ELK MOUNTAIN
Wallowa County - National Forest - 1N-45E-4
September 13, 1928: "C. C. Ghormley came in from Elk Mountain where he was stationed as a forest lookout patrolman thru the summer." (Enterprise Record Chieftain)
June 9, 1932: "Permission has been given to the forest service to erect at strategic points in the forests. One will be erected at Elk mountain which will be a 25 foot tower with a house 14 by 14 feet." (Enterprise Record Chieftain)
September 26, 1963: "Dale Hulse is finishing out the fire season on Elk Mt. lookout." (Wallowa County Chieftain)
August 4, 1966: "A Wallowa-Whitman forest lookout stationed at Elk Mountain north of Enterprise spotted a flying object which he could not identify on Saturday morning. Billy Hunter, the lookout reported to the Wallowa office of the forest service that the object was very large and pointed on the top with some sort of tube running vertically up through the object. It was well above the clouds as clouds could be seen passing beneath it.
Upon the report by Hunter, forest personnel in Wallowa found they could see the object also. It apparently was in the vicinity of Sled Springs, about 5 miles from the Elk Mountain tower and 15 miles from Wallowa.
Clint Courtnay of the Wallowa forest office said that the object remained in about the same place from 10 a.m. until about 4 p.m. or later on Saturday. He also said that although the object was transparent to a degree that it was definitely a solid object. Many Wallowa residents took time out to view the object throughout the day.
A check with the Federal Aviation Office in Baker yesterday revealed that the object was in fact a balloon. Hank Gabriel of that office stated that the object was reported to his office and could easily be seen from Baker. He also said it could be seen from the control tower at the Pendleton airport. The balloon remained in the area for about 12 hours, according to Gabriel." (Wallowa County Chieftain)