Couple from Colorado rework Endicott property into an animal sanctuary

ENDICOTT — Clark and Colleen Winchester lived in Colorado before moving to Pacific Northwest to be near relatives.

Mrs. Winchester is an agriculture engineer who worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Center (NRCS) in Colorado.

“Colorado got crowded and expensive,” she explained, noting that’s when she and her husband decided to move to the Northwest.

“The closest we could get is Pendleton,” she said, explaining that they weren’t having much luck.

Mr. Winchester retired early from working for Apple as a director and started working for Wildlife.

The Winchesters were interested in finding a rural property. When Mrs. Winchester was sent to WSU to attend a class, she found a pamphlet with the property they would completely restore while visiting the Daily Grind.

“We were looking for 50 acres or under. 250 was the smallest we could find,” Mrs. Winchester explained, saying they would visit the PNW to look at it.

Mrs. Winchester explained that the property had a lot of potentials, but it had become an equipment dump.

The old house was not salvageable; it didn’t have doorknobs, just rags stuck in the holes.

She was working in Pendleton, “My husband moved up here and started working on it. I moved up here shortly after,” she said.

“We’ve taken out maybe 20,000 pounds of trash,” Mrs. Winchester explained.

She explained that conserving and fixing the property has been satisfying.

The property is a river break, which means no one could plant wheat on it, Mrs. Winchester shared—explaining that many people who lived there before tried to put livestock.

“The livestock was most damaging,” she said, adding that her specialty was dirty water while working with the NRCS.

“I know more about cows than anything,” she said, adding that there’s not enough land to support many cows.

Realtor Shannon Focht explained that the Winchesters bought the property 12 or 15 years ago and recently decided to downsize from 92 acres.

“They’ve put so much heart and soul into it,” she said.

Focht explained that the Winchesters built the property from scratch.

“There was an original little farmhouse when they bought it,” she said, adding that they refurbished, remodeled, and now it’s a guest house.

Mrs. Winchester explained that it took them years to clean it up enough to start building.

They maintain the year-round creek and spring.

Having worked for the NRCS, Mrs. Winchester explained that the property is precious because it is where animals can get to.

“They need habitat, food, and nesting,” she said, which is what the Winchesters have maintained.

She explained that one of the reasons they’ve done this is to increase the diversity around the area for animals.

“They don’t have many places to go on the Palouse,” she said.

The Winchesters have seen a lot of animals at Lost Creek Sanctuary.

“We’ve seen a lot of Elk out here,” she said, “It’s been satisfying because it’s working.”

Mrs. Winchester explained that river breaks have the potential for wildlife habitat and work well with agriculture.

“It’s a nice way to have two things live together, animals and people,” she said.