-year-old Mike McFetridge of Joseph. About 1948, he was taking a string of 11 mules loaded with dynamite to the trail-widening crew on the Upper Imnaha.

Barton set off a charge that sent rocks down toward the pack string and ticked the rear of the last mule, carrying the blasting caps, but McFetridge and the mules came out all right.

Barton worked in logging, and hauled milk to the Raven Foods creamery in Enterprise.

"You had to carry two of those 110-pound, 10-gallon milk cans, sometimes 100 yards," he recalls.

The boss, Lyle Shumway, could carry four of them, Barton said, and was reported to have lifted a 55-gallon gas barrel from a pickup, carried it into the Imnaha Store and placed it on the counter.

Barton also worked for Laughton McDaniel, and then Ray Milligan at the Chevy garage in Enterprise.

He then worked on Brownlee Dam, then on Oxbow Dam. There a back injury changed his life — for the better, he'd later learn.

All this time he tried to find something he liked well enough to stay with, but didn't find the interest he sought.

He enrolled in commercial art school, and worked at that for 20 years. Later he'd learn that his talent lay in fine arts — sculpting.

In 1985 at age 56, he cast his first bronze piece.

Beginning at retirement age

At an age when others are nearing retirement, Barton was starting his career — finally getting paid for what he loved to do.

In a matter of years his work was in high demand. He become a renowned artist, with works shown in galleries from Jackson Hole to Scottsdale and Santa Fe.

Several of his editions sold out. One is "Attitude Adjustment,'' a statue of a cowboy on a bucking horse.

One stands in front of Joseph City Hall — right where Duncan's barn was. There was a corral in back, where Austin started colts.

Brent and Connie McKinley of Joseph and Austin, on July 22, donated that to Austin's hometown that he never forgot.