Marina puts emphasis on safety

The docks at the marina are home to a variety of rental crafts but are also used by boaters who come to purchase items they need from the marina that range from fishing gear to sunscreen. - Photo/RON OSTERLOH

worshippers every day from Memorial Day through mid-September.

The lake, one mile from downtown Joseph, holds nearly 300 feet of clear, snow-melted water and is more than 3 miles long.

Wallowa Lake Marina, situated at the south end or “head” of the lake, has served the needs of visitors and residents of Wallowa County since prior to 1945 when Bob and Duane Wiggins bought the marina along with the Wallowa Lake Lodge.

The property was sold to the state parks in two increments in 1948 and 1951. The Wigginses leased it back and maintained the concession for the marina. The current building and parking lot were built about 1965.

The current owners, Bob and Gina Barstad of Joseph along with their partners Fred and Sue Barstad of Enterprise, took over ownership from the Wiggins family in 1988. According to Gina, the building was empty and they had no inventory. The docks were made of metal, and the boats were 1960 vintage.

For the first four years the Barstads concentrated on paying off the business, which they did in that time.

“We were open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and it was just the four of us,’’ Gina says. “Those first four years were crazy. We had no idea what we were getting into. Anything that could go wrong, did.

“We had two kids aged 3 and 6 and they were here with us most of the day. We usually had one person on the dock checking out boats and pumping gas and one person in the store.”

Gasoline is no longer offered and there are usually two people working down on dock during the busy time of the day. They are now open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week and hire a crew of four for the summer.

They gradually changed out the old boats and got rid of the old “water bikes” and replaced them with safer, lighter, easier to maintain paddleboats. They try to update some of their equipment each year if economically possible.

They now have 14 motor boats of varying sizes, four row boats, 14 paddle boats, three canoes, six kayaks and a 21-foot, 40-horsepower pontoon boat that can accommodate up to 10 people. All are available to rent starting at $15 an hour for the row boats up to $70 an hour for the pontoon boat. In-store inventory of fishing, camping and hiking supplies, rounded out with T-shirts not found anywhere else, creates a hub of activity for visitors.

Jane Wiggins recalls that even years ago the marina was a very busy place in the spring with fishermen eager to get back on the water after the long winter. A lot of things have changed since 1945 at the marina, but it is still a busy place this time of year. Most visitors come from about a 350-mile radius, with the numbers of international visitors increasing each year, says Gina Barstad, who attributes the increase to promotion of the state by the Oregon Tourism Commission.

“It seemed like in the ’80s we’d see families staying seven to 10 days. They’d do everything up here at the lake,’’ Gina says. “Then in the ’90s the families would stay about three to four days and they’d pick and choose what to do. Now we’re back to the seven- to 10-day stays. In a small area like this, people can stay longer and do more.

“Our numbers on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July were up this year, and the Chief Joseph Days numbers were about average.”

The Wallowa Lake Marina staff can put up to 150 to 200 people on the water in a day. These numbers don’t include the hundreds of private boat operators who use the boat ramp adjacent to the marina docks to access the lake.

“Our biggest concern is how to keep people safe on the water,’’ she says. “Everyone under 12 wears a life jacket. There are emergency whistles in each boat and fire extinguishers. We have our own set of safety rules we go over with all our customers.”

The marina staff often sees boats that don’t slow down when approaching the swimming area to the east of the docks, which is just one example of safety violations. There is a no-wake zone surrounding the approach to the marina and all along the west side of the lake, where most of the development of the lake shore has occurred. But it is not being enforced, Gina says.

“We can control our boaters to some extent, but not the private boats,” Gina says. “If they come into the dock, we can tell them to slow down or be more cautious, but we can’t physically go out on the water and enforce the regulations. It’s not our job. And it has been a chaotic mess out there this past week.”

Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen says the lake is patrolled by a marine officer Thursday through Sunday from the first part of May through Labor Day. He says the challenge is that at certain times of the year there is a significant number of people on the water and he has a small staff to monitor that. The sheriff’s marine patrol staff is in transition right now as the officer assigned that duty resigned on July 23.

“We have two part-time certified reserve officers who will be filling that position. We are still figuring out their schedules,” Steen says.

Their duties include checking boat registrations and enforcing compliance with State Marine Board regulations for safety. They make sure personal watercraft is operated safely, boaters are observing the no-wake zones and that operators are sober. According to Sheriff Steen, the marine officer rescues boaters in distress due to mechanical failure or injury.

“The officer really has to have good communication skills along with the ability to enforce the safety regulations. When people are recreating, the last thing they want to see is a law enforcement officer. We don’t write a lot of citations. We try to enforce through cooperation,” Steen says.

Steen cautions boaters to be aware of the debris floating —  sometimes just below the surface — in the lake.

“We get a lot of calls asking us when we are going to clean the lake. We are not lake cleaners, that is not our responsibility,’’ he says. “The current will eventually carry most of the debris to the dam at the north end of the lake.”

Other precautions offered by Steen include making sure the boat is registered properly and to make sure the operator knows the capability of the craft he or she is operating.

Gina and Bob Barstad depend on the marine officer to respond to reports of careless boating or illegal activity on the lake.

“We can call the sheriff, but by the time they get here the offender is long gone. People figure out pretty quickly if there’s no officer on the lake, especially the locals. With an officer here I can report someone, and he can respond right away and watch for them,” Gina says.

These are all aspects of operating the marina that Gina and Bob can attempt to control. Their biggest challenge is being so dependent on uncontrollable aspects to remain successful in their business.

The weather makes the difference between a successful or unsuccessful season for the Barstads. The two weeks of cold, rainy weather in June would have been a disaster for them if they hadn’t experienced such a good Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July holiday.

If the summer is very hot, the amount of water in the lake can fall to levels that will not support some types of watercraft available to rent.

Some years the marina closes early in September for lack of adequate water levels, cutting in to the earnings of an annual operating season of barely five months.