INDUCTEES
LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER AND ALSO BY YEAR OF INDUCTION
“PRESERVING THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF THE ELLENSBURG RODEO”
LAST NAME A - E
A
Dan & Judy Ackley | Eddy Akridge | Joe Alexander | Guy Allen | Stuart Anderson | Anderson Family | Harry Anderson
B
Allen Bach | Katherine Bach & Foxy Coke | Badger Mountain | Jake Barnes | Maude Barnett | Schaller Bennett | Beard Rodeo Company | Joe Beaver | Berenice Blair Dossey Bolen | Bernard-Moomaw Rodeo Stock Company | Big Bend/Flying Five Rodeo Company | Bosque Boy | Everett Bowman | Buff Brady Jr | Trevor Brazile | Frank Bryant | The Burkheimer Family
C
Calgary Stampede Ranch | Vern Castro | Harry Charters | Christensen Brothers Rodeo Company | Clay O’Brien Cooper | Cooke Family | Jimmie Cooper | Deb Copenhaver | Clint Corey
D
Leonard Davis | Driver Family | Dynamite
E
Ellensburg Rodeo Posse | Ellensburg Rodeo Royalty | Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes
LAST NAME F - J
F
Allen Faltus | Ferguson Family | Tom Ferguson | Fitterer Family | John P. Foster | Foxy Coke
G
Gage Family | Phil Gardenhire | Grated Coconut | Dick Griffith
H
Katherine ‘Kay’ Hageman | Miles Hare | DeVere Helfrich | Nell Henderson | Homegrown
J
Charmayne James & Scamper | John W. Jones Jr. | John & Gwynn Jordan
LAST NAME K - O
K
Cliff Kaynor | Smokey Kayser | Joe Kelsey Stock Company | Loyd Ketchum | King County Posse | Kittitas County Roping Club | Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse | Harry Knight | Pete Knight
L
Bill Linderman | Butch Lehmkuhler | John Ludtka | Rod Lyman
M
Dr. Ken MacRae | Bill McKay | McEwen Family | Kenny McLean | Bill McMacken | McManamy Family | Larry Mahan | Mickey | Gene Miles | Minor Family | Montie Montana | Morrison Family | Bud Munroe
N
Nason/Aronica Family | Neck Lace
O
LAST NAME P - T
P
Fred Palmiero | John Payne-‘The One Arm Bandit’ | Buz Peth | Wick Peth | H.E. ‘Doc’ Pfenning | Slim Pickens | George Prescott
R
Flint Rasmussen | Red One | Gary Rempel | Scott Repp | Lou Richards | Rodeo Grandmas
S
Charles Sampson | Scamper | Schnebly Family | Lee Scott | Jim Shoulders | Jan Smith | The Smith Family | Spirit of the Trail Night Pageant | Spring Fling | Spring Planting | Kenny Stanton | Mabel Strickland | Bob Swaim
T
Thomas Family | Casey Tibbs | Tornado | Federic Gregg “Fritz” Truran
LAST NAME U - Z
INDUCTED IN 2010
INDUCTEES BY INDUCTION YEAR
2000
Harry Anderson | Neck Lace | Wick Peth | Schnebly Family | Kenny Stanton | Harry Vold
2002
Badger Mountain | Bernard and Moomaw | Harry Charters | Fitterer Family | Harry Knight | Mickey
2003
Anderson Family | Schaller Bennett | Frank Bryant | Clint Corey | Phil Gardenhire | Lou Richards | Lee Scott
2004
Joe Beaver | Everett Bowman | Joe Kelsey Rodeo Company | Loyd Ketchum | Kenny McLean | Red One | Bob Swaim | Widow Maker
2008
2012
2013
Calgary Stampede Ranch | Grated Coconut | Gary Rempel | Buz Peth
2014
2015
Vern Castro | Nell Henderson | John W. Jones Jr. | Jan Smith
2016
2020
Dan & Judy Ackley
From the 1970s to the present, Dan and Judy Ackley have been Ellensburg Rodeo “regulars,” as participants, officials, volunteers, and contestants. Together, they have devoted thousands of hours of work to the growth and success of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
A Washington State native, Judy spent part of her youth in the Kittitas Valley. Her parents Robert and Maxine Wilcox were rodeo enthusiasts who always kept horses. Judy remembers rodeo clown Slim Pickens and world champion bronc rider Casey Tibbs.
Judy first rode cutting horses, then started barrel-racing in her teens. Judy won the Washington Barrel Racing Association Championship in 1972 and competed in the United States and Canada for 18 years as a member of the Girls Rodeo Association/Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
In 1984, Judy inherited the Ellensburg Rodeo secretary post two years after the retirement of distinguished veteran Bob Swaim (’04 ERHOF Inductee). She held the post for 22 years, until 2006. Meanwhile, she “secretaried” rodeos across the Far West in the employ of leading stock contractors and several major rodeo committees. She served a stint at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO and has secretaried both the National Finals Rodeo and the Women’s National Finals Rodeo.
During her career Judy and husband Dan Ackley drove a 29-foot trailer fitted out with a complete office headquarters. “The PRCA’s computerized entries since 1976 made it easier for everyone involved,” Ackley remembers. She has many good memories of the Ellensburg Rodeo. “Tex Taliaferro was my hero,” she says of the late rodeo arena director. “Cowboys like this rodeo;” Judy remarked to John Ludtka (2006 ERHOF Inductee). “They compliment the committee for its hospitality…. It’s fine here; lots of rodeos are so impersonal, but not here. [The] popularity of this rodeo is wide.”
Ackley also fondly remembers her friendships with rodeo judges, which sometimes involved practical jokes: “We played many pranks on the judges. One year… [when they were ] Buddy Lytle, John Davis, and Tommy Keith we jacked up the rear wheels of Buddy’s car!”
Dan Ackley (1947- ) was born in Nampa, Idaho, and began riding horses at 8 years of age. A Nampa High football standout, Dan went on to play for Boise State College (now BSU). Yet like many western college football players of his era, Dan was drawn to rodeo bulldogging (steer wrestling) events. He quit the football team to help found the Boise State rodeo team while he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education. Dan joined the PRCA in 1970, specializing in bulldogging but also entering the calf and team roping events. His ‘dogging horse was named “Lucky” and his hazing horse was “Bandy”; Dan’s father hazed for him.
During more than a decade of competition, Dan Ackley won dozens of western rodeo go-rounds, bulldogging titles, and championships and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo three times (’77, ’78, ’79). Following his career as a competitor, Dan followed the rodeo road with wife Judy as multi-job participant.
In Ellensburg, Dan has served as a judge, flagger, contestant liaison, chute man, and all-around utility man. Although illness has prevented Judy’s participation in recent rodeos, Dan remains an Ellensburg Rodeo stalwart to this day. He is also an outdoorsman and western metal artist, while Judy works in leather and beads. They live in Prineville, Oregon.
John and Gwynn Jordan
John and Gwynn Jordan, a mid-twentieth century rodeo couple, served the Ellensburg Rodeo as announcer and secretary for more than a decade. Highly respected in Pacific Northwest rodeo circles, they were regulars in Ellensburg during professional rodeo’s “golden age.”
John Jordan began his career in the 1920s, riding the western rodeo circuit as a saddle bronc competitor. He competed in nearly every major rodeo, including Ellensburg.
In the 1930s John made the transition from the arena to the “crow’s nest” and became a rodeo announcer. His mentors and role models included the legendary announcers “Foghorn” Clancy and Cy Taillon.
Meanwhile, his wife Gwynn Jordan also made her living at the sport. She served as a rodeo “secretary,” keeping the complex records of rodeo entrants and their times and scores, and writing checks (or handing out cash) to winning cowboys and cowgirls.
The Jordans thus became a well-known “rodeo couple” as announcer and secretary at dozens of western rodeos. In the 1940s and 50s,” remembered the late Ellensburg Rodeo historian Bertha Morrison, “John and Gwynn were like family here. Everyone knew them and looked forward to seeing them each year.”
John Jordan announced the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1939, 1941, 1945-48, and 1950-51, ranking him fifth in longevity behind famed Ellensburg announcers Chief Sam Firedlander, George Prescott, Phil Gardenhire, and Justin McKee.
Spring Planting
Flying Five / Big Bend Rodeo’s great saddle bronc, Spring Planting, is a 2022 inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. Rodeo stock contractors, Chad Hutsell and his wife, Lindsey, along with ERHOF inductees, Don Hutsell and Sonny Riley own the bucking horse.
788 Spring Planting began her rodeo career in excellence. In her first year bucking, she went to the 2007 National Finals Rodeo (NFR) as a five year old and won a go-round buckle in Las Vegas. She continued her excellence for her entire career. In 2022, as a twenty year old legend of the sport, she carried Zeke Thurston to a 89.5 point win at the Reno Rodeo and Coburn Bradshaw to an 89.5 point win at the Sisters Rodeo. Now in her retirement, there wasn’t a moment of her 15 year bucking career that wasn’t marked by excellence.
Spring Planting is a dark blue roan. Quiet in disposition; kind but not overly personable. Lindsey Hutsell said, “She will let you pet on her, but she will nip at you to tell you when she’s done.” She is regal in her bearing and imposing in her physicality. She is an athlete and as big as a draft horse. Which is appropriate because you could fill a wagon with her awards and accomplishments and need a draft horse to pull it.
The NFR cowboys vote on the best 100 saddle broncs to take to the NFR. Spring Planting has been chosen fourteen times. As an example of her excellence over time, Spring Planting has carried both Cody Wright and his son, Ryder Wright, to round wins at the NFR.
The cowboys also vote on the yearly award for the Saddle Bronc of the Year. Spring Planting won the award in 2009 and 2013. She was second place bronc of the year in 2011, 2014, and 2017, and third place bronc of the year in 2016, 2018, and 2019.
Along with national awards, Spring Planting accumulated an impressive amount of local accomplishments. She was chosen as the best saddle bronc of the PRCA’s Columbia River Circuit in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
At the Ellensburg Rodeo, Spring Planting has impacted the course of champions at the Labor Day Rodeo. Five of her career ten 90+ point scores have been recorded in the arena at Ellensburg. Cody Wright, Cody Demoss, Chad Ferley, Isaac Diaz, and Coburn Bradshaw have all been 90 points or more in front of a cheering Monday crowd. Either through a high score or a buckoff, Spring Planting has been a determining factor in who wins the coveted Ellensburg Rodeo Bronc Riding championship. To her credit, the cowboys scanning the draw sheets for the Ellensburg Rodeo finals have all wanted to draw Spring Planting. Even though she is big and strong, her bucking style has always been honest and even, the kind the cowboys want to draw.
Spring Planting’s mother was a horse called Jamboree. Jamboree was a huge red roan mare. Huge. She could have been the source material for the song “Mr. 5 by 5.” Jamboree could fill up a bucking chute, but she had a bucking pattern that was popular with the cowboys. Spring Planting’s sire was the great Spring Break. Spring Break combined the genetics of the great Iron Mountain, Flying Five Rodeo’s famous Appaloosa stallion, with the genetics of Spring Rose, who was also the mother to the Hall of Fame bucking horse Spring Fling.
Spring Planting is everything a rodeo stock contractor could hope for in a bucking horse. Her size is ideal. She is big and strong enough to carry a saddle bronc rider and buck like she wants to buck, not as the cowboy might try to affect her. She sets the tone and the rider has to see if he’s cowboy enough to make it to the 8 second whistle. She has the physicality to handle the grind of the year long rodeo season and be the same bucking horse in January and July and September. She also inherited the bucking ability and heart that inspires the greatest of bucking horses. Perhaps most notably, she inherited an easy going demeanor that competes at the highest level without getting bothered by any of the bright lights. There was never a setting that was too big for Spring Planting; she was big enough to be herself.
Flying Five Rodeo and Big Bend Rodeo are Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame inductees. Don Hutsell and Chad Hutsell and Sonny Riley have owned legendary and Hall of Fame bucking stock. Spring Planting stands out among the best of the best in the history of the company. She was the same every single time, year after year, and she was excellent.
Dick and J.D. Yates
At 85 years of age, rodeo cowboy Dick Yates does not rope much nowadays. “I don’t like to run a lot of cattle anymore,” he told The Team Roping Journal. “I watch the rest of them rope. I enjoy watching [son and grandson] J.D. and Trey rope as much as I like doing it, or quite a bit more….It’s been a good ride.”
Dick and J. D. Yates are the father-son members of a famed Colorado family of team ropers, steer ropers, barrel racers, and horse trainers. “I was raised in the eastern part of Colorado near Lamar,” Dick told the Team Roping Journal. “My dad was a farmer.” Small in size, young Dick rode race horses as well as competing in college rodeo roughstock and timed events. Dick and Jan Yates married in 1958 and daughter Kelly and son J. D. were born in 1959 and 1960. Kelly took up barrel racing and Dick and J. D. began team roping, a professional rodeo event that first emerged in the late 50s and early 60s. As a team, Dick was “header” (roping the steer’s horns) and J. D. was “heeler,” (roping the steer’s back legs). The Yates’s began to regularly follow the rodeo road.
“Back in those days they didn’t make pickups good enough to pull trailers very good,” Dick remembers. “We pulled our trailers with a Buick Electra 225” automobile. Their air conditioning system was “two-by-55,” he jokes: “We drove with two windows rolled down 55 miles per hour!” With Kelly also competing, “our first stock trailer hauled three horses and we pulled it behind that car.”
In 1975, J. D. became the youngest cowboy ever to compete in the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) when the 15 year-old heeled for Dick in the team-roping competition. In 1984, Kelly qualified in barrel racing, making the Yates’s the only father-daughter-son trio to ever compete in the same year in the NFR. Kelly ultimately qualified for 3 National Final Rodeo barrel racing competitions. During their team-roping partnership, Dick and J. D. Yates qualified for 13 NFRs.
J.D. attended the University of Southern Colordao and Oklahoma Panhandle State University, where he won two college team roping rodeo championships (1979-80). Between 1975 and 2002, J.D. roped in 21 National Finals Rodeos, counting the 13 with Dick. He also qualified 11 times in the National Finals Steer Roping (a solo roping event distinct from team, calf, or “tiedown” roping) and won the world title in 2002. J. D., now 62 years-old, has accrued over $1.5 million in lifetime winnings. His son Trey is a professional team roper.
Following Dick’s lead, J. D. slowly transitioned from competitions to training roping horses. J. D.’s business, “Hitch Rack Performance Horses,” is headquartered on the Yates’s home ranch outside Pueblo, Colorado, where J.D. trains heeling, heading, and calf roping horses. Hitch Rack’s website touts JD’s ”state-of-the-art show barn, countless stalls and pens, a large outdoor roping arena and fresh cattle–ready to rope at all times.” J.D. has also produced his own training DVD’s—“Starting the Heading Horse” and “Training a Heeling Horse.” J. D. Yates and his horses have won an amazing 34 American Quarter Horse Association championships.
“The better-bred horses today…are smarter and easier to train,” Dick Yates reflects. But he adds, “You have to let them progress at their own speed and not overdo it, so you don’t burn them up… You’ve got to give them time. Too many people get in too big a hurry trying to finish a horse.” He states proudly, “J.D. has an unusual gift, and it’s been good watching. Now I’m watching him get through to Trey.”
Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame induction committee chair Ken MacRae states, “Dick and J. D. Yates have strong ties to the Ellensburg Rodeo. As a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) representative, Dick worked with me when I was arena director to add team-roping to the Ellensburg program.” Dick and J. D. went on to win Ellensburg team roping championship buckles in 1986 and 1988, while J. D. won the 1988 Ellensburg all-around championship; in 2003, J. D. won the Ellensburg steer roping championship.
When asked to describe the caliber of team-roping talent today, Dick Yates says, “It’s mind boggling. The scores have gotten shorter and the cattle have gotten smaller…it’s a wicked old deal at the rodeos…it’s a tough old road.”
85 year-old Dick Yates and wife Jan sit back and watch it all unfold. And, in addition to the pride they share in the accomplishments of Kelly and J. D., they can now watch the career of grandson Trey. A 2018 college national team roping champion heeler, Trey is a two-time NFR team roping qualifier, making the Yates’s a three-generation family of rodeo champions.
Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse
Founded in 1958, the Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse rode across two decades of Ellensburg rodeo history, participating in parades, playday competitions, horse shows, trail rides, and mounted drill exhibitions. Posse boys wore red western shirts with white scarves, white straw hats, white slacks, and star-patches awarded them by the Kittitas County Sheriff. Astride sorrel and black horses, Junior Sheriff’s Posse riders carried American flags in the Ellensburg Rodeo parade, grand entry, and both day and night show performances of the late 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Kittitas County Sheriff Bob Dorsey, who served from 1942-66, founded the Junior Sheriff’s Posse in 1958 as a community service project. The boys held their first practices in 1959. Ellensburg Rodeo Posse member Cal Shull (husband of Sheriff Dorsey’s office administrator Nellie Shull) served as the first drillmaster, assisted by Frank Moore and Bryce Baker. In the posse’s early days, volunteer Rod Hussey trucked the boys’ horses around the state. Shull, Baker, and Hussey also volunteered with the all-girl Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes drill team.
An Ellensburg Daily Record article described the Junior Sheriff’s Posse as “a unique riding group brought together to combine a youth club with the love of horses…. The premise of the club is to build character and leadership in the boys, combining responsibility in rural youths along with good horsemanship.”
