The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - For 66 years, Waits- burg's Ivan Keve, now 91, has been trekking into the local hills with family mem- bers and friends on elk hunting trips filled with brotherhood and fun.

Keve's family has deep roots in the Touchet Valley.

His great uncle Jacob Keve left Germany in 1864 and came to the United States. In 1889, he brought his brother, sister- in-law and two children out to what would become the Keve homestead on Jasper Mountain, southeast of Waitsburg, in 1889.

When Ivan Keve was born, his parents had moved into a home on 7th Street in Waitsburg. For years, his family members had gone elk hunting in the local area. And in 1946, when Keve got out of the service, he was finally able to join the hunting party.

Keve and his uncles, father, brother and brother-in-law an- nually headed out to Sawtooth Ridge and Buck Ridge beyond Godman to hunt for many years. He keeps two photo al- bums full of old hunting photos, dating as far back as the 1930s. The photos show the successes of the hunting party, as well as how they camped with large tents and horses and sometimes snow.

When his two uncles passed away, the hunting party began going to the area of South Touchet for many years.

The hunting location changed again when Ivan Keve's father passed away.

"There were just three of us left," Keve remembers, includ- ing himself, his brother and his nephew.

At that time, a group of American Indians purchased land near the South Touchet that used to belong to the Rainwater Family and so the hunting party had to move.

This last move is where the Keve hunting party still travels to today - to Jasper Mountain and the Keve homestead, now owned by the Kenney Fam- ily, which graciously allows the Keves to hunt there. Other rela- tives join in the fun sometimes.

And this year, like the many years before, Ivan Keve, his son J.K. Keve and nephew Jake Long traveled up to the family homestead area and camped and hunted for one whole week.

This year the group went on the homestead Oct. 28 through Nov. 4 for elk hunting and came home empty handed.

The group goes up to the mountain and pitches tents to make a campground. They hunt for elk around the open areas, Keve said.

To be on the homestead feels great, he added.

"The house still stands but it's leaning awfully bad to the north," he said of the home his family had built on the land around 1900. "It has become like a second home up there."

Keve said in addition to the difference in how the old house looks, the quality of the hunting isn't as great as it used to be in the area.

In the early days hunting on Buck and Sawtooth ridges, there was a great number of elk.

"We had very good luck with hunting," Keve said.

He said there seemed to be more game and fewer hunters. According to Keve's memory, the elk had been brought in years before to the Blue Mountains from Yellowstone and they flourished in the area.

Now, he said, there are many hunters and not as much game to go around. Also, there is more private land where hunters aren't welcomed, compared to in 1946 when few farmers and residents didn't want hunters on their land.

"It's tightened up consider- ably now," Keve said, because there are more safety concerns.

In the past three or four years, the hunting party has returned home empty handed. Now, they get most of their elk meat from other family members.

The other major change, of course, is Keve's age.

"He's probably the only one in those hills who is 91," his wife B.A. Keve said with a laugh.

Keve smiles and says "the hills are getting steeper," but it has kept him young.

The hunting party used to camp out for up to 10 days, and now they keep it to one week.

"It's just a great adventure to be with your relation," Keve said. "They get scattered now."

Long is still in town, but his son, J.K., works in Tri Cit- ies and is building a home in Spokane.

Like his dad, J.K. Keve loves to go on the annual trip.

"(It's about) the fellowship with my cousin, Jake, and with my dad," J.K. Keve said. "It's more about the camping than the hunting."

J.K. Keve also waited until he was in high school before he joined the hunting party. He remembers hunting back near the South Touchet area with his grandfather and uncle. He said he loved getting to know his grandparents and he remembers they would even take the horses out there and ride while hunting.

"It was a little more serious back in those days," J.K. Keve said.

Ivan Keve takes a rest on a hunting trip in 1982. Keve has been tagging along on the annual elk hunting trip with his family since 1946.

Now, to accommodate his 91-year-old father, J.K. Keve said they tell Ivan Keve he can just come out camping and not worry about the hunting part including going under the brush. Ivan Keve often sits on a log and watches the area, he added, and they try to position him or move some game toward him so he can get a shot in.

J.K. Keve hopes his father will get some game on the Keve homestead before his hunting career is over.

And in Ivan Keve's mind the end of his hunting career isn't anytime soon. He plans to head up to Jasper Mountain again next year.

"If I am able," Ivan Keve said. "I've realized what I can do and how I can do it."

And J.K. Keve fully intends to continue to annual pilgrimage to the homestead for hunting, as long as the group is allowed.

"I'm sure my cousin and I will want to," he said. "We have a great time."

And he has a son-in-law and sons of his own who may want to participate.

"It's big male bonding time probably for a long time," he added.