Wallowa County rancher, writer, photographer embraces Back-to-basics lifestyle

Janie Tippett and her walking partner Halley regularly spend quality time strolling around the Tippett place on Tenderfoot Valley Road east of Joseph.

In her 41 years in Wallowa County she has lived a lifestyle that preserves tradition and history and yet she continues to be an integral part of the thriving arts and literary communities in the county.

Tippett began writing a column for the Agri-Times Northwest newspaper out of Pendleton in about 1984 and hasn’t missed a submission in 25 years. She said she keeps writing for the people who have been loyal readers who now may be unable to enjoy the outdoors like they used to. She writes for those who used to live in Wallowa County and moved away but are nostalgic for the simple, “back-to-basics” life she describes in her columns, which includes gardening, harvesting and preserving food.

“I’ve been keeping a daily journal since I was little,’’ she said. “It’s an addiction really. And I pull from that journal for my columns. It’s enriching to share my observations and experiences with others who maybe aren’t as active and can’t get out as much anymore.”

Tippett has attended every Fishtrap Gathering since its inception in 1988 when the literary non-profit organization was established in Wallowa County to “promote clear thinking and good writing in and about the West.” She has been a contributing writer to many Fishtrap publications and a valuable voice along with other writers at the summer and winter gatherings, lectures and readings.

Fifteen years ago at a writing workshop she met five women she has maintained contact with. They named themselves the Syringa Sisters and each summer they meet. They have hiked in the Sawtooth Mountains, at Priest Lake, at Aneroid Lake in the Wallowas and have climbed Mount St. Helens. The oldest in the group is 81, still hiking and, of course, writing.

“Well, I never went to college and Fishtrap was my college. It brought that world here to Wallowa County. World-famous writers come here and we can study under them and write with them, and become friends. I was always involved with my family and when they leave home, you need something else. As a creative person, I needed that and Fishtrap provided it,” she said.

Tippett said that the most positive thing about Fishtrap is that it is so involved with every facet of the community. Fishtrap has explored many controversial issues and created dialogues where none existed before. The outreach to the schools at elementary as well as high school level in Wallowa County and other rural areas like Fossil, Chiloquin and Condon are especially valuable, Tippett said. Stimulating lectures and presentations sponsored by Fishtrap through all seasons contribute to the quality of life in the county, she said.

The Wallowa Valley Photo Club, established in 1988, counts Tippett among its founding members. She draws from her passion for rural history and years of ranch life for her photos. Her images have appeared on the cover of Oregon East, an Eastern Oregon University publication, and she is a contributor to the photo club’s yearly calendar of Wallowa County. She has been a freelance photographer for several agriculture publications.

In 2007 Tippett and her husband, Doug, were honored as Diamond Pioneers by the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences. The award honors the achievements of those 74 and older in agriculture and related fields in their communities. They have been active in the Wallowa County Stockgrowers and Doug received the Cattleman of the Year Award in 1966 as well as Grassman of the Year in 1980.

Tippett has been associated with agriculture all of her life, beginning on a large dairy in the San Fernando Valley of California in 1933. She and her brother and sisters were active 4-H club members and she was selected Golden Guernsey Queen of the California State Fair in Sacramento in 1949. In the early ’50s, Tippett raised a garden and  preserved and stored her harvest, a lifestyle she never left behind, even as the years rolled by.

Janie Tippett stills grows much of her own food and continues to cook on a wood-burning stove in her home. - Photos/RON OSTERLOH

She started cooking for deer- and elk-hunting camps about 1973.

She married Doug Tippett, a Wallowa County native, in 1978. The Tippett family’s roots go back to 1891 when Doug’s grandparents homesteaded on Chesnimnus with 60 head of cattle. Doug’s father, Jidge Tippett, became a prominent cattleman, running as many as 3,000 head of cattle at the peak of his operations, according to an account in Wallowa County History published by the Wallowa County Museum.

Doug and Janie have operated a successful commercial cattle operation and a seed potato business, which was started in 1972. They have owned, leased and managed land in various locations in Wallowa County and have run up to 1,000 head of cattle.

Tippett says the agriculture industry has moved from family-owned to corporate farming and ranching. The value of the land is not based on how much grass it can produce, but on the quality of its view. This, she allows, is happening all over the West, but acknowledges that changes have been going on since the American Indians inhabited these lands.

“My heart goes out to young people born here in ranching families who have the knowledge and can’t get into ranching because they don’t have the money to obtain the land,” she said. Although sometimes it is possible if a family chooses to ranch for one of the partners to “work out,” that is, work for wages to help pay the bills and thus allow the family to stay on the ranch. “The product prices have not kept pace with the operating expenses so this becomes necessary,” she said.

Another change Tippett describes in Wallowa County is the culture shift from rural agriculture to a mix of natural resource-based agency jobs, an artist community and organic or natural product market development. Yet, she says, this is still home to real cowboys who know how to rope and build rock jacks. We all want the same things, she said, we just go about getting them differently.

Longtime residents of Wallowa County learn how to do a lot of things, according to Tippett, from cutting and hauling firewood to making deer sausage and sauerkraut.

It is important, she said, to know how to live economically. Instead of buying quick-fix food, she advocates stocking a canning cupboard with home preserves. She stills grows much of her own food and continues to cook on a wood-burning stove in her home.

“In lean times you have to learn how people lived in old Wallowa County. Learn how to grow and put up food for the winter. Shop at the thrift store sometimes. I have always lived that way here. There is joy in preparing food you’ve grown. We have a great bounty here,” she said.