Founding member George Michel joined at age 14 and rode in the posse for two years. He served as posse 1st Lieutenant alongside his friend Ron Carlson, who was Captain. Michel remembers, “some of the boys were only eleven and twelve years old.” He states, “the most fun I had was in the playday competitions, especially when we traveled over the mountains. The Snoqualmie Riding Club in North Bend hosted a parade and playday with ribbons and trophies.” Playday events included “scurries” (hurdle racing), relay races, pole bending, mounted drill competitions, trailer races, and more.
Michel recalls each of the founders: Wallace Audie, Mac Bledsoe, John Burkheimer Jr., Ron Carlson, Rick Cole, Scott Dierenger, Jim Hand, Gary Heglar, Scott McCullough, Bill Moore, Johnny Vaughan, Steve Gerwells, and Fred Newschwander.
In addition to the Captain and 1st Lieutenant, posse officers included a Secretary and Treasurer. The boys conducted their own business meetings. A 1965 Daily Record article reported the posse’s annual awards potluck ceremony at Fairview Hall drew 93 attendees and featured awards for Sportsmanship (Ken Hunt), Inspiration (Jim Shaw), and Attendance (Scott Dolquist). A “Gymkana” trophy for playday wins went to Dave Storlie.
The posse participated in Ellensburg’s annual National Bank of Washington Equitation Show and traveled to events in Wenatchee, Yakima, Enumclaw, North Bend, and other venues. They were featured entertainment at the King County Fair and Rodeo in Enumclaw. “We also performed during the Ellensburg Rodeo on several occasions as the ‘specialty act,’” recalls founder Rick Cole. “We drilled to the music of Eddie Arnold’s record, ‘Cattle Call.’”
The drill required a great deal of practice and precise horsemanship. “We started with two abreast,” Michel remembers. “Then Ron Carlson and I took the trailing riders and did separate circles then came to center crossing, a maneuver called ‘threading the needle.’ Then we all lined up facing the crowd. The entire drill lasted the length of the song ‘Cattle Call,’ about 3 minutes.” Synchronizing 15-20 young horseback riders into circles, figure-eights, and threading the needle was a difficult feat.
A younger group also holds good memories of their Junior Sheriff’s Posse days. Wayne Hunt, who is 7 years younger than Carlson and Michel, remembers, “John Woods and I were pretty good at the ‘trailer race’—a playday event where competitors drove a horse trailer into the arena and raced to saddle their horse and run a two-man relay. In ‘scurry races’ or ‘scurries,’ we jumped hurdles. I had a horse named ‘Hunt’s Ketchup’ that was a little wild and sometimes would start bucking after a jump!”
John Brotherton, five years younger than Hunt, recalls the posse boys rode “mostly sorrels and a few blacks (Scott Dolquist had a beautiful black), but I was the only member who rode a palomino.” “We were pretty busy,” he continues. “My sister Roberta rode in Wranglerettes, and so our family’s summers were filled with trail rides, parades, playdays, and rodeos. Les Storlie, whose sons Dave and Scott rode with the posse, was drillmaster when I was member.”
Trail rides up the canyons were a favorite pastime. “We had a lot of fun on those trail rides,” says Scott Storlie. “Kenny Hunt and I could get back at the older members for picking on us. After dark we would steal their saddles and string them as far up a tree as we could!” He remembers “swimming parties at the CWSC pool” and even recalls the exact route he and his brother Dave rode their horses to and from practice each week: “From Judge Ronald, to Pfenning, to Radio Road, and then across the field behind KXLE radio station. Then, across the highway to the city canal road, to the railroad tracks, and across to the posse barns and into the rodeo arena.” Storlie also fondly recalls drilling to the music of “Cattle Call.”
In the mid-1970s, interest lagged, and mounted youth drill teams around the region began to disappear. 4-H Horse Clubs and High School and Junior Rodeos began to take their place, and youngsters found other hobbies and activities to pursue. Interestingly, as the posse met difficulties fielding enough riders for shows and parades, they were assisted by local girls (some of them Wranglerettes) who donned red shirts and white hats to help out. This was the first integrated male/female drill posse in Ellensburg Rodeo history.
The Kittitas Junior Sheriff’s Posse disbanded around 1975.
Today, the Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse “boys” are senior citizens. Alumni are spread across the Kittitas Valley, the Pacific Northwest, and North America. Many plan to attend their induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame and celebrate their special place in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse, 1958-1970s:
Founder: Sheriff Bob Dorsey (Kittitas County Sheriff, 1944-1966). Drillmasters: Cal Shull, Frank Moore, Les Storlie, Ed “Cass” Dolquist, Don McPherson, John Richardson, and Rod Hussey (driver).
Posse Members: Wallace Audie, Russ Belsaas, Mac Bledsoe, Don Bowers, Chris Bridge, John Brotherton, John Burkheimer Jr., Ron Carlson, R. G. Charlton, Win Charlton, Mike Clapper, Pat Clapper, Ron Clapper. Jim Cobb, Mike Cole, Rick Cole, Jeff Colson, Bill Devney, Scott Dierenger, Scott Dolquist, Jeff Dunning, Jeff Fitterer, Jon Fitterer, Steve Gerwells, Bill Gwenner, Jim Hand, Gary Heglar, Ken Hunt, Wayne Hunt, Bob Jenkins, Dick Jenkins, George Michel, Scott McCullough, Kevin McDowell, Dale McPherson, Bill Moore, Dale Newman, Dan Newman, Fred Newschwander, Lloyd Nickel, Denny Nielson, Bruce Noyes, Gary Pederson, Jim Shaw, Fred Slyfield, Montie Smith, Pat Smith, David Storlie, Scott Storlie, John Vaughan, John Woods, and Dale Young.
Girl participants: Dede Bledsoe, Janet Bledsoe, Marilyn Bowers, Susan Clerf, Mary Gifford, Susan Clerf, Nan Hooper, Terri Lowe, and Cheri McConnell.
Note: If your name or the name of someone you know should be on this list, please email ERHOF97@gmail.com and we will add it to the Kittitas County Junior Sheriff Posse’s permanent Induction file in our archive.
Eddy Akridge
World Champion Bareback Bronc Rider Eddy Akridge was born in 1927 on a working cattle ranch near Pampa, Texas. The son of a rodeo cowboy, the 5’ 9” 155-pound Akridge entered his first amateur rodeo in Meade, Kansas, in 1946. In 1948, Eddy joined the RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, now PRCA), holding RCA Card # 376. Prior to specializing in bronc riding events, Akridge also rode bulls and competed in bulldogging and calf roping contests. His post-World War II rodeo career paralleled an era rodeo historians call the “Golden Age” of the sport. For fifteen years, Eddy Akridge rose to world-class status, competing alongside legendary cowboys like Casey Tibbs, Deb Copenhaver, Marty Wood, Bill Linderman, and Jim Shoulders (all ERHOF Inductees).
In addition to his world titles, Akridge regularly won day money, bareback and saddle bronc championships, and all-around titles at Calgary, Pendleton, Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, Phoenix, Salinas (CA), Fort Worth, Red Bluff (CA), Joseph (OR), Lewiston (ID), and of course Ellensburg.
According to a 1950s RCA press release, Akridge tried to size up the broncs before he drew them. He preferred “mean buckers” he had ridden before, but “if he had no chance to ride [them] he’d at least like to see someone else try before he rides. Scouting a bucking horse, he says, gives him a chance to figure him out a bit.” Eddy recalled one of the toughest broncs he ever rode was “Miss Klamath,” from the stock of Oregon’s Christensen Brothers (1999 ERHOF Inductees).
The 1950s proved to be Akridge’s heyday despite constant injuries. A bruised knee cartilage laid him up for nearly three months in 1950, as did a bruised liver in ‘53; torn knee ligaments put him in a steel brace and out of competition throughout the 1957 and ’58 seasons. Overcoming excruciating pain, Akridge ultimately won an impressive four World Bareback Bronc Riding titles (’53, ’54, ’55, ’61). His achievement has been surpassed by only one cowboy, Joe Alexander (ERHOF Inductee, 2005).
In Ellensburg, Eddy Akridge won the ‘Bares’ in ’51 and ’53. Then in 1956, he enjoyed huge success, winning both the Saddle and Bareback Bronc titles to become the Ellensburg Rodeo All-Around Champion Cowboy. Akridge kept up his momentum for two more weeks, winning enough day money and titles in Walla Walla, Lewiston, and Pendleton to claim his first “Big Four” crown in 1956. Notably, Akridge’s greatest Ellensburg victories came on grass; 1956 was the last year for the rodeo’s turf arena (Pendleton’s arena floor remains grass to this day).
Eddy Akridge retired from professional rodeo in 1968. A father with four children, he supported his family in Las Vegas as a musician and professional card dealer. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Eddy played rhythm guitar and sang lead for the Gold Buckle Band; he recorded several records. Eddy Akridge has been inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City) in 1977 and the ProRodeo Hall of Fame (Colorado Springs) in 1979.
Joe Alexander
When rodeo champion Joe Alexander was asked in a 1974 Western Horseman interview to describe his “ideal” bucking bronc, he answered without hesitation: “This horse needs to be an Outlaw…His disposition as an Outlaw is something you can’t take out of him by day to day competition and hauling. He should have the heart to buck and keep bucking day in and day out.”
Joe Alexander—“Alexander the Great” as 70s-era rodeo journalists dubbed him—knows the traits of a world-class bucking horse well, for he won the World Championship in Bareback Bronc Riding a record five times.
Born on November 4, 1943, Joe Alexander grew up on his family’s isolated 10,000-acre cattle ranch near Cora, 60 miles from Jackson, Wyoming. As youths, Joe and his brother rode horseback to their school bus stop. They would tether their mounts, attend school, and ride home carrying the day’s mail to their distant ranch house.
At seventeen, Joe rode his first bucking horse in a ranch meadow and he never looked back. He excelled in high school rodeo, riding broncs and bulls, wrestling steers, and honing his team-roping skills. In 1964, he left Cora for Casper (WYO) College, where he won the Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s Bareback Riding Championship. This 5’ 8” 155-pound cowboy soon joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He later graduated from the University of Wyoming (Laramie), with a B.S. in Animal Husbandry.
Joe hit the rodeo trail in earnest in 1970 and achieved immediate success on the PRCA circuit. Describing his career at that time he told Western Horseman, “I really like to get going from June on. I like to get on a bareback bronc every day if possible. I’ve found I ride better and feel better when I do.” This strategy combined with his physical prowess and professional savvy to earn Joe the PRCA record of five World Bareback Bronc Riding Championships from 1971-75. Equally impressive is his record of 13 years qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo. Throughout his dominance in roughstock competition, Alexander supplemented his earnings on the “other side” of the arena, consistently placing in the team roping event. In the 1980s, at 40 years of age and a decade after his rise in the sport, Joe Alexander was still riding bareback broncs. He is a 1979 Inductee to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
Joe Alexander remembers the Ellensburg Rodeo as an important stop on his road to five world championships. Joe cut a wide swath through the 1970s Ellensburg Rodeo arena, continually winning day money, averages, and the Ellensburg Bareback Bronc titles in 1972, ’75, and ’78. From those days, he remembers contractor Harry Vold’s (ERHOF 2000) rank bronc Neck Lace (ERHOF Inductee 2000) as “one of the four toughest broncs I’ve ever been on.” ERHOF Board member and former arena director Ken MacRae notes “I remember Joe as toughest bareback rider going in those years and his record proves it.”
Today, Joe Alexander lives in Marysville, California, with his wife Cindy, a former rodeo queen (Miss Winston) and 1973 Women’s Professional Rodeo Association Team Roping World Champion. Together, they raise quarter horses and take life a lot easier than they did during their 1970s “glory days.” Alexander told ERHOF that he is humbled by his selection.
Guy Allen
When Texas team- and steer-roping champion Tee Woolman dubbed Guy Allen “The Legend,” he was not exaggerating, just stating a fact. Guy Allen’s professional steer-roping career, from 1976 to present, is highlighted by thirty-one National Steer Roping Finals qualifications, eighteen world championship titles, and career earnings totaling $1,547,824. Indeed, in the world of professional rodeo, Guy Allen is a “legend” in his own time and all time—the greatest steer roper in the history of professional rodeo.
Guy Allen was born September 15, 1958 in Chousatta, Louisiana, to ranchers James and Ann Allen. He has two brothers and a sister. Three Allen men—James, Gip, and Guy—took their ranching skills into the rodeo arena. Guy hit the rodeo trail at age 7, accompanying his roper dad. After graduation from Santa Anna High School (in a senior class numbering twenty-six), Guy attended Ranger College in Texas.
He soon transferred to compete for the famed rodeo team of Sul Ross State College in Alpine, Texas. In 1976, Allen joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), competing in tandem with his team roping dad and individually in steer roping.
Steer roping differs markedly from the more familiar calf-, or “tie-down” roping. Steer ropers rope full-grown cattle, casting a loop around the horns and placing the slack under the right hip of the steer. Then the horse sharply turns left, “tripping” the steer to the ground. The roper dismounts from the still moving horse, which is trained to stop after the steer is “logged” until the roper can get his “pigging string” on a front leg and tie three legs together. Then he signals “time.” The flagger drops his flag and checks that the steer remains properly tied for six seconds after the roper remounts and gives slack in the rope. Like saddle bronc riding and calf- and team-roping, steer roping is a ranch-related event that requires, and thus preserves, skills identical to those of historic nineteenth century Plains cowboys and contemporary ranch cowboys.
In 1977, Guy Allen became the PRCA’s youngest steer roping champion, and he was just getting started. He won the steer roping and timed-event money in many of North America’s greatest rodeos—Pendleton (OR), Huntsville (TX), Sheridan (WYO), Dodge City (KS), Deadwood (SD), Kileen (TX), and of course Ellensburg; he has won multiple Texas and Prairie Circuit Finals steer roping and All-Around titles. In 1983, James, Guy, and Gip all qualified for the National Finals Rodeo, the first and only family trio ever to do so.
During a thirty two-year career, 6’ 2”, 205 lb., Guy Allen has qualified for the National Finals Steer Roping thirty-one times (1977-2007). As noted, he has dominated the steer roping event, winning eighteen world titles (1977, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1989, 1991-2001, 2003-04); he lost the 2005 world title to Scott Snedecor by $1.67! Those eighteen world titles are the most in the history of PRCA (bettering bullrider Jim Shoulders’ 16 titles). In addition, Guy Allen at present (2007) holds the world’s record for the fastest steer roping (in 2000 in Dunmore, Oklahoma at 7.9 seconds).
“Guy Allen has perfected the art of steer roping into an exact science,” states Hall of Fame board member and longtime Ellensburg Rodeo arena director Dr. Ken MacRae. “He has refined his horsemanship and his methods of handling the slack and gathering the steer’s legs and tying them into a technique that has become the standard all other steer ropers try to copy.”
Like all timed-event competitors, Guy Allen’s teammate is his horse, or in Guy’s case, two horses. He is quick to credit much of his success to his acclaimed horses nineteen year-old Jeremiah and sixteen year-old Floppy. Jeremiah’s registered name is Two D Ole Man.
In Ellensburg, Guy Allen has won the steer roping four times (’90, ’93, ’05, and ’06) and held the arena record (9.6 in ’96) for nearly a decade. “We have been very proud to have had Guy and all the other top steer ropers compete at Ellensburg,” Dr. MacRae said. “Guy Allen’s success in this arena over the years only adds to the legend. We have witnessed the greatest steer roper of all time in action.”
When he is not rodeoing, Guy Allen ranches near family and friends in Santa Anna, Texas. He has two daughters, Cigi and Sadie, and enjoys playing golf and watching his favorite NFL team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Stuart Anderson
Northwest restaurant entrepreneur and rancher Stuart Anderson made Ellensburg his adopted home in the early 1970s, establishing a ranch in the west valley to advertise his Stuart Anderson Black Angus Cattle Company franchise. An active Ellensburg Rodeo sponsor and host, Anderson was instrumental in televising the Ellensburg Rodeo.
He was born in Tacoma, Washington, of Swedish and Scottish parents, Dr. Roger and Susan Carver Anderson. Although Anderson aspired to be a cattle rancher from his early youth, his life initially took a different course. After graduation from Tacoma’s Stadium High School, he served as a tank driver in General Patton’s famed World War II Army Corps. Returning home, he bought and managed a hotel and restaurant in what he describes as a “rough and tumble Seattle neighborhood.” This ultimately led to the first “Stuart Anderson Black Angus” restaurant, a western-themed steak house that grew to phenomenal success throughout the American West in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
During these decades, Stuart Anderson shepherded his “Black Angus Cattle Company” to encompass 122 steakhouses, employing more than 10,000 people, and annually grossing $260 million dollars. Known for quality, affordable beef served in a friendly, western- themed setting, Anderson’s restaurants perfectly dovetailed his lifelong ambition to own and to run a cattle ranch.
His 2600-acre Black Angus Cattle Company Ranch, perched alongside Interstate 90 in western Kittitas County, soon became a showplace and calling card for his growing restaurant chain. Here, in the 1970s and 80s, Anderson learned and honed irrigation skills and raised registered and commercial cattle, sheep, and horses.
The adopted eastern Washingtonian immediately became involved in the Ellensburg Rodeo. In 1972, Anderson invited friends and rodeo volunteers to a western style barbeque at his Black Angus Ranch “party barn,” an event that continues as a rodeo tradition to this day. Anderson also served as the Ellensburg Rodeo Parade’s Grand Marshal; in 1984 his Clydesdale pulling horses were featured in the Ellensburg Rodeo’s six-horse hitch exhibition event.
“Some of Stuart Anderson’s greatest contributions to our rodeo,” states Hall of Fame board member Joel Smith, “were his sponsorships, and especially his promotions televising the Ellensburg Rodeo.” Prior to 1982, the Ellensburg Rodeo was one of the few top North American rodeos that had not been televised. “Stuart made it happen in 1982,” Smith recalls, “with a generous prize purse supplement, a television advertising contract, and numerous regional promotions.”
Meanwhile, Anderson continued his business career and became involved in myriad professional and community service endeavors. He wrote a book entitled Here’s The Beef! and served on the boards of Washington State 4-H, Washington Restaurant Association, Senior Housing Assistance Group, and Washington State Cancer Drive. He was also voted National Restaurant Association “Man of the Year.”
Anderson Family
Clarence Anderson, his children, and grandchildren, have served the Ellensburg Rodeo in many ways since the rodeo’s 1923 birth. From their horse-raising and farming days at Sunnybrook Farm, Clarence and Hazel Thurlow Anderson and children Ralph (“Dick”), Ron, Jerry, and Linda branched out into many rodeo jobs and competitions. Clarence Anderson was President and Director of the Ellensburg Rodeo and a founding member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse. For over eight decades, members of the Anderson family have served the Ellensburg Rodeo as roping and bulldogging competitors, volunteers, and Ellensburg Rodeo Royal court members.
The Andersons will be inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame at the Thursday, August 28, 6 PM, Hall of Fame Banquet in CWU’s historic Sue Lombard Hall.
Anderson family historian Linda Anderson Dozier writes, “Like many of the early‑day Ellensburg Rodeo volunteers, Clarence Anderson and his wife, Hazel, spent a great deal of their life promoting the Rodeo and, in turn, the Kittitas Valley of eastern Washington. Their children and grandchildren have stayed close to the Rodeo and in a variety of ways made their own contributions to the Rodeo’s success, and the local economy.”
Dozier recounts that Clarence Anderson, born in Ridgeway, Iowa in 1898, came to Ellensburg on the train when he was 10. His mother’s brothers ‑ the Johnsons ‑ were early pioneer businessmen in Easton and his uncle Al Johnson built a towering home (later known as the Highway Grille) at 8th and Main for Clarence’s grandmother. While Clarence’s brothers eventually homesteaded and farmed in the Badger Pocket, Clarence built a dairy and horse farm just south of the train depot in Ellensburg. Friends often called him “Sunnybrook” as that was the name of his farm on Anderson Road, just north of where the sprawling Anderson Hay headquarters sit.
Hazel Anderson was born on a Methow Valley ranch in 1900. She was the daughter of pioneer Mason Thurlow, who staked his claim in the beautiful Methow after a wagon train trip from Texas and brief residence in the Kittitas Valley (which he reportedly thought was unhealthy after his first wife and several others died). In the late 1920s, Hazel worked as secretary to the president of Ellensburg Normal School, now Central Washington University, and it was there through friends that she met the school’s riding instructor, Clarence Anderson.
Clarence raised both light and draft horses. In 1923, he used his draft horses to help clear the grounds that are now home to the Ellensburg Rodeo. A true “horse trader” (by all accounts other than his own ‑ he did not like the term), Clarence was responsible for many from west of the mountains making their first visits to Ellensburg to look at and buy his horses. Most often, these customers would also want feed for their new purchases. Clarence’s help in finding that feed led to the start of Sunnybrook Farm Hay Company, which is now known worldwide as Anderson Hay and Grain Company. Today, the company that Clarence started contributes greatly to the Valley economy each year and is in the third generation of family leadership with Clarence and Hazel’s grandson, Mark Anderson, at the helm.
Clarence was a founding member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse and was first elected to the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in 1949, a directorship he held for the next 20 years. Always involved in the Rodeo’s activities, Clarence and Hazel also opened their home to many of the visitors, contestants and celebrities who came to Ellensburg for the Rodeo. Hazel did most of the cooking while Clarence invited the people—including Slim Pickens, Monty Montana and many more. Clarence served three terms (1954‑56) as President of the Rodeo Board and remained an active Board member and committee chair until his retirement from the Board in 1969.
The Anderson’s son, Ron, moved Anderson Hay and Grain (and Valley agriculture) into international markets, developing strong ties with Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other nations. He led trade missions to Asia for Pacific Northwest agricultural interests and headed the National Hay Association.
Son Jerry Anderson ‑ a Gold Card member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA)—made his name in rodeo from inside the arena ‑ first, as a calf roper and bulldogger and later a team roper. In college in 1954, Jerry helped rope and bulldog his much-respected Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) rodeo team place into second in the nation. After turning professional, he competed in rodeos across the west, wining day money and titles. He won the Puyallup Fair and Rodeo calf-roping twice and placed in both calf-roping and bulldogging in the Pendleton Roundup (in a recent interview Jerry joked that in 1954 he held the Ellensburg Rodeo arena record in bulldogging “for about five minutes” until another cowboy beat his time!). Jerry won Ellensburg Rodeo calf roping go-rounds and the Kittitas County Wild Cow Milking buckles in 1961 and 1975. He has worked the calf chutes at Ellensburg for over 45 years.
Most of all, Jerry is known as someone who has always been ready to guide those who are just starting out in the Rodeo arena. He founded Ropers’ Supply on the old Vantage Highway and served as the PRCA’s spokesman and field man for years. For the past 19 years, Jerry has also played a prominent role in the Valley’s real estate market, specializing in farm and ranch sales. He has been responsible for helping bring a new generation of residents and volunteers to the Rodeo effort.
Jerry’s wife, Janis, has been the “roping” Grandma in the nationally famous “Ellensburg Rodeo Grandmas” since the group’s selection by Washington Mutual Bank in the early Nineties. The “Rodeo Grandmas” have put Ellensburg front‑and‑center of more national television programs than any other single story.
Clarence’s first‑born son, Ralph Richard, recalls riding in some of the earliest Rodeo parades, and the problems that arose when the horses were all ready for the parade and rolled in the manure pile before they headed to town! Richard left the Valley to find his life’s work in selling packing and shipping containers to the fruit and fishing industries.
Clarence and Hazel’s daughter, Linda, was queen of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1959 and after a brief stint at the Yakima Daily Republic, she moved to Southern California for a career in public relations and corporate communications.
Continuing the family’s support of the Ellensburg Rodeo, Ron and his wife Robin, as well as Grandson Mark Anderson and his wife Carrie, and daughter Linda and her husband Tom Dozier, are all members of the Rodeo’s Gold Buckle Club. Jerry is a past member of the Rodeo Hall of Fame Board of Directors. Richard and his wife are annual visitors to the Rodeo as are many other family members.
It has been eighty years since Clarence Anderson first drove his draft horse team into town to help build the Ellensburg Rodeo grounds. Since that time, Anderson family members have participated in nearly all of the myriad chores necessary to conduct and maintain the rodeo. The Anderson family will be inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame’s “Pioneer Rodeo Family” category.
Note: This article is based on the research and writing of Linda Anderson Dozier.
Harry Anderson
Harry Anderson was a “founding father” of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Anderson served on the Rodeo Board from 1923-26 and as its President from 1927-1941. Today, the “Harry Anderson Trophy” is awarded at the Monday Finals to the All-Around Cowboy of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Harry Anderson was born to William P. and Hulda (Border) Anderson in Ohio on February 7, 1871. In 1876, the Andersons returned to Bosquie County, Texas, where they had previously resided (and where Harry’s elder brother Charles Anderson was born). In 1882, Harry and Charles Anderson migrated to Washington Territory to work as cowboys near Walla Walla and, later, Boise. For nearly a decade they worked at running cattle and sheep, riding fences, branding, and roping on the ranges of Idaho and eastern Washington. By 1894, the Andersons had gained enough experience and capital to buy a sheep outfit of their own. They met great success over the next twenty-five years. Harry and Charles Anderson migrated to Kittitas County in 1916 and bought the McClennan and Wilson sheep outfit. They ran sheep on the range between the Kittitas Valley and the Columbia River for five years, selling out in 1921 to the Sanders Brothers.
Using the capital from their sheep ventures, the Andersons soon rose to the station of prominent Ellensburg real estate investors; they owned the Olympia block, other prime commercial properties, and Harry’s Moreland Ranch. In 1923, Harry Anderson’s cowboy past and his business acumen made him a prime contact for “Doc” H. F. Pfenning, Leonard Davis, Cliff Kaynor, and other boosters of the Ellensburg Rodeo; they invited Anderson to help organize a “Wild West Show” in Ellensburg. Thus, the former Texas and Idaho cowboy and sheepman found himself a “founding father” of the 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo and subsequently played a crucial role in the first 19 years of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Elected the rodeo’s second President in 1927 (succeeding Bill Fudge), Anderson’s next fifteen years of service were crucial to the development of the Ellensburg Rodeo. “Our show is as good as there exists,” he declared. During Anderson’s Presidency Ellensburg joined the Rodeo Association of American (1930), Red and Rose Wall became primary stock contractors (1931), and the Rodeo Board began to name its own rodeo court (1932). Entries rose to such a great number that the Board introduced “slack” time to accommodate all cowboy competitors. Facilities improved, attendance increased, and the Ellensburg Rodeo firmly established its reputation as one of North American’s best professional rodeos. Old-timers remember Harry Anderson’s crucial negotiations and dealings during the “Cowboy Turtles” union strike of 1937.
The Turtles (today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) had legitimate grievances about prize money and judging, and Anderson supported their cause. But he also opposed their boycott strategy and defied them by declaring the show had to go on. Although the 1937 Ellensburg Rodeo did not feature its usual array of talent, Anderson combined independent Turtles with other regional (including Canadian) cowboys to produce a professional show. Meanwhile, during the 1930s and 40s, Anderson served as a judge at major rodeos throughout North America, including Toronto, Cleveland, Buffalo, and New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden Rodeo. In 1941, Harry Anderson retired as President of the Ellensburg Rodeo. In his honor, the Rodeo Board created the Harry Anderson All-Around Trophy. Anderson retired to his 105 E 8th Avenue home where he and his wife lived until his March 7, 1951 death at the age of eighty. Harry Anderson’s nineteen-year term of service–four years as Board Member and fifteen years as President–stands unrivaled in the seventy-eight year history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Allen Bach
Ellensburg High School graduate Allen Bach is one of the greatest team ropers of all time, with 29 National Finals Rodeo (NFR) appearances and four NFR Team-Roping World Championship buckles during his stellar career.
Bach credits his parents, Courtney and Laura, for his work ethic and drive. Courtney and Laura Bach met, married, and worked together as welders in the Seattle shipyards before moving to eastern Washington and raising a family of six. “My dad worked really hard, from morning ‘til night drilling wells,” Bach recalled in a recent interview in ProRodeo Sports News. “My mom was a real go-getter and…the most inspiring person in my life.” Bach’s parents succumbed to cancer in 1972 and 1987, respectively.
Born in Soap Lake, Washington in 1957, Allen Bach learned cowboying skills from Columbia Plateau wranglers and rodeo competitors. Kittitas Valley roper Jerry Anderson remembers first seeing Bach at the King Ranch and other ropings around Coulee City. “Riding his good little horse ‘Boots,’ Allen was a contender from the start,” Anderson recalls. Bach continued to hone his expertise in high school rodeos, ropings, and on his family’s new Wilson Creek Road home.
Anderson owned a rope business and arena on the Vantage Highway and observed the youth’s progress. “Allen was very dedicated to his roping from the start,” Anderson states. “No one has worked harder at it or been more competitive.”
Allen Bach graduated from Ellensburg High School in 1975 and joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1978. A team-roping heeler, he won the Columbia River Circuit championship his rookie year, and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo one year later. Over the next three decades, he won championship buckles and day money at nearly every major rodeo across America and Canada, qualifying for twenty-nine NFR rodeos. Bach’s 2006 winnings were $172,986.00.
In 2006, Allen Bach and his header Chad Masters placed first and second, respectively, in the PRCA World standings and Bach won his fourth NFR Team Roping World Championship. This victory, coming as it did near the end of his third decade of professional competition, “was a huge accomplishment for me, and a blessing,” Bach reflects. “I’ve had a fairytale career.”
Despite his professional accomplishments, Allen Bach states “rodeo in and of itself would leave you pretty empty if that’s the only purpose you had for your life.” Peggy, Bach’s wife of twenty-nine years, and their children Joel, Tyler, April, and Erica, provide that extra purpose. So too does Bach’s recent ordination to the Christian ministry. Alongside some of his fellow timed event competitors, Bach runs “Forever Cowboys,” a faith-based ministry emphasizing moral values, athletic and spiritual growth, and the cowboy code of behavior. “I have just felt that God has impressed it on me to serve Him,” Bach states.
“Victory not only comes materially but on the inside,” Allen Bach reflects. “I encourage all people, especially young people, to realize the mental victories they have and learn from their failures, but then forget their failures…remember the steers you catch and build on those victories.”
Allen Bach’s victories, in both his rodeo career and his personal life, have been momentous. In his twenty-nine years as a PRCA cowboy he has, according to ProRodeo Sports News, “cemented himself as a future ProRodeo Hall of Famer and built a reputation as one of the greatest team ropers of all time.”
Bernard-Moomaw Rodeo Stock Company (1933-1945) Badger Mountain
The Bernard-Moomaw Rodeo Company, founded in 1933, provided stock during the second decade of the Ellensburg Rodeo. First teamed with Tim Bernard, the Leo Moomaw family provided bucking stock to the Ellensburg Rodeo for thirteen years between 1939 and 1991, ranking them alongside the Christensen Brothers (ERHOF ’98) in the annals of Ellensburg Rodeo stock contracting history. The Bernard-Moomaw Company won recognition throughout the 1930s and 1940s rodeo world for their bull Droopy. Bernard and Moomaw were among the first Northwesterners to breed and contract Brahma Bulls. Their most famed bucking broncs were Two Spot, Zombie, Swift Current, Blue Blazes, Jack Wade, Black Widow, Levi Strauss and, of course, “Badger Mountain.”
Dubbed “The Badger” by top hands, this famed bronc thrice won the coveted title of National Bucking Horse of the Year.
Tim Bernard and Leo Moomaw are both Inductees to the Omak Stampede Hall of Fame in tribute their role as 1934 founders of that rodeo. In their final contracting year, the Ellensburg Rodeo Board gave each man an engraved watch expressing gratitude for their contributions to the Labor Day weekend rodeo. Leo Moomaw and Tim Bernard were north central Washington stock contractors. Leo Moomaw, one of seven children, was born to Sam and Ellen Moomaw in Addy, WA in 1894. Although he suffered polio as a youngster, his love for horses helped him overcome any ill effects as he rode to gather the wild horses that roamed the area near what is now Chief Joseph Dam above Bridgeport. That was the start of his rodeoing career as a bronc rider, roper and later a stock contractor. In 1915 a group in Davenport decided to have a rodeo and they contacted Leo to furnish horses. He and some buddies gathered from the hills and drove the wild stock to the site. That started him in the rodeo contracting business.After a stint in the U.S. Army during WWI he resumed his rodeo business with Don Condon and they were in demand whenever cowboys needed bucking stock. Most often the rodeo string was driven to the shows from the ranch near Monse. Meanwhile a cattleman-bank loan officer moved into the Okanogan Valley having trailed a herd of cattle from northern Oregon across the Columbia River to his newly acquired ranch near Loomis.Tim Bernard, born in Chinook, Mont., in 1897, moved with his family to the Prosser area where he attended high school. He worked summers on ranches in Montana, attended the University of Washington and became a loan officer in a Spokane bank. But ranching was in his blood and he was bit by the rodeo bug having had successes as a roper. Before long a partnership formed between the savvy horseman Moomaw and the cattleman-businessman Bernard. “A handshake formed their bond of trust,” daughter Peggy Moomaw Nelson writes in her book in progress, “The Buckin Horse Man,” a biography of Leo’s storied career.
Moomaw’s broncs and steers and a trained crew under his guidance provided quality rodeo and Bernard’s business and sales acumen sustained the partnership from 1933 through WWII.They shared a vision that would bring rodeo into small towns and large cities where crowds would be drawn to see top quality stock and the best cowboy and cowgirl competitors. Tim headed out to sell their idea and Leo prepared the stock to travel, which became even more difficult in 1937 by adding Brahma bulls and Mexican bulldogging steers. (It was an $1,145 investment at the time, Moomaw’s son Wade recalls.) The company was among the first to bring Brahmas to Northwest rodeos. It wasn’t long until the Moomaw-Bernard reputation grew and rodeos across the region, including Canada sought their services. By 1940 they were into Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas as well as Calgary’s Stampede and Cheyenne’s ‘Grandaddy of them All’ Frontier Days. Their partnership also was a key to the start of the Omak Stampede. In 1933 with two other men, they staged the rodeo with portable fences at the Omak athletic field. It was not a financial success and Moomaw-Bernard had to dig into their pockets to bail out that first event which now is known world-wide. Moomaw-Bernard Contracting Co. (MBC) became known for its rodeo efficiency even before bucking chutes were used. They caught and tied the stock in the order they would be used, facilitating saddling which sped up the shows. And competitors knew the prize money would be paid fairly and that MBC stock would give them a good opportunity to be at the pay window. The partnership had many great bucking horses and bulls, but its most famous was Badger Mountain.
Leo’s talent for recognizing bucking stock paid off in 1932. He had heard about a 6-year-old bald faced bay at the Williams Brothers ranch in Douglas County. Neither of the brothers could ride the horse nor break him to plow. Leo took him to the Waterville rodeo grounds for a trial. He got a young cowboy, Henry Michel, to get on the big horse. Michel had just won the Pendleton Roundup bronc riding and with it the Northwest championship. After just four jumps out of the chute, Michel was thrown and carried back to the chutes to recover. Satisfied with what he saw, Leo traded one of his broncs for the horse that would be known for the next 25 years as Badger Mountain. In his first three years in the arena, the big bay bucked off every rider who tried him. Over the years, the horse perfected peculiarities in bucking style that “laid low the aristocracy of rodeo cowboydom,” Moomaw-Nelson writes in her book. Badger Mountain was selected National Bronc of the Year three times and was rated with Midnight and Five Minutes to Midnight as the three greatest broncs of the decade prior to WWII. His rearing, slashing, shaking style had cowboys and fans talking and publications including Time magazine writing about his prowess. As for his Ellensburg Rodeo visits, Badger Mountain threw many a rider but gave championship rides in both the ’39 and’40 rodeos. He was retired in 1950 to Bernard’s ranch and in 1954 was buried on a high knoll near Tonasket. The partnership sold their bucking stock to Ring Brothers of Wilbur, WA in 1946. But in 1953 Leo returned to rodeo to partner with Joe Kelsey and they provided stock to Ellensburg (1953-58) and many other rodeos in the greater Pacific Northwest until he retired in 1960.
The late Cliff Kaynor, who was an Ellensburg Rodeo director and past president, often said Leo Moomaw and Tim Bernard were men of their word and helped Ellensburg Rodeo through some difficult times. The Colville reservation stockman ranched until his death in 1969. Bernard continued ranching and later moved to Moses Lake where he had a livestock auction business. He died in 1979. Both men have been inducted into the Omak Stampede Hall of Fame.Many rodeo men acknowledge the Moomaw-Bernard stock contracting partnership had a significant influence on the sport of rodeo, especially in the Pacific Northwest and for generations of cowboys past, present and future.
Katherine Wyss Bach and Foxy Coke
A funny thing happened at a 1970s Yakima County Fair and Rodeo barrel-racing competition. In her go-round, renowned Ellensburg barrel racer Katherine Anderson Bach took a spill on her stalwart horse Foxy Coke. Bach literally “bit the dust” as she was thrown completely off Foxy Coke. Stunned and laying on the ground, Bach was surprised to hear the crowd roaring its approval. Why would they clap at such an accident? When she looked up and turned around, she saw the reason for all the cheering: “Foxy Coke was still doing his job,” she jokes. “He was speeding around the barrels without me while the crowd cheered him on; he didn’t stop until he’d finished the entire course!”
Katherine Bach resided in Ellensburg from 1957 to 1987. A Gold Card Member of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and Professional Women’s Barrel Racing (a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association subsidiary), Bach helped to pioneer the barrel racing event in the Pacific Northwest and Western PRCA venues, winning dozens of championship buckles along the way.
Katherine’s story began much earlier, in the ranching and rodeo country of northeastern Oregon. In the early years of the Great Depression, Conrad Wyss (1903-1984), a Swiss immigrant, married Jetta Bennett (1914-1991), whose family’s roots lay in the American South. The couple began a dairy farm in Reith, Oregon, near Pendleton. Katherine was born in 1936; she had a brother and sister. “Dad delivered Grade A raw milk door-to-door in Pendleton in a panel truck,” Katherine remembers. Conrad also raised oats and alfalfa, and the Wyss family kept riding horses and a team of work horses. Katherine began to ride bareback as a very small child, “as soon as I could shinnie up the horse’s leg!”
As a child, Katherine attended elementary school in Reith. She later took the bus to Pendleton Junior High and Pendleton High School, where she was a cheerleader. She also swam competitively and joined the “Mustangers” riding club. She fondly remembers Mustangers “playday” competitions, complete with precision drills, track racing, pole bending, “musical chairs,” and “egg races.” Barrel racing, the event in which Bach would one day leave her mark, was still a Southwestern (mainly Texas) competition that had not yet migrated north.
Around the age of 13, Katherine began her formal involvement with the Pendleton Roundup, playing the role of the “captive girl” kidnapped by Indians in the Happy Canyon Night Pageant. She soon rode in the Happy Canyon “quadrille” (a square dance with eight mounted cowboys and cowgirls) and competed in the Roundup’s daily relay races.
In 1954, she was selected Roundup Princess and in 1955 served in the coveted role of Queen of the Pendleton Roundup. Both years she simultaneously competed in relay racing while performing her royal court duties. “Nowadays, the Pendleton princesses and queen don’t compete in rodeo events while serving on the court,” she notes.
Katherine married Ellensburg calf roper and businessman Jerry Anderson in 1957 and moved to the Kittitas Valley, her home for the next three decades. It was around this time that the barrel racing event, which had come north from Texas, found its way into Northwest rodeo venues. Bach took up the contest mounted on an extraordinary grey quarter horse named Foxy Coke (1956-1984).
Foxy Coke was a race horse she acquired from Virgil Studebaker of Enumclaw; J.B. McMeans was one of Foxy Coke’s trainers. “He was one in a million,” Katherine notes, though she also has much praise for Whiskers and Too-Too, horses she rode from 1981-2001. “Katherine trained many very nice barrel horses,” states cowgirl and former Ellensburg Rodeo Queen Gena McNeil. “I think the highest compliment would be to say that her horses loved her.”
The decade of the mid-60s through the mid-70s was Katherine’s and Foxy’s heyday, as they won scores of Pacific Northwest Barrel-racing titles. Katherine joined the Washington Barrel Racing Association in 1960 and the Girls Rodeo Association (now WPRA) in 1974. She and Foxy Coke won championships in Ellensburg, Omak, Othello (six times), Yakima (“Yakima was one of Foxy Coke’s favorite rodeos,” she recalls), Joseph, Prineville, Bremerton, Mt. Vernon, Kennewick, Eugene, Yakima, and other rodeos. She was the Washington Barrel Racing Association champion in 1965 and WBRA Finals Champion in ‘66, ’70, ’71, and ’73. In 1974, her first year on the Columbia River Circuit of the PRCA, Katherine was Rookie Barrel Racer of the Year.
“Katherine was, and still is, a real inspiration to many of us,” states Gena McNeil. “She is a horsewoman of the highest caliber and willing to teach those who are committed to learning. She is ever the lady, always composed. I am proud to say she is my friend and is very deserving of this induction.”
Katherine Bach helped pioneer in Northwest barrel racing; she was longtime Secretary of the Washington Barrel Racing Association, and regional representative of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association. She played a pivotal role in the movement to establish barrel racing as a featured PRCA event. Yet she is quick to give most of the credit to other women she worked alongside. “I was a competitor, not a politician,” she remembers.
Ellensburg Rodeo historian and ERHOF inductee John Ludtka remembers Katherine as a “stately horsewoman who dominated Northwest barrel racing as it became more and more accepted by rodeo producers. Her remarkable success made locals proud, and thus made it easier for the Ellensburg Rodeo Board to move barrel racing from a night show slot to a featured event in the daily Ellensburg Rodeo performance.” Ludtka adds, “Of course, Katherine won the premier 1962 competition.”
In addition to her many rodeo activities, Katherine, with Jerry, raised a son, Curtis Anderson, and worked for the Ellensburg School District from 1971-1979. Katherine later married Courtney Bach (father of PRCA champion heeler Allen Bach) in 1979 and continued to compete in PRCA barrel racing venues. In 1987, Courtney Bach succumbed to cancer; Curtis had died unexpectedly in 1985.
Katherine Bach left the Kittitas Valley for Hermiston, Oregon, in 1987. She continued to race competitively until 2001 when, sixty-five years-old, she retired. “I quit barrel racing three times before I really quit,” she jokes.
Today, Katherine Bach keeps a Pendleton mailing address but leads a roving lifestyle in her truck and camper, following the sun, visiting and working with family and old rodeo friends across the North American West. “I’m sort of a gypsy,” she jokes. She pulls a horse trailer and rides daily. “I always have my horse Boomer. I live a really simple life.”
When she learned of her induction into ERHOF, Katherine responded with typical modesty: “I’m astounded,” she said. In fact, Katherine Wyss Anderson Bach possesses an astounding record of barrel racing success that ranks her as one of the Kittitas Valley’s greatest cowgirls.
Bernard-Moomaw Rodeo Stock Company (1933-1945) Badger Mountain
The Bernard-Moomaw Rodeo Company, founded in 1933, provided stock during the second decade of the Ellensburg Rodeo. First teamed with Tim Bernard, the Leo Moomaw family provided bucking stock to the Ellensburg Rodeo for thirteen years between 1939 and 1991, ranking them alongside the Christensen Brothers (ERHOF ’98) in the annals of Ellensburg Rodeo stock contracting history. The Bernard-Moomaw Company won recognition throughout the 1930s and 1940s rodeo world for their bull Droopy. Bernard and Moomaw were among the first Northwesterners to breed and contract Brahma Bulls. Their most famed bucking broncs were Two Spot, Zombie, Swift Current, Blue Blazes, Jack Wade, Black Widow, Levi Strauss and, of course, “Badger Mountain.”
Dubbed “The Badger” by top hands, this famed bronc thrice won the coveted title of National Bucking Horse of the Year. Tim Bernard and Leo Moomaw are both Inductees to the Omak Stampede Hall of Fame in tribute their role as 1934 founders of that rodeo.
In their final contracting year, the Ellensburg Rodeo Board gave each man an engraved watch expressing gratitude for their contributions to the Labor Day weekend rodeo. Leo Moomaw and Tim Bernard were north central Washington stock contractors. Leo Moomaw, one of seven children, was born to Sam and Ellen Moomaw in Addy, WA in 1894. Although he suffered polio as a youngster, his love for horses helped him overcome any ill effects as he rode to gather the wild horses that roamed the area near what is now Chief Joseph Dam above Bridgeport. That was the start of his rodeoing career as a bronc rider, roper and later a stock contractor. In 1915 a group in Davenport decided to have a rodeo and they contacted Leo to furnish horses. He and some buddies gathered from the hills and drove the wild stock to the site. That started him in the rodeo contracting business.After a stint in the U.S. Army during WWI he resumed his rodeo business with Don Condon and they were in demand whenever cowboys needed bucking stock. Most often the rodeo string was driven to the shows from the ranch near Monse. Meanwhile a cattleman-bank loan officer moved into the Okanogan Valley having trailed a herd of cattle from northern Oregon across the Columbia River to his newly acquired ranch near Loomis.Tim Bernard, born in Chinook, Mont., in 1897, moved with his family to the Prosser area where he attended high school. He worked summers on ranches in Montana, attended the University of Washington and became a loan officer in a Spokane bank. But ranching was in his blood and he was bit by the rodeo bug having had successes as a roper. Before long a partnership formed between the savvy horseman Moomaw and the cattleman-businessman Bernard. “A handshake formed their bond of trust,” daughter Peggy Moomaw Nelson writes in her book in progress, “The Buckin Horse Man,” a biography of Leo’s storied career.
Moomaw’s broncs and steers and a trained crew under his guidance provided quality rodeo and Bernard’s business and sales acumen sustained the partnership from 1933 through WWII.They shared a vision that would bring rodeo into small towns and large cities where crowds would be drawn to see top quality stock and the best cowboy and cowgirl competitors. Tim headed out to sell their idea and Leo prepared the stock to travel, which became even more difficult in 1937 by adding Brahma bulls and Mexican bulldogging steers. (It was an $1,145 investment at the time, Moomaw’s son Wade recalls.) The company was among the first to bring Brahmas to Northwest rodeos. It wasn’t long until the Moomaw-Bernard reputation grew and rodeos across the region, including Canada sought their services. By 1940 they were into Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas as well as Calgary’s Stampede and Cheyenne’s ‘Grandaddy of them All’ Frontier Days. Their partnership also was a key to the start of the Omak Stampede. In 1933 with two other men, they staged the rodeo with portable fences at the Omak athletic field. It was not a financial success and Moomaw-Bernard had to dig into their pockets to bail out that first event which now is known world-wide. Moomaw-Bernard Contracting Co. (MBC) became known for its rodeo efficiency even before bucking chutes were used. They caught and tied the stock in the order they would be used, facilitating saddling which sped up the shows. And competitors knew the prize money would be paid fairly and that MBC stock would give them a good opportunity to be at the pay window. The partnership had many great bucking horses and bulls, but its most famous was Badger Mountain.
Leo’s talent for recognizing bucking stock paid off in 1932. He had heard about a 6-year-old bald faced bay at the Williams Brothers ranch in Douglas County. Neither of the brothers could ride the horse nor break him to plow. Leo took him to the Waterville rodeo grounds for a trial. He got a young cowboy, Henry Michel, to get on the big horse. Michel had just won the Pendleton Roundup bronc riding and with it the Northwest championship. After just four jumps out of the chute, Michel was thrown and carried back to the chutes to recover. Satisfied with what he saw, Leo traded one of his broncs for the horse that would be known for the next 25 years as Badger Mountain. In his first three years in the arena, the big bay bucked off every rider who tried him. Over the years, the horse perfected peculiarities in bucking style that “laid low the aristocracy of rodeo cowboydom,” Moomaw-Nelson writes in her book. Badger Mountain was selected National Bronc of the Year three times and was rated with Midnight and Five Minutes to Midnight as the three greatest broncs of the decade prior to WWII. His rearing, slashing, shaking style had cowboys and fans talking and publications including Time magazine writing about his prowess. As for his Ellensburg Rodeo visits, Badger Mountain threw many a rider but gave championship rides in both the ’39 and’40 rodeos. He was retired in 1950 to Bernard’s ranch and in 1954 was buried on a high knoll near Tonasket. The partnership sold their bucking stock to Ring Brothers of Wilbur, WA in 1946. But in 1953 Leo returned to rodeo to partner with Joe Kelsey and they provided stock to Ellensburg (1953-58) and many other rodeos in the greater Pacific Northwest until he retired in 1960.
The late Cliff Kaynor, who was an Ellensburg Rodeo director and past president, often said Leo Moomaw and Tim Bernard were men of their word and helped Ellensburg Rodeo through some difficult times. The Colville reservation stockman ranched until his death in 1969. Bernard continued ranching and later moved to Moses Lake where he had a livestock auction business. He died in 1979. Both men have been inducted into the Omak Stampede Hall of Fame.Many rodeo men acknowledge the Moomaw-Bernard stock contracting partnership had a significant influence on the sport of rodeo, especially in the Pacific Northwest and for generations of cowboys past, present and future.
Jake Barnes & Clay O’Brien Cooper
Although each of them has been separately inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper were a formidable duo for decades. Together they have won seven World Team Roping championships, which until recently was a record. In 1994, they established another record: the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) team-roping aggregate time for ten steers: 59.1 seconds. That sounds like the unimaginable accomplishment of Byron Nelson’s 11 straight Professional Golf Association titles in 1945. Ten consecutive runs in the NFR venue averaging 5.9 seconds is hard to imagine when you consider all that can happen: barrier breaks (plus 10 seconds), catching one back leg (plus 5 seconds), the unpredictable movements and speeds of the steers, and the odds of complete misses.
But Kendra Santos in Team Roping Journal interviewed Barnes and Cooper about their record, and Cooper said, “That record’s stood for a long time, but it’s really an easy record. It could be broken by 10 seconds. Average 5.9 on 10 runs is nothing. . . I don’t think you can be 3 every time. But you can be 4 every time.” The record has stood for 24 years and counting, but Cooper’s confidence and awareness of what others on the circuit are capable of show just how deeply competitive they are.
Barnes was born April 4, 1959, in Huntsville, Texas. After joining the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1980, he qualified for the NFR his rookie season, heading for Allen Bach. He then partnered with Leo Camarillo, before joining forces with Clay Cooper. Barnes was a Dodge National Circuit Finals champion in 1987, 1989 and 1995. He was also the Turquoise Circuit team roping champion in 1985, 1989, 1992, 1994 and 1995.At the Ellensburg Rodeo, Barnes has won the championship buckle three times: in 1982 with Allen Bach, in 1985 with Cooper, and in 2005 with Kory Koontz. Barnes said, “It has been my dream since I was a little kid to be a world champion. All I ever wanted was to be a champion and wear a world buckle.” At this point, he has enough buckles to outfit every pair of pants in his closet.
A tally of their victories, though, only tells half the rodeo story. Roping is a fundamentally dangerous sport. At the Wrangler National Rodeo in 2005, Barnes had the end of his right thumb torn off, from the knuckle forward. In November of 2015, his horse fell and then stepped on his head. He broke his ankle and suffered a traumatic head injury. He was hospitalized and had to withdraw from the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo that year. In an interview he said, “Cutting my thumb off at the National Finals last December gave me a whole new perspective on roping and life. There’s no telling how many people lose thumbs and fingers in this sport every year. . . I felt bad for those people. But now I have so much sympathy for every single person, because I know all about the pain and suffering they’ve gone through. And the physical part is just the start. You go through a lot of head games when this happens to you. . . . The more people come forward with their stories, the more I realize that I don’t have it half as bad as some of these people I’m meeting.”
After his thumb healed, he said, “I can’t feel my rope as much now because so much of my thumb is numb. . .I can’t really feel it when I’m feeding my rope. My rope hasn’t gotten away from me, and everything’s probably pretty much the same. . . my thumb. . .feels kind of like your face feels on Novocain after you’ve been to the dentist. You know it’s there, but you can’t really feel it or control it as well.”
Clay O’Brien Cooper, though, has been blessed. He’s been injury-free throughout a long and illustrious career. Hewas the Turquoise Circuit All-Around champion in 1985-87, 1991 and 1993 and the circuit’s team roping champion in 1983-84. He was the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo team roping winner in 1987, 1989 and 1995. He was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1997. He has won at Ellensburg three times, with Barnes in 1985, with Chad Masters in 2012, and was the All-Around Champion in 1992. He has been a champion at over 42 rodeos and has earned nearly 4 million dollars.
He said, “Since I was a kid, I always wanted to rope for a living. The best thing is being able to make a living for me and my family doing what I always wanted.” Clay O’Brien Cooper was born in Ray, Arizona in 1961, but grew up in California on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. His stepfather, Gene O’Brien, worked as a wrangler on western movies and television shows like Gunsmokeand Bonanza. Clay started roping when he was five years old and joined a junior roping team. When he was eleven, he had a role playing Hardy Fimps in a John Wayne movie, fittingly called The Cowboys(1972); he had roles in Gunsmoke,Little House on the Prairie,The Apple Dumpling Gang, Marcus Welby, M.D, Cahill U.S. Marshal,and One Little Indian. But it was to horses, roping steers, the arena, and competing with fellow cowboys that he was most drawn to.
Santos wrote that “Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper teamed up for a pretty grand total of 14 gold buckles, each winning seven world team roping titles during their reign as one of rodeo’s all-time great Dream Teams. Jake and Clay have 56 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo appearances between them at 27 and 29, respectively, along with a long laundry list of records.” Although no longer a team, they are still out there winning rodeos with other partners, making the laundry list longer.
Maude Barnett
Kittitas Valley rodeo star Maude Barnett ranks alongside the cowgirl greats of the pre-WWII golden age of North American women’s rodeo. Maude Barnett was born September 2, 1900 in Omak, WA, where her father, George Smith, was a pioneer homesteader. It was there that she learned the riding skills that would make her a famed Northwest cowgirl competitor. After marrying, she moved to the Kittitas Valley where she and her husband Arville raised two boys and ranched in the Fairview area from 1926 to 1936. All four of the Barnetts were excellent horsemen (one son rode broncs and, later, raced thoroughbreds at Longacres). During this time Maude built a reputation as a top hand and horse racer.
Maude Barnett was a skilled and savvy relay racer who, astride local horses, won many 1920s and 1930s titles in Ellensburg and beyond. She rode to first-place finishes in Calgary, Pendleton, Cheyenne, Omak, and on the Canadian rodeo circuit. Some of her most famous Ellensburg finishes came close behind legendary cowgirls Tad Lucas, Mabel Strickland, Ollie Osborn, and Vera McGinnis (while Maude always rode her own local mounts, these cowgirls rode their sponsors’ expensive pedigreed race horses). In the early days of the Ellensburg Rodeo, Barnett was also a featured trick rider, mounting a blindfolded bronc and galloping past the south grandstand to huge crowd ovations.
Barnett was a saddle bronc rider during the pre-WWII years when women still rode broncs and bulls in Turtle- and RCA-sanctioned competition and exhibition events. Maude rode buckaroo-style, with one arm in the air and her stirrups un-hobbled. She won the cowgirls’ saddle bronc event in Ellensburg in 1925. Her neighbor Henry Schnebly recalls that, in over a dozen rodeos, he never once saw her thrown. She rode broncs professionally for fifteen years, quitting only as she approached forty years of age.
Neighbors and friends such as Schnebly also remember Barnett as a spirited woman who ran her motor cars as hard as her horses–Maude drove a Stutz Bearcat and Pierce Arrow down country roads at extremely high rates of speed. And Maude Barnett was a stickler for fair play. Once, during an Ellensburg Rodeo relay race, an unsportsmanlike opponent hit her horse in the mouth with his whip, and Maude reportedly retaliated by whipping him soundly with her riding crop all the way to the finish line!
After retiring from rodeo, Maude Barnett made her living in the restaurant business; she was owner and manager of Ellensburg’s popular “Mabel’s Cafe.” She died in Omak, WA, on August 11, 1969.
Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards and Lee Scott
When asked why he became involved in so many Ellensburg Rodeo volunteer activities, Ellensburg businessman Lee Scott used to say, “Well, someone has to chop the wood.” Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards, and Lee Scott were all “wood choppers” and they have earned recognition as ERHOF “Honorees.”
Schaller Bennett was a respected Kittitas Valley “oldtime cowboy,” rodeo competitor, and rodeo volunteer. Born into a Issaquah logging family, Bennett came to love horses while driving logging teams above Lake Sammamish. Schaller craved the “cowboy life,” and in 1925 he and wife Lula moved to the Kittitas Valley to live out that dream. They ranched on the Umptanum and Parke Creeks, building a small herd of their own. Every summer Schaller ran his cattle alongside other herds on federal land near Lion’s Rock, and the Bennetts made a tradition of summering at their Lion’s Rock cow camp.
Schaller Bennett’s rodeo career began in Issaquah bronc riding competitions. He captured the Kittitas County Bronc Riding Championship an unmatched two times, in 1927 and 1931. Schaller rodeoed throughout the Northwest in the 1920s and 1930s but was seriously injured while bulldogging in the 1938 Ellensburg Rodeo. Although retired from rodeo, Schaller kept ranching through the death of Lula in 1948 and his second wife Mary in 1974. By the time of his death in 1983, Schaller Bennett had befriended and tutored scores of young Kittitas Valley cowboys who looked to him as a role model. Schaller Bennett was one of “last of the old-time cowboys.”
Frank Bryant pioneered the crucial alliance between the Yakima Indians and the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1923 through 1940s. Bryant was a local game warden, credited with introducing Chinese “ringneck” pheasant and Yellowstone elk to the valley. Bryant lived near Liberty and spoke “Chinook Jargon” a language invented by 19th century white and Indian Northwesterners to facilitate communication. In 1923, the founding rodeo board asked Bryant to coordinate Yakima Indian participation in the first Ellensburg Rodeo. 150 Indians attended, and by 1937 Frank Bryant could report over 100 teepees in the encampment and Indians representing over 20 tribes. “It is by far the largest gathering since the rodeo’s start,” he noted. Bryant was still on board when the rodeo resumed after a two-year World War II hiatus in 1945. He met with Yakima leaders in White Swan, securing promises of 100 mounted Indian participants in full regalia for the ’45 rodeo.
Today, the Ellensburg Rodeo is well known in part for its Indian participants. The Indians’ encampment, open to visitors, and their participation in the opening ceremony, traditional dancing, parade, and rodeo flat races and other competitive events, are essential to the Ellensburg Rodeo tradition. Frank Bryant, working in conjunction with the Yakima Indian people, shares much of the credit for the establishment and nurturing of those traditions.
Lou Richards was one of the “founding fathers” of the 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo. He worked as a Rodeo Board Director and Arena Director for over two decades during the rodeo’s formative years. Richards, a local cattleman, was there in the beginning when community members began to plan the first Ellensburg Rodeo. Under County Extension Agent Leonard Davis, Richards served as “straw boss” of hundreds of volunteers who formed the work crews that built the Kittitas County Fair and Rodeo grounds in the summer of 1923. Richards and his men built an exhibit hall and a grandstand with seating for 5000, plus fences, corrals, and a race track.
Elected to the first 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo Board, Richards in 1930 took the all-important post of Arena Director coordinating the arena action and keeping the show moving. He served until 1946. It was Richards who helped to plan and coordinate the array of fast-moving and entertaining rodeo events, races, and contract acts that characterize the Ellensburg Rodeo to this day. In 1937, Richards led the Ellensburg Rodeo across the “picket line” of the Cowboy Turtles’ (precursor to today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association), when the professional cowboys went out on strike. In ’38, he agreed to some of the Turtles’ demands and welcomed them, noting “It’s like a homecoming to see all the boys back.” Lou Richards served as Arena Director until 1946, leaving one of the longest and most distinguished service records in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Lee Scott (1891-1983) was an energetic and respected local businessman who became a tireless worker for the Ellensburg Rodeo. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1891, Lee and wife Anne moved to Ellensburg in 1912 to buy and operate what would become Model Laundry and Cleaners. A tireless promoter and booster, Lee Scott joined the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in 1927 and served through 1935; he remained active in the rodeo the rest of his life.
Among Lee Scott’s many rodeo chores was the coordination of downtown businessmen and service organizations in support and marketing of the rodeo. For example, Scott helped begin the practice of businessmen dressing in western clothes and selling and wearing “rodeo pins” each rodeo season; to “enforce” this practice, Lee formed a “Sheriff’s Posse” akin to the “Kangaroo Court” and “Chamber Cowboys” of the modern era. Lee Scott also organized the annual rodeo dance. Lee Scott’s son Chuck served on the Rodeo Board from 1968-1982 (President ’72-’73) and granddaughter Kelly Scott Mills was 1969 Ellensburg Rodeo Queen.
Lee Scott “chopped a lot of wood” in support of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Indeed, Scott and his contemporaries Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, and Lou Richards helped build the volunteer tradition upon which the rodeo was, and still is, solidly based.
Beard Rodeo Company, Homegrown
“The Ellensburg Rodeo could not have sustained its success without Frank Beard Rodeo Company stock,” states Ellensburg Rodeo Board member and past-President Steve Alder. “The Beards and the Ellensburg Rodeo have a personal connection: They are great, down-to-earth people.”
The Beard Rodeo Company, headquartered at Frank and Charlot Beard’s Naneum Road Ranch, carries on a proud tradition of premier rodeo stock contracting companies affiliated with the Ellensburg Rodeo. The Beard Rodeo Company ranks alongside legendary contractors Red and Rose Wall, Bernard-Moomaw, Christensen Brothers, and Harry Vold.
Frank Beard was born in a tent in an olive grove in Oroville, California in 1928. He grew up in his parents’ (Bill and Ruby) ranching and horse-trading family on the Yakama Indian Reservation, near Toppenish. Frank broke and trained horses from boyhood, and at age 16 began a rodeo career as a roughstock (bareback bronc and bull) rider.
Beard began to ride their “try-out” bucking horses and worked for the VanBelles as a pickup man. Frank married their daughter Charlot on September 3, 1947. Thus the two will celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary this Ellensburg Rodeo Labor Day weekend. The Beards have five children—Casey, Tim, Kelly, Pat, and Shannon.
Meanwhile, the Beards moved to their present 160-acre Naneum Road ranch in 1977. “We were drawn by good land, natural beauty, wildlife, and Ellensburg’s important rodeo connections and location on major interstate highways,” Frank recalls. The Beards realized a lifelong dream by building their own log home, replete with their collection of Navajo blankets, antique tack and rigging, ranching and rodeo artifacts and memorabilia as well as western art. Their rodeo practice arena is directly behind their home.
In Ellensburg, Frank continued horseshoeing while building his rodeo stock contracting business. The Beards incrementally built up the number and quality of their herd, raising and bucking their own broncs and purchasing bulls; they worked an average twenty small rodeos a year. By 1987, Beard broncs and bulls were acquiring regional acclaim. The Beard Rodeo Company was ready for the “big time,” and joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. “Our journey in the PRCA,” Charlot reflects, “has brought us much pride in our ability to produce good rodeos.”
The same year the Beard Rodeo Company joined the PRCA they became a primary stock contractor for the Ellensburg Rodeo. “We were doing some smaller PRCA rodeos and it came our time [to join the Ellensburg Rodeo],” Frank remembers. “We gained confidence in ourselves and got lots of prestige from being here.” “It was a milestone for us,” states Frank’s son and National Finals Rodeo pickup man Pat Beard. “This is the brass ring.”
The Beard Rodeo Company is a family endeavor with daughter, sons, son-in-law, and grandchildren working in varied roles. The crisp clean look of Beard Rodeo Company hands comes from the washrooms of Charlot and Shannon Beard Stewart, who iron and starch hundreds of shirts each rodeo season. The Beards and Stewarts take their families in travel trailers to all of their contracted rodeos, and cook and feed their crew.
Beard Rodeo Company broncs and bulls appear at the greatest rodeos in the nation, including the PRCA Circuit Finals and seventeen consecutive appearances at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Famed Beard broncs are Wild Strawberry, Profit Taker, Back Door, Heckle, and No Savvy, and their bulls include the acclaimed Hemi Dip and Bacca.
The Beard Rodeo Company bucking bronc “Homegrown” is also inducted into ERHOF. Homegrown (aka “Copenhagen Homegrown”) was sired by Wagon Boss and raised on the Beard Rodeo Company’s Naneum Road Ranch. Fifteen years-old, he is a four-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and has bucked at numerous Columbia River Circuit and Dodge National Circuit rodeos. Because of Homegrown’s great speed, rodeo pickup men are extremely wary of stepping out on the track with him. The Beards write, “Homegrown’s trademark in his colts are their flaxen manes and tails, their out-of-line bucking style and great speed.”
Although both are now 78 years old, Frank and Charlot remain active and involved in rodeo and ranching. Frank plans to keep rodeo contracting and gradually turn management of the Beard Rodeo Company over to family members. And, of course, they will continue to live on their ranch and raise horses.
Although they work rodeos across the American West, the Beards have a special relationship with the Ellensburg Rodeo. “Nearly everywhere I go,” Frank recalls, “I hear folks talking about the Indians coming off the hill and the good competition and the stock in the Ellensburg Rodeo. It is an honor for us to be part of the Ellensburg Rodeo.”
Charlot recalls the origins of today’s Beard Rodeo Company back when she and Frank “started putting together some bucking horses for Pat, our youngest son, to practice on, and for other members of the Sunnyside High School Rodeo Club to ride also.” Adding a few bulls, the Beards began to produce high school and junior rodeos. In 1973, they founded the Beard Rodeo Company and soon were producing small professional rodeos for the Washington Rodeo Association and Northwest Rodeo Association.
Meanwhile, the Beards moved to their present 160-acre Naneum Road ranch in 1977. “We were drawn by good land, natural beauty, wildlife, and Ellensburg’s important rodeo connections and location on major interstate highways,” Frank recalls. The Beards realized a lifelong dream by building their own log home, replete with their collection of Navajo blankets, antique tack and rigging, ranching and rodeo artifacts and memorabilia as well as western art. Their rodeo practice arena is directly behind their home.
In Ellensburg, Frank continued horseshoeing while building his rodeo stock contracting business. The Beards incrementally built up the number and quality of their herd, raising and bucking their own broncs and purchasing bulls; they worked an average twenty small rodeos a year. By 1987, Beard broncs and bulls were acquiring regional acclaim. The Beard Rodeo Company was ready for the “big time,” and joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. “Our journey in the PRCA,” Charlot reflects, “has brought us much pride in our ability to produce good rodeos.”
The same year the Beard Rodeo Company joined the PRCA they became a primary stock contractor for the Ellensburg Rodeo. “We were doing some smaller PRCA rodeos and it came our time [to join the Ellensburg Rodeo],” Frank remembers. “We gained confidence in ourselves and got lots of prestige from being here.” “It was a milestone for us,” states Frank’s son and National Finals Rodeo pickup man Pat Beard. “This is the brass ring.”
The Beard Rodeo Company is a family endeavor with daughter, sons, son-in-law, and grandchildren working in varied roles. The crisp clean look of Beard Rodeo Company hands comes from the washrooms of Charlot and Shannon Beard Stewart, who iron and starch hundreds of shirts each rodeo season. The Beards and Stewarts take their families in travel trailers to all of their contracted rodeos, and cook and feed their crew.
Beard Rodeo Company broncs and bulls appear at the greatest rodeos in the nation, including the PRCA Circuit Finals and seventeen consecutive appearances at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Famed Beard broncs are Wild Strawberry, Profit Taker, Back Door, Heckle, and No Savvy, and their bulls include the acclaimed Hemi Dip and Bacca.
The Beard Rodeo Company bucking bronc “Homegrown” is also inducted into ERHOF. Homegrown (aka “Copenhagen Homegrown”) was sired by Wagon Boss and raised on the Beard Rodeo Company’s Naneum Road Ranch. Fifteen years-old, he is a four-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and has bucked at numerous Columbia River Circuit and Dodge National Circuit rodeos. Because of Homegrown’s great speed, rodeo pickup men are extremely wary of stepping out on the track with him. The Beards write, “Homegrown’s trademark in his colts are their flaxen manes and tails, their out-of-line bucking style and great speed.”
Although both are now 78 years old, Frank and Charlot remain active and involved in rodeo and ranching. Frank plans to keep rodeo contracting and gradually turn management of the Beard Rodeo Company over to family members. And, of course, they will continue to live on their ranch and raise horses.
Although they work rodeos across the American West, the Beards have a special relationship with the Ellensburg Rodeo. “Nearly everywhere I go,” Frank recalls, “I hear folks talking about the Indians coming off the hill and the good competition and the stock in the Ellensburg Rodeo. It is an honor for us to be part of the Ellensburg Rodeo.”
Joe Beaver
“I never gave up or quit,” says World Champion roper Joe Beaver recalling of one of his record-breaking rodeo seasons. “That’s what rodeo and life have in common: It ain’t over ‘til you say so.” Joe Beaver is one of the greatest ropers in the history of professional rodeo and the Ellensburg Rodeo, where he won five gold buckles, has served as a prime venue for his talents. His induction into the Ellensburg Hall of Fame will cement that distinction for posterity.
Joe Beaver was born to Walter and Bonnie Beaver of Victoria, Texas, on October 13, 1965. Standing six-foot three inches tall and 230 pounds, he entered his first PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) rodeo at age twenty and never looked back. He Named Pro Rodeo’s 1985’s “Rookie of the Year” Beaver has consistently finished among the money leaders for nearly two decades. Much of his fame has come from calf roping competitions, but the burly Texan also earned bushels of prize money in the team roping and steer roping events.
Beaver had to overcome adversity throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s as his career paralleled that of seven-time World All-Around Champion roughstock rider Ty Murray, then the winningest rodeo cowboy of all time.
During his storied career, Beaver has ridden several great horses, including Legacy, Jet, Scooby Doo (who he rode twenty-four consecutive years) and Pat. Commenting on Pat’s talent and reliability, Beaver once joked that he and the horse had made a deal: “I don’t try to make him run any farther than he has to, and he doesn’t try to make me run any farther than I have to.”
Beaver’ fourteen year-old son, Brody, grew up on the “rodeo road,” traveling with his dad across North America throughout the 1990s. When Beaver won the Ellensburg All-Around in 1998, the Daily Record’s front page carried a picture him and Brody.
In Ellensburg, Joe Beaver became dominant in the 1990s, winning the calf roping in three times (’92, ’94, ’95) and the Ellensburg All-Around title twice, (‘94 and ’98). At the World level his numbers put him among the all-time greats, winning five PRCA World calf roping title (’85, ’87, ’88, ’92, ’93) and three World All-Around Championship in ’95, ’96, and 2000. He has qualified for the National Finals Rodeo nineteen times and, as of the 2003 final standings, holds the PRCA career earnings record of $2,363,361. The talented Texan was a 2002 Inductee to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, joining the sport’s finest athletes and personalities.
Beaver, respected by fans and peers alike for his grit and professionalism, says, “It means something to me to be the same guy every day,” he states, “no matter where I am or what I am doing.”
Berenice Blair Dossey Bolen
Berenice Blair Dossey Bolen is a 1999 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in the Participant Category. Born and raised in Ellensburg, she became a professional trick rider in 1935, achieving great acclaim during a twenty-year rodeo career. Berenice always loved performing in the Ellensburg Rodeo arena, which featured her daring feats for ten years from 1935 to 1945.
Berenice Evelyn Blair was born April 26, 1913 to Louis and Winifred “Freda” (Smith) Blair in Ellensburg. Louis (Louie) Blair had migrated to the Kittitas Valley in 1900 from Quebec, Canada. He was the only son of Louis and Sophia Blair, and had five sisters. He settled on a farm east of Ellensburg which had been homesteaded by his Uncle.
Freda’s brother Earl Smith had horses and as a little girl, Berenice loved to ride with him on her special horse, Prince. At age 16 Berenice married Jim Hailey. They had a son, Jim, Jr., who became a bulldogger and bareback rider who contested in Ellensburg.
In 1932, Berenice left Ellensburg and her marriage to follow her desire to become a professional trick rider. In her travels she met Hank Durnell, a trick rider and roper and Hollywood stunt man who doubled for movie star Tom Mix. Berenice worked with the last surviving troupe of Oklahoma’s fabled 101 Ranch Wild West Show (near Hank’s friend’s Will Rogers’ birthplace). Touring overseas, she performed for the Queen (now Queen Mother) of England.
Berenice returned to Ellensburg as a trick rider in the 1935 and 1936 rodeos. She went on to become one of America’s most beautiful and talented rodeo cowgirls, famed for her hippodrome stand, “Cossack Drag,” going under the belly and neck of her horse, and other tricks. Berenice worked rodeos from coast to coast in America and Canada, including Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, San Francisco’s Cow Palace, and scores of major and smaller rodeos.
In 1937 Berenice returned to Ellensburg and married Bates Taylor who also learned to trick ride. They bought and trained talented horses, a favorite sorrel they called Tony (with a white strip on his face) and, later, a bald-faced, dark, blood bay horse with white stockings called Sundee.
Berenice was talented in leather craft, and she designed and sewed her own trick riding outfits; color was very important to her. She could sew anything, even a wedding dress, without a pattern.
She continued to appear in the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1937-1939. At rodeos across the continent, Berenice was a star attraction, due to her personal beauty, flair for showmanship, brilliant precision work, her captivating personality, not to mention her loyalty to her friends.
In 1939, Berenice married Carl Dossey, an Arizonan who became World Champion Bareback Rider in 1940 and, later, a successful rodeo judge known for his honesty and fairness. They managed a tavern for Harry Knight (then a champion bronc rider) in Chandler, Arizona, and later bought their own tavern and the Cross Lazy Y Ranch near Black Canyon, Arizona. They had two children, Eddie and Cinde.
Berenice worked the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1941, 1945-1948, and 1950. She seriously injured her back in a Twin Falls, Idaho performance. Then, in 1955, a Chandler rodeo parade accident took Carl’s life. He was riding with 5-year old Eddie when a team of horses ran off; Carl rode in front of them to save his son and was killed (both of Eddie’s legs were broken). Daughter Cinde was only 18 months old at the time. Berenice decided to sell both the ranch and the tavern.
Berenice later married Frank Bolen of Chandler. She also decided that rodeo life was no place to raise a family and she retired from trick riding in 1956, after more than two decades of rodeoing. Berenice’s last public appearance was in a 1956 Denver, Colorado, rodeo reunion with many of her famous trick riding friends. She and Frank worked ranches and other businesses in Texas, Kansas, and California, finally settling in Burley, Idaho in 1969.
Berenice devoted her later years to her family. She never lost her love of sitting at home and singing the French songs her dad and Aunt Lena taught her. She had a lovely singing voice. In January 1974, Berenice Blair Dossey Bolen was diagnosed with breast cancer and by September of the same year she was gone–but not forgotten.
Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company
The Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company has roots that go deep in the history of Pacific Northwest rodeo. And throughout its colorful 70-year past, Big Bend broncs and bulls have bucked in the Ellensburg Rodeo Arena.
Bill Hutsell officially founded “Big Bend Rodeo Company” (named after Washington State’s Columbia Plateau region) in 1961, but the company descended from his father Lew Hutsell’s late 1920s eastern Washington stock contracting outfit. “Over the years,” writes one rodeo historian, “this company, and its tradition of outstanding bucking stock, became interconnected with a number of prominent rodeo contractors—each of whom owned his own company, either before or after the association with what later became Big Bend Rodeo Company.”
In 1928 or 1929, Lew Hutsell gathered together enough roughstock to produce Spokane’s July 4th Rodeo. Lew’s son Bill later partnered with Ed Ring, who purchased the Moomaw-Bernard Company in 1946 (Moomaw-Bernard were inducted into ERHOF in 1999). As noted, Bill and two partners founded Big Bend in 1961, but in 1971 sold out to eastern Washingtonian Joe Kelsey, another ERHOF Inductee. In 1992, the company’s evolution came “full circle”: Don Hutsell, Bill’s son and Lew’s grandson, partnered with Sonny Riley to buy out Kelsey-McLean. Riley and his father owned Flying 5 Rodeo Company, and thus the moniker of the new company became “Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company. “ The long history of Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company, and all of its related firms and partnerships, is interwoven with the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. This connection is reflected in a statement by Dr. Ken MacRae: “As arena director, it had been a long-time dream of mine to get only the top end of several Stock Contractors herds to Ellensburg. That dream became reality when we were able to get the great horses and bulls from Big Bend and Flying Five to join Calgary and Beard Rodeo in the early 1990s. The quality of our rodeo was dramatically improved then and has remained top notch ever since. The Hutsell/Riley horses and bulls, (many, such as Spring Fling, went from here to the NFR, and earned numerous awards as the top animals in the US and Canada) have helped enormously to keep us as one of the premier Rodeos, and the top hands all want to come here to get on that stock.”
Spring Fling: Keeping with an ERHOF tradition, Hutsell and Riley have chosen an animal to be inducted with their firm. The famed mare “Spring Fling” is a Big Bend/Flying 5 bronc who has bucked off cowboys across the trans-Mississippi West for over a decade. Spring Fling was voted PRCA top bareback bronc for 1997 and, uniquely, took the top saddle bronc honors two years later. In 2005 she was ranked as one of the top three bareback broncs in all of professional rodeo. Spring Fling appeared in the 2008 National Finals Rodeo.
Bosque Boy
When the subject of great rodeo animals comes up, non-cowboys often think only of the broncs and bulls of roughstock events. But in Ellensburg, a town steeped in the ways of cattle country, there is profound respect for the rodeo horses who do actual ranch work–the roping, bulldogging, and cow cutting horses that work in every rodeo performance. The Ellensburg Rodeo, unlike some rodeos, spotlights its cow cutting horses, staging an actual cow cutting demonstration in front of the main grandstand during the regular rodeo performance. Over the past 75 years, great cow cutting horses such as Lo Driver’s Yankee have shown appreciative rodeo crowds the skill with which range horses go about their daily work in working and rounding up cattle, and cutting them from the herd.
The Ellensburg Rodeo Board honored Bosque Boy in 1986 by dedicating the rodeo to him; it awarded Hobbs the same honor in 1993. In the 1990 show, the crowd gave Bosque Boy and Hobbs a standing ovation. After Bosque was retired, Hobbs rode his offspring, Bosque’s Shawdow, in the rodeo until 1993. Meanwhile, Hobbs remembers, Bosque “went to rest on September 27, 1991. I bet there aren’t many men to cut cattle on the same horse for 28 1/2 years.”
Hobbs concludes, “I could write or talk for a week in his praise and not get it all said. As far as I am concerned, God made one horse and let me be his rider.”
Everett Bowman
Born in Hope, New Mexico, July 12, 1899, Everett Bowman was eulogized by the Phoenix Gazette in 1971 as “both the Babe Ruth and George Washington of professional rodeo.” Raised in Texas and Arizona, Everett Bowman hit the “rodeo road” in 1924 and never stopped cowboying. Standing six feet, two inches tall and weighing in at 200 pounds, he became a dominant contender in timed events; he also founded the Cowboy Turtles Association (CTA), the first professional rodeo cowboys’ group to organize and demand better payout and judging in the sport.
Everett Bowman’s (1899-1971) role in Ellensburg dates back to the rodeo’s inception in the mid-1920s. Bowman won the Ellensburg Calf Roping buckle in ’26, the Bulldogging Championship in ’26, ’27, and ’32, and he won the Ellensburg All-Around title in both ‘26 and ’27. This is a record that places him alongside Bill McMacken and Tom Ferguson (both inducted into ERHOF in 1997) as one of the winningest cowboys in the Ellensburg Rodeo’s history.
At the World level, Bowman numbers are outstanding: He won the World Calf Roping in ’29, ’35, ’37, Steer Roping in ’37, Bulldogging Championships in ’30, ’33, ’35, ’38, and was World All-Around Champion in ’35 and ’37 (he was All-Around runner-up in ’36, ’38, and ’39). During his nineteen-year professional career, Bowman rode a string of celebrated horses—Mickey, Coon Dog, Chico, Possum, and Speckle Back.
“He was a cowboy’s cowboy,” neighbor and competitor Phil Meadows once said. “He did more to put the cowboy in good graces than any other man.”
During his fast-paced career, and at the height of his prowess, Everett Bowman somehow found time for administrative work. He founded the Cowboy Turtles Association (the precursor to today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) and led them out of Boston Garden on strike in November of 1936 to secure their status in professional rodeo. Naming themselves “Turtles” because they were “so danged slow getting organized,” the cowboys’ chief complaints were over the order of events, judging, and, especially, prize money—they wanted their entry fees directly applied to the purse. It was shady rodeo promoters and “no payoff shows,” Meadows remembered, “that Everett…worked against.”
Ellensburg previously had a good relationship with Bowman and professional cowboys, but in 1937 the Turtles boycotted Ellensburg (and Pendleton) as part of a nationwide protest. Ellensburg Rodeo President Harry Anderson and Bowman went toe to toe. ERHOF Board member Bertha Morrison remembers the ’37 strike well, and says Bowman personally warned local cowboys (including her late husband Chet) “they would be fined $500 for competing in Ellensburg or Pendleton.” “The Turtles wanted the purses increased and wanted their own judges,” Morrison recalls. “Those were the main issues.” When Anderson and the Rodeo Board refused, there were “heated discussions,” the Turtles struck, and the ’37 rodeo had to be staged with regional, non-Turtle, contestants. The following year, Morrison remembers, the dispute was settled nationwide. Anderson and Ellensburg arena director Lou Richards welcomed the Turtles back, and relations with cowboys have remained good to this day.
Everett Bowman competed in his last rodeo in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 1943. He retired to his Arizona ranch and work as a sheriff in Wickenburg, Arizona, where, according to rodeo historian Willard Porter, Bowman also “held dances, taught horsemanship, and talked rodeo to anyone who happened by.” On October 25, 1971, Everett Bowman, one of professional rodeo’s “founding fathers,” died in an airplane crash.
Buff Brady, Jr.
Buff Brady was born in Butte, Montana, in 1916. His father, Buff “Big Buffalo” Brady, Sr., worked as a trick rider and roper and bulldogging and bronc riding contestant, pioneering the growth of early North American rodeos and Wild West shows. In the early 1930s, Buff Sr. married Rose Walls, the respected rodeo stock contractor, and the Brady’s moved to the east end of Kittitas County. There, Buff Sr. and Rose furnished bucking stock for the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1931-38. They also owned Brahma bulls and helped begin the exhibition and riding of Brahmas in the rodeo arena. Buff Brady, Jr., attended Ellensburg High School, graduating in 1934. Following in his father’s footsteps, he hit the rodeo road as a contract performer in 1934 (he had begun performing in 1929). Buff became a standout trick roper, described by rodeo historian Cliff Westermeier as one of an elite group of cowboys who made roping “a form of art.” Buff’s forte was his combination of gymnastics with roping.
His tricks included his wife Ruby, his step-mother Rose Walls, and his talented trick riding horses. Spinning a wide loop, Buff could somersault backwards, landing on his feet!
Trevor Brazile
Trevor Brazile’s career list of wins is full of gold: he’s the only cowboy in history to win nine all-around World Titles; he also has seven individual ones, which ties Jim Shoulders’ record of sixteen. Brazile’s nine All-Around buckles outshine the All-Around records of Tom Ferguson (five), Larry Mahan (six), and Ty Murray (seven). Brazile may just be the Michael Phelps of Rodeo. He typically competes in three rodeo events: Tie-Down (Calf) Roping, Team-Roping, and Steer Roping. He is the third cowboy in history to have multiple Triple Crown seasons (where he wins the all-around, as well as two of his three events).
In 2010, Brazile was the first contestant in ProRodeo history to earn $500,000 in one year (he earned $507,921), and has earned over $4,275,000 in his rodeo career. And at thirty-six years old, he shows no signs of slowing down. So far this year at rodeos from Colorado to Texas, he has earned three team roping titles, three tie-down roping titles, four steer roping titles, and seventeen all-round titles.
Brazile is from Texas, born in Amarillo, now living in Decatur. He joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1996 and has been breaking records ever since. The Ellensburg Rodeo has been part of Brazile’s regular itinerary: he has won two championships in Tie-Down (’03, ‘06), one in Steer Roping (’01), and earned the All-Around Championship four times (’03, ’06, ’07, ’09).
Like Michael Phelps, Brazile has won so many times that he bears the burden of our expectations: if he doesn’t win we think there’s something wrong. He said, “I’m expected to win when I show up and there’s a lot more pressure on me now that I have been successful, but I can’t lose touch with why I do it in the beginning: to be able to use the talents God has given me to be able to reach people.”
Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards & Lee Scott
When asked why he became involved in so many Ellensburg Rodeo volunteer activities, Ellensburg businessman Lee Scott used to say, “Well, someone has to chop the wood.” Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards, and Lee Scott were all “wood choppers” and they have earned recognition as ERHOF “Honorees.”
Schaller Bennett was a respected Kittitas Valley “oldtime cowboy,” rodeo competitor, and rodeo volunteer. Born into a Issaquah logging family, Bennett came to love horses while driving logging teams above Lake Sammamish. Schaller craved the “cowboy life,” and in 1925 he and wife Lula moved to the Kittitas Valley to live out that dream. They ranched on the Umptanum and Parke Creeks, building a small herd of their own. Every summer Schaller ran his cattle alongside other herds on federal land near Lion’s Rock, and the Bennetts made a tradition of summering at their Lion’s Rock cow camp.
Schaller Bennett’s rodeo career began in Issaquah bronc riding competitions. He captured the Kittitas County Bronc Riding Championship an unmatched two times, in 1927 and 1931. Schaller rodeoed throughout the Northwest in the 1920s and 1930s but was seriously injured while bulldogging in the 1938 Ellensburg Rodeo. Although retired from rodeo, Schaller kept ranching through the death of Lula in 1948 and his second wife Mary in 1974. By the time of his death in 1983, Schaller Bennett had befriended and tutored scores of young Kittitas Valley cowboys who looked to him as a role model. Schaller Bennett was one of “last of the old-time cowboys.”
Frank Bryant pioneered the crucial alliance between the Yakima Indians and the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1923 through 1940s. Bryant was a local game warden, credited with introducing Chinese “ringneck” pheasant and Yellowstone elk to the valley. Bryant lived near Liberty and spoke “Chinook Jargon” a language invented by 19th century white and Indian Northwesterners to facilitate communication. In 1923, the founding rodeo board asked Bryant to coordinate Yakima Indian participation in the first Ellensburg Rodeo. 150 Indians attended, and by 1937 Frank Bryant could report over 100 teepees in the encampment and Indians representing over 20 tribes. “It is by far the largest gathering since the rodeo’s start,” he noted. Bryant was still on board when the rodeo resumed after a two-year World War II hiatus in 1945. He met with Yakima leaders in White Swan, securing promises of 100 mounted Indian participants in full regalia for the ’45 rodeo.
Today, the Ellensburg Rodeo is well known in part for its Indian participants. The Indians’ encampment, open to visitors, and their participation in the opening ceremony, traditional dancing, parade, and rodeo flat races and other competitive events, are essential to the Ellensburg Rodeo tradition. Frank Bryant, working in conjunction with the Yakima Indian people, shares much of the credit for the establishment and nurturing of those traditions.
Lou Richards was one of the “founding fathers” of the 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo. He worked as a Rodeo Board Director and Arena Director for over two decades during the rodeo’s formative years. Richards, a local cattleman, was there in the beginning when community members began to plan the first Ellensburg Rodeo. Under County Extension Agent Leonard Davis, Richards served as “straw boss” of hundreds of volunteers who formed the work crews that built the Kittitas County Fair and Rodeo grounds in the summer of 1923. Richards and his men built an exhibit hall and a grandstand with seating for 5000, plus fences, corrals, and a race track.
Elected to the first 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo Board, Richards in 1930 took the all-important post of Arena Director coordinating the arena action and keeping the show moving. He served until 1946. It was Richards who helped to plan and coordinate the array of fast-moving and entertaining rodeo events, races, and contract acts that characterize the Ellensburg Rodeo to this day. In 1937, Richards led the Ellensburg Rodeo across the “picket line” of the Cowboy Turtles’ (precursor to today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association), when the professional cowboys went out on strike. In ’38, he agreed to some of the Turtles’ demands and welcomed them, noting “It’s like a homecoming to see all the boys back.” Lou Richards served as Arena Director until 1946, leaving one of the longest and most distinguished service records in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Lee Scott (1891-1983) was an energetic and respected local businessman who became a tireless worker for the Ellensburg Rodeo. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1891, Lee and wife Anne moved to Ellensburg in 1912 to buy and operate what would become Model Laundry and Cleaners. A tireless promoter and booster, Lee Scott joined the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in 1927 and served through 1935; he remained active in the rodeo the rest of his life.
Among Lee Scott’s many rodeo chores was the coordination of downtown businessmen and service organizations in support and marketing of the rodeo. For example, Scott helped begin the practice of businessmen dressing in western clothes and selling and wearing “rodeo pins” each rodeo season; to “enforce” this practice, Lee formed a “Sheriff’s Posse” akin to the “Kangaroo Court” and “Chamber Cowboys” of the modern era. Lee Scott also organized the annual rodeo dance. Lee Scott’s son Chuck served on the Rodeo Board from 1968-1982 (President ’72-’73) and granddaughter Kelly Scott Mills was 1969 Ellensburg Rodeo Queen.
Lee Scott “chopped a lot of wood” in support of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Indeed, Scott and his contemporaries Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, and Lou Richards helped build the volunteer tradition upon which the rodeo was, and still is, solidly based.
Burkheimer Family
John and Frances Burkheimer moved to Ellensburg in 1950. They quickly became involved in the local community and formed many long-standing friendships over their twenty-eight years of ranching.
John was a cattleman and investor who served on the Rodeo Board for nearly a decade. His vision for the Ellensburg Rodeo’s future helped move it into the national spotlight by developing new sponsors, increasing the prize money, and professionalizing the entertainment. He helped bring in national acts like Gene Autry and Slim Pickens, and as parade director moved it from all-horse to floats and motorized vehicles. Without using a bridle on his horse Bimbo, he also performed cow-cutting exhibitions on the rodeo’s old track.
His community involvement did not stop at the rodeo. He helped form the Kittitas County Public Hospital District and chaired its Board of Commissioners for twelve years; he also served on the Thorp School Board, was a member of the Ellensburg Elks Golf and Country Club, and the Yakima Golf and Country Club. Together, John and Frances enjoyed many worldwide adventures, most notably safaris in Africa, India, and Asia. Frances chronicled her travels extensively, conveying her interest in the people and customs of those countries, making many long-lasting friendships along the way.
Their youngest daughter, Ann, was the 1959 Ellensburg Rodeo Princess and represented Kittitas County in a wide variety of venues statewide, like Bremerton, Seattle, Ephrata, not only exhibiting her riding skills but her speaking abilities. She and her father were competitors in cow-cutting locally and regionally. At one of the competitions, the Northwest Reserve Cutting Finals, John won the Open class trophy, and Ann won the novice one. Ann also performed cow-cutting exhibitions at the rodeo.
By 1969 Ann had become an airline stewardess and made the cover of United Airline’s Mainliner magazine with a feature article titled “High-Flying Cowgirl.” It was a pictorial essay showing her rounding up cows on the ranch, cow-cutting, as well as in the pilot’s seat as a licensed pilot and walking through an airport in her red stewardess outfit. The gist of the article is about her ability to fly between the jet set and the corral, between “buttons and bows” and “chaps and spurs.”
This dual identity characterizes the Burkheimer family. John owned property in Seattle and Fiji and was a real estate executive in the Seattle area, but he had ranches in Bothell and Ellensburg. He went on numerous safaris to Africa but came home to roping calves, branding, and herding cows from one pasture to the other, as well as in the High Valley Range which is now the LT Murray Recreational Area. It was this awareness of both sides of the culture that made him such an effective member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board.
For years, this legacy of bringing different cultures together has been a Burkheimer trait. Ann helped plan the Gold Buckle dances at the Springwood Ranch and son Bob was one of the three founders of the Gold Buckle Club, an organization of boosters who support the Ellensburg Rodeo. Even in that title is the dual nature of the family’s focus: getting the “gold” to help support the “best show on dirt.” Throughout his professional life, Bob has worked to get these two sides together. Bob said, “The Ellensburg Rodeo has been a tradition of our Family since the early 1950’s. Every Labor Day weekend we would look forward to inviting friends to our community to experience the cowboy culture and the commitment of local volunteers who proudly show off their community and help preserve the Cowboy culture.”
Of course, as the son of a board member, Bob was also volunteered for many things. As an act during one rodeo, his burro named Pedro would buck Bob off gently, then stand still. Bob attempted numerous additional mounts, but never completed a successful ride, something Bob had trained Pedro to do. In 1967, Bob was an extra in a clown skit. After an explosion and smoke made the real clown disappear, Bob leaped over the fence in an identical clown outfit and fell flat on his face, which was probably funnier than the planned version. While his father was directing the parade, Bob earned his rodeo stripes the old-fashioned way: as a pooper scooper.
Son John Jr. was an accomplished horseman and early member of the Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse, a group of 22 boys under 18 years of age. The Junior Posse was formed in 1958, and their purpose, besides performing complicated drills on horseback, was also volunteerism, like being available for search and rescues and riding in regional festival parades. They competed in “Play Days” against other regional riding groups running relay races, pole bending, and other feats of horsemanship. John Jr. excelled in these events.
The Burkheimers have been long-time supporters of the Ellensburg Rodeo and the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame, organizing and working at Gold Buckle events, maintaining a box at the Rodeo, and donating to various museum and rodeo-related causes. Joel Smith, President of the Ellensburg Hall of Fame, said “From the time the Burkheimer family moved to Ellensburg, their contribution to the Ellensburg Rodeo, and the rest of the community, has been continuous. They made a difference.”
Calgary Stampede Ranch
The Calgary Stampede Ranch has been providing stock for the biggest rodeos in the country, as well as college rodeos and rodeo schools since 1961. Their aim then was to provide quality stock for the Calgary Stampede, but they soon helped revolutionize bucking stock business. Instead of using rough stock off ranches in the rodeos, they created a program called “Born to Buck” with the intent of breeding high octane animal athletes whose job it was to compete with high octane human athletes. They are bred to buck harder and higher, which means high scores if the stock gets ridden and good entertainment value for the fans.
The Born to Buck program pairs very successful bucking mares with equally successful stallions, often using the fertilized eggs of a champion mare in several surrogate or “recipient” mothers. The horses go through a rigorous health and safety procedure. For example, new stock goes through a month of observation and maintenance before they join the herd to make sure they are healthy and fit. Spokesmen for the ranch state, “In addition to medical checkups, the horses’ hair and feet are carefully groomed before ‘going to town.’ Only 200 horses from the herd are called to compete in pro rodeos. The busiest will only buck 15 times in a year, spending just 30 days away from the ranch. Each bucking horse represents an investment of $10,000 from date of birth to the age of five.”
The Calgary Stampede Ranch has been extremely successful, and more than a dozen horses have become superstars, including Coconut Roll, Moon Rocket, Lawsuit, Kloud Grey, Guilty Cat, Outlawbull, and Grated Coconut. Grated Coconut, the bareback bronc also inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame, has won an unprecedented six world titles and six Canadian titles before early retirement.
For the first three years, the horses roam freely over the ranch, and usually after they turn four their conditioning begins. They get used to chutes, pens, and arenas. No horse naturally likes to be ridden, and these horses are allowed to buck off a 40 pound dummy, then young light cowboys, then heavier adults, so their bucking is reinforced: they successfully eject that weight on their backs. The Ranch cowboys use older horses to calm them when they learn to trailer, and they start with short distances, usually from one part of the ranch to the other. When they are fully mature and have developed their bucking techniques, the Ranch staff trucks them to rodeos.
The ranch itself covers thirty-four sections of land, nearly 22,000 acres near Hanna, Alberta, also home to mule deer, antelope, and white tail deer. The ranch has over 500 horses, including 70 brood mares, and they have over 80 bulls. Of that 500, only 45 are saddle horses. Their signature brand is a “C” over an “S” in a vertical line high on the left shoulder. They don’t sell horses with their brand on them. According to the Ranch’s website, when the horses have completed their bucking careers at pro rodeos, they “retire” on the ranch where “they live out their days roaming the pastures or being part of the Born to Buck breeding programs as brood mares, recipient mares, or stallions.”
Vern Castro
Californian Vern F. Castro (1922-70) competed and won calf roping, team roping, steer roping, wild cow milking, and bulldogging championships across the West throughout the 1940s-50s “Golden Age” of American professional rodeo. A ranch-raised cowboy from San Pablo, California, Castro learned how to rope and wrestle steers as a youngster on his family’s ranch. Standing 5’ 9’ and weighing 195 lbs., he held RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, now PRCA) Card #358. Castro’s career, which included two world team roping titles, lasted from the late 1930s until he retired from competitive rodeo in 1957. He died unexpectedly in 1970, at 48-years of age.
Back in the days before the National Finals Rodeo, Vern Castro annually made the trek to New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden rodeo. His winning record is especially striking because he did not compete in rodeo fulltime. Castro devoted much of his energy to working his family’s 6th generation Spanish Land Grant ranch located between Richmond and Livermore, California.
In Ellensburg, Castro won the Steer Wrestling (’47), Wild Cow Milking (’48), and Calf Roping (’50). He won the Ellensburg All-Around three times—’47-8 and ’50—a feat that ties him with Jimmie Cooper and is surpassed only by Bill McMacken, Tom Ferguson, and Trevor Brazile.
Following his second Ellensburg All-Around title in 1948, the Ellensburg Daily Record reported that the smiling, black-haired California cowboy “distanced as classy a field of cowhands as Ellensburg ever drew to go away with the show’s top honors.” Because Castro twice won Ellensburg’s coveted Esmerelda Trophy (sponsored by the Spokane Athletic Round Table), he earned the right take it home.
As noted, Castro garnered two World Team Roping Championship titles, one in 1942 (a tie with his brother Vic) and one in 1955. Yet when asked to name his proudest moments in rodeo, Vern Castro recalled they were “winning the calf roping in Pendleton, Oregon in 1946, and winning the Esmerelda Trophy (All-Around Champion) at Ellensburg, Washington.” Vern Castro stands in the ranks of the greatest cowboys who have ever competed in the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Harry Charters
Harry Charters, of Melba, Idaho, was a 250 lb. mountain of a man who gained regional and national fame as a bulldogger, calf and steer roper, and wild cow milking “mugger” from 1958-1968. Charters is one of the most accomplished and respected timed-event competitors in the long history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Born to central Idaho potato farmers in 1925, Harry Charters did not become a professional rodeo cowboy until 1958, at the (relatively) old age of thirty-three. “If he would have started back as a young as a young guy, he probably would have won more than anyone else in (the history of) bulldogging,” Idaho friend and fellow World Champion Dean Oliver noted. Charters grew up on a small farm surrounded by horses and livestock. He always had a horse and rode bareback to school; on the farm he “rode ditch” (irrigating), developing the unusual habit of dismounting his horse on the right hand side. In high school, Harry lettered in three sports and turned down college athletic scholarships. In the 1940s and 50s, Harry Charters married, farmed, raised six children, and competed only in amateur and local rodeos.
Originally a bronc rider, Harry competed in the Idaho Cowboys Association (which he had helped to form) from l948-1958. Yet Harry’s huge 6’ 6” 250-pound frame made him a natural for calf roping and bulldogging and it was in rodeo’s timed events that Harry Charters achieved greatness. He joined the RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association) in 1958, and in his first appearance won the Jerome (Idaho) Rodeo All-Around title. From that point on, there was no stopping Harry Charters.
Astride “Buddy Bill” (a registered quarter horse Charters trained himself), Harry Charters cut a wide swath through the 1958-1968 world of professional rodeo. He roped and ‘dogged at all the big rodeos—Cheyenne, Fort Worth, Pendleton, Calgary, the Cow Palace, and the premier Boston and Madison Square Garden rodeos. Despite his age and size, Harry was “dazzlingly fast and fleat of foot” and created unique and (often) unbeatable timed event styles.
In calf roping, Charters revolutionized the profession by dismounting from the right hand side of the horse, something no other competitor had ever tried. In bulldogging, he also used a unique dismount, described by fellow Idahoan Oliver: “He landed on his feet alongside the steer…with his left foot out behind him for leverage he would get his hold on the steer, twist, lift him off the ground, and flatten him fast.” ProRodeo Sports News agreed: “Those steers actually look like they are picked up, spun around in the air and flung to the ground.” Charters’ style puzzled and initially amused the top ropers and doggers’ of his era. Yet, as Western Horseman wrote, “they were still wearing those same puzzled expressions at the conclusion of the rodeo, as they were standing behind this big hunk of man in the payoff line.”
From 1959 through 1964, Harry Charters qualified for every National Finals Rodeo in either calf roping or steer wrestling, or both. Charters’ Pendleton Roundup steer wrestling arena record of 5.0 seconds stood for eleven years. Charters won the World Steer Wrestling title in 1959 and was simultaneously named the RCA’s “Rookie of the Year.” He fell $700 short of winning the 1962 World Steer Wrestling title.
Charters won the Ellensburg Rodeo Steer Wrestling championship in his rookie ’58 season, the same year he won the Ellensburg All-Around buckle. In 1965, he won the Ellensburg Calf Roping championship. “Harry Charters revolutionized Wild Cow Milking in Ellensburg,” notes Hall of Fame Board Member Jack Wallace. Charters’ size and skill as a wild cow “mugger” (the cowboy who wrestles the roped cow to a standstill while his roper partner dismounts and milks her) made him so dominant that his ropers enjoyed a significant advantage. Charters won the Ellensburg Wild Cow Milking ’60 as a mugger for Smokey Kayser (ERHOF ’98) and in ’61 for Jerry Anderson (ERHOF Board ‘97-2001). Harry Charters also broke his leg in Ellensburg, a bad memory and career setback that he (typically) shrugged off with a smile on his face.
One night in 1968, exactly ten years after he had first gone down the rodeo road, Harry Charters suddenly decided to retire. At the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo, stock contractor Hank Christensen (ERHOF 1999) walked up to Harry and predicted he would “win the All-Around.” Harry replied, “If I do, I’m gonna quit.” He won, left the arena that night, and never looked back.
Alongside his wife Jackie and six children, Harry Charters became a successful rancher, running over 1000 head of cattle on Idaho land near where he was born and raised. Harry Charters died from cancer in 1981, at age 56. He left behind him a rodeo life and record that will never be forgotten.
Christensen Brothers Rodeo Company
“The Christensens, as a family, gave everything they had to the rodeo business. I don’t think you can ask more than that.”
-Bob Thain, quoted in 100 Years of Rodeo Stock Contracting
For nearly forty years, from 1950 to 1986, the Christensen Brothers Rodeo Company served the Ellensburg Rodeo as its primary stock contractors. Their exemplary service, wrangling and pickup skills, and the renowned quality of their bucking and rodeo stock, has earned them the honor of being 1999 Inductees to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.
For over fifty years, Bob Sr. and Hank Christensen and, later, Bobby Jr., rode the rodeo road. The Christensen Brothers were famed for Bobby Sr.’s pickup skills, Vicki and Sherri Christensen’s trick riding, and a string of outstanding bucking broncs and bulls that included War Paint (’56, ’57, and ’58 World Champion Saddle Bronc), Miss Klammath, Blackhawk, Mr. Smith (aka Smith and Velvet, ”78, ’79, ’81, and ’82 World Champion Bareback Bronc), Oscar, and Oscar’s Velvet.
The Christensens contracted the Ellensburg Rodeo throughout four decades of the company’s history. “We were happy to get Ellensburg in 1950…We did Ellensburg, Lewiston, and Pendleton…Ellensburg was always special,” Bobby Sr. noted in John Ludtka’s The Tradition Lives On. And the Christensen Brothers gave much of themselves to the rodeo world. Their ranch was home for many a cowboy ‘down on his luck’; Bob Sr. once noted “Hank spent a million dollars helping cowboys.” Hank was also known for saying to any rodeo committee strapped for cash, “That’s o.k. You catch us next time.” In 1989, Bobby Sr., and Hank Christensen were inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.
The Christensen Brothers Rodeo Company flourished until the late 1970s when, according to 100 Years of Rodeo Stock Contracting, management difficulties and loss of revenue forced them to sell out. In 1986, Harry Vold and Bob Thain formed the new Vold-Christensen Brothers Rodeo Company. In 1987 Bob Sr., Bobby Jr., and Tracy Denly bought the company back; in 1989 Bobby Jr. sold out to Denley. The reign of the Christensen Brothers–the largest independent contractors in the history of Pacific Northwest rodeo–came to an end. Their legacy continues.
Clay O’Brien Cooper
Although each of them has been separately inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper were a formidable duo for decades. Together they have won seven World Team Roping championships, which until recently was a record. In 1994, they established another record: the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) team-roping aggregate time for ten steers: 59.1 seconds. That sounds like the unimaginable accomplishment of Byron Nelson’s 11 straight Professional Golf Association titles in 1945. Ten consecutive runs in the NFR venue averaging 5.9 seconds is hard to imagine when you consider all that can happen: barrier breaks (plus 10 seconds), catching one back leg (plus 5 seconds), the unpredictable movements and speeds of the steers, and the odds of complete misses.
But Kendra Santos in Team Roping Journalinterviewed Barnes and Cooper about their record, and Cooper said, “That record’s stood for a long time, but it’s really an easy record. It could be broken by 10 seconds. Average 5.9 on 10 runs is nothing. . . I don’t think you can be 3 every time. But you can be 4 every time.” The record has stood for 24 years and counting, but Cooper’s confidence and awareness of what others on the circuit are capable of show just how deeply competitive they are.
Barnes was born April 4, 1959, in Huntsville, Texas. After joining the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1980, he qualified for the NFR his rookie season, heading for Allen Bach. He then partnered with Leo Camarillo, before joining forces with Clay Cooper. Barnes was a Dodge National Circuit Finals champion in 1987, 1989 and 1995. He was also the Turquoise Circuit team roping champion in 1985, 1989, 1992, 1994 and 1995.At the Ellensburg Rodeo, Barnes has won the championship buckle three times: in 1982 with Allen Bach, in 1985 with Cooper, and in 2005 with Kory Koontz. Barnes said, “It has been my dream since I was a little kid to be a world champion. All I ever wanted was to be a champion and wear a world buckle.” At this point, he has enough buckles to outfit every pair of pants in his closet.
A tally of their victories, though, only tells half the rodeo story. Roping is a fundamentally dangerous sport. At the Wrangler National Rodeo in 2005, Barnes had the end of his right thumb torn off, from the knuckle forward. In November of 2015, his horse fell and then stepped on his head. He broke his ankle and suffered a traumatic head injury. He was hospitalized and had to withdraw from the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo that year. In an interview he said, “Cutting my thumb off at the National Finals last December gave me a whole new perspective on roping and life. There’s no telling how many people lose thumbs and fingers in this sport every year. . . I felt bad for those people. But now I have so much sympathy for every single person, because I know all about the pain and suffering they’ve gone through. And the physical part is just the start. You go through a lot of head games when this happens to you. . . . The more people come forward with their stories, the more I realize that I don’t have it half as bad as some of these people I’m meeting.”
After his thumb healed, he said, “I can’t feel my rope as much now because so much of my thumb is numb. . .I can’t really feel it when I’m feeding my rope. My rope hasn’t gotten away from me, and everything’s probably pretty much the same. . . my thumb. . .feels kind of like your face feels on Novocain after you’ve been to the dentist. You know it’s there, but you can’t really feel it or control it as well.”
Clay O’Brien Cooper, though, has been blessed. He’s been injury-free throughout a long and illustrious career. Hewas the Turquoise Circuit All-Around champion in 1985-87, 1991 and 1993 and the circuit’s team roping champion in 1983-84. He was the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo team roping winner in 1987, 1989 and 1995. He was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1997. He has won at Ellensburg three times, with Barnes in 1985, with Chad Masters in 2012, and was the All-Around Champion in 1992. He has been a champion at over 42 rodeos and has earned nearly 4 million dollars.
He said, “Since I was a kid, I always wanted to rope for a living. The best thing is being able to make a living for me and my family doing what I always wanted.” Clay O’Brien Cooper was born in Ray, Arizona in 1961, but grew up in California on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. His stepfather, Gene O’Brien, worked as a wrangler on western movies and television shows like Gunsmokeand Bonanza. Clay started roping when he was five years old and joined a junior roping team. When he was eleven, he had a role playing Hardy Fimps in a John Wayne movie, fittingly called The Cowboys(1972); he had roles in Gunsmoke,Little House on the Prairie,The Apple Dumpling Gang, Marcus Welby, M.D, Cahill U.S. Marshal,and One Little Indian. But it was to horses, roping steers, the arena, and competing with fellow cowboys that he was most drawn to.
Santos wrote that “Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper teamed up for a pretty grand total of 14 gold buckles, each winning seven world team roping titles during their reign as one of rodeo’s all-time great Dream Teams. Jake and Clay have 56 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo appearances between them at 27 and 29, respectively, along with a long laundry list of records.” Although no longer a team, they are still out there winning rodeos with other partners, making the laundry list longer.
Cooke Family
The immediate family members and descendants of George B. and Emma (Rader) Cooke figure prominently in every aspect of the origins, birth, and early development of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Whether in positions of high-level administrative and financial leadership, or positioned aboard the backs of bucking broncs, the Cookes are part of the Ellensburg Rodeo tradition. And the beginnings of the Cookes’ important family story lie in pre-Civil War America.
Family historian Marion Cooke Hayes writes that her great-grandfather Charles P. Cooke was born in Ohio in 1827 and served in the Mexican-American War. He crossed the Great Plains via wagon train bound for California in 1849 and, in 1851, married Susan Brewster in Salem, Oregon.
George B. Cooke was born in Polk County, Oregon, in 1864 and came of age on his father’s Kittitas Valley cattle ranch. In 1884 he wed Emma Rader, a Californian whose family, like the Cookes, were pioneers who had braved the overland trail journey west. With Charles’ help, the young couple (George was twenty and she fifteen) worked their ranch up the Naneum into a sizeable spread. Six of their ten children lived to maturity—Katie, Chester, Guy, Florence, Ruby, and Lloyd. Guy’s oldest boy—George B.—lived briefly with his namesake as a youth and remembered a big rambling house with men and women constantly coming and going and “many meetings held at the house.” In the early 1920s, the men who attended those meetings founded the Ellensburg Rodeo.
George B. Cooke was one of the community leaders who joined Leonard Davis, Doc Pfenning, and Cliff Kaynor to give birth to the first Ellensburg Rodeo. Family historian Marion Cooke Hayes writes “he was one of the organizers of the Rodeo and furnished cows, calves, and steers during its early years. He served on the Rodeo Board of Directors from 1924-26…George and his son Guy helped build the rodeo’s first bucking chutes.” George’s grandchildren remember seeing their grandfather “carrying the flag and riding a beautiful horse with a silver saddle at the head of the rodeo parade.” George B. Cooke died just three years after the first Ellensburg Rodeo, in 1926.
All six of George B. and Emma Rader Cooke’s children, and their grandchildren as well, retained an interest or involvement in the cattle business and rodeo. Katie Cooke Bull moved to Calgary, Alberta, where her husband Charles served on the Board of the Calgary Stampede. Lloyd Cooke rode broncs in the first (’23) Ellensburg Rodeo, placing third; he and his sister Florence also rode in the rodeo’s nighttime historical pageant. Lloyd followed the rodeo road for several years thereafter, riding (and winning) in New York’s famed Madison Square Garden Rodeo. Later, Lloyd’s son Kenny carried on the family tradition as a 1950s RCA bareback competitor and employee of Christian Brothers Rodeo Stock Contractors.
Guy Cooke became a rancher like his father and grandfather. He also succeeded his father on the Ellensburg Rodeo Board and in furnishing stock to the rodeo. Guy’s five children were George B. (II), Marion, Eva, Louise, and Glen, all of whom were active in the Fair and Rodeo. Glenn competed in the Kittitas Valley roping event and eventually bought his father’s ranch and raised purebred Hereford cattle. George B. became a Montana cattle buyer.
Thus, all of the Cookes have left a legacy to the Rodeo that can be traced back to their nineteenth century pioneer forbearers. Perhaps Guy Cooke best expressed his family’s loyalties to the ranch and rodeo way of life when, upon being named Kittitas County Cattleman of the Year in 1953, he stated, “I am no farmer. The farm implement I use most is the saddle and horse.”
Jimmie Cooper
“Winning is what rodeo’s all about,” World Champion roper and bulldogger Jimmie Cooper told ProRodeo Sports News in the early 1980s, at the height of his career. Cooper’s father “Jimmie T.,” a 1950s rodeo roper standout, noted Jimmie was “probably better prepared than lots of others. He goes harder, makes more rodeos, and is very serious about his arena work.” This focus and dedication earned Cooper induction into both the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Jimmie Cooper was born in the far southeast corner of New Mexico in 1956 to a family of world-class timed event (roping and steer wrestling) cowboys. Raised on his parents’ cattle ranch, he graduated from New Mexico State University with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics. Although Jimmie joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1977, he did not compete full-time until 1980, when he was chosen as the PRCA’s Rookie of the Year. Cooper’s events were calf roping, team roping, and bulldogging (steer wrestling).
Standing six feet tall 195 lbs., Jimmie Cooper employed brains, brawn, and calculated risk-taking in rising to the top of the sport. The late-great rodeo historian Willard Porter described Cooper’s ability to utilize “coordination and balance” to enhance his “size and strength” in calf roping and bulldogging competitions. “Cooper really knew how ‘to use’ big, rank calves and steers,” wrote Porter. “One very seldom sees him bobbling a flanking maneuver on a calf or missing a twist-down as he stops and brings a steer’s body around. One sometimes sees him take a chance, but it is the special chance he must take, the chance the gambler in him tells him to take.”
Jimmie Cooper finished in the top five of the World All-Around standings for seven straight years from 1980-86. He won the World All-Around Champion Cowboy title in 1981, and the story of that championship race is legendary. Entering the National Finals Rodeo fourth in the All-Around standings, Jimmie advanced past Paul Tierney and Tom Ferguson by tying his own cousin Roy Cooper for first place in the calf roping. In the “tie-breaker,” he beat Roy by two-tenths of a second and won the calf-roping title. This earned him first in the All-Around, a mere $48 ahead of “Cousin Roy”!
The New Mexico cowboy earned a lot of money in the 1980s Ellensburg Rodeo arena. Cooper won the Ellensburg bulldogging championship twice (an ’80 tie and ’85) and both the calf and team roping events (’85 and ’84). In 1980, Cooper won the Ellensburg Rodeo All-Around title, temporarily ending Tom Ferguson’s (ERHOF ’97) four-year string of victories. Cooper was Ellensburg Rodeo All-Around Champion in ’80, ’84, and ’85.
Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Board Member and PRCA timed-event competitor Jack Wallace remembers “Jimmie had a lot of grit and determination. He wasn’t always flashy, but he always got the job done and always ended up at the pay window.”
Today, Jimmie Cooper still resides in his hometown of Monument, New Mexico, with his wife Sheryl. In 2004, their twin sons, Jake and Jimmie, earned team roping Rookies of the Year honors.
Deb Copenhaver
Deb Copenhaver is a 1999 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in the National Competitor Category. A native Washingtonian, Deb twice earned the coveted World Championship in Saddle Broncs–in 1955 and 1956–and placed second in ’51, ’53, and ’54, third in ’52, and fourth in ’58. Copenhaver was a crowd favorite in Ellensburg, where he is remembered for his spectacular bronc rides on Snake, War Paint, and Miss Klammath.
Deb Copenhaver was born on January 21, 1925 in Wilbur, Washington. “I worked ranches all around here, got that background, and made it through the Depression,” he recounted in a recent Ketch Pen (National Cowboy Hall of Fame) interview with Doris Rogers. Inspired by his bronc rider cousin Tommy Kunz, Deb caught and rode wild horses near the Colville Indian Reservation and soon hit the rodeo road.
Deb’s first competition was at a Keller, Washington rodeo in 1939. After WWII service in the Navy Seabees, Deb competed in all of the big North American rodeos. He won the bronc riding twice or three times each at Cheyenne, Calgary, Denver, Ft. Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Salinas, and Madison Square Garden. “No cowboy who ever rode in the Garden forgot it,” Deb notes. “The competition and excitement were heady stuff.”
The decade of the 1950s was Deb Copenhaver’s heyday. To enhance his earnings by competing in more rodeos, Deb teamed up with Paul Templeton, and Bill Linderman and went airborne in Paul’s 180 Cessna: “We were all over the country for rodeo–Calgary, Elko, Omak, Kalispell, Butte. We did them all.”
It was during the 1950s–a period rodeo historians dub the ‘Golden Age of Rodeo’–that Deb went toe to toe with the renowned South Dakota roughstock rider, Casey Tibbs. “Casey Tibbs was a good friend, and for seven years, Casey and I dominated bronc riding,” Deb recounts. By the time they reached Ellensburg in 1954, Deb was narrowly leading Casey for the World title. They competed evenly in Ellensburg until Deb was bit by Snake, a rank Christensen Brothers bronc. George Prescott (ERHOF ’98) described Deb’s ride as “one of the finest competitions I have ever seen between horse and rider. Deb lost just before the horn–it would have been a monstrous score.”
Deb writes, “I feel that one of the greatest assets I have had to inspire my career as a bronc rider is the access to the many great strings of bucking horses” from great Northwest rodeo stock contractors like Moomaw-Bernard, Joe Kelsey, and the Christensen Brothers. Deb especially remembers “Zombie, Blue Blazes, Badger Mountain, Which Way, Sweet Current, John Doe, Devil’s Dream, Rubber Doll, Caribou, Les Kauffman, Export, Whiz Bang, Miss Redbluff, Satin’s Sister, Adam, Buck, Bill Bailey, and Mr. Gill. All of these great horses have been a big part of the great Ellensburg Rodeo. I’ve always said, ‘Show ’em good buckin’ horses and tough bronc riders and the people will come.”
Although he lost out to Tibbs in ’54, Deb Copenhaver won the World in ’55 and ’56. Deb won his ’56 Ellensburg go-round with a ride on War Paint, another Christensen Brothers Bucking Bronc of the Year; he rode Miss Klammath in yet another memorable Ellensburg performance. Deb made the last ride of his career in Pendleton in 1974.
Deb Copenhaver and his wife and family had a dream. “I rode often and fast,” Deb emphasizes. “I wanted acreage, it would be my future.” Deb Copenhaver achieved his dream, buying land near Creston, Washington, where he bred and raised quality quarter horses and operated Deb’s Cafe in town. During the heyday of Deb’s Cafe, Hank Thompson, Bonnie Guitar, and Earnest Tubb, and other counry music greats all played at “Deb’s”.
Deb and his wife Cheryl also raised their family in the wheat country of Creston. Deb’s daughter Debra is a former Miss Rodeo Washington and a respected bronze sculptor. His son Jeff was ’75 World Champion Calf Roper and founding pastor of the New Frontier Cowboy Church in Texas. Deb is proud of his boys Matt and Guy, who are in the construction business, and his daughter Kelly, who is a Florida businesswoman and mom to three.
Today, Deb and Cheryl Copenhaver keep busy with their quarter horses, and Deb teaches at a rodeo school in Idaho each Spring. Deb spends much of his time preaching the gospel. Each Fall, immediately after the Pendleton Roundup, cowboys gather at Deb’s ranch for an annual camp meeting-style religious revival. “People come in trailers and campers. They’re singing, preaching,” Deb says proudly.
On the basis of his consistent excellence in bronc riding, in Deb Copenhaver was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City (1991), the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs (1992),
On the basis of his consistent excellence in bronc riding, Deb Copenhaver was inducted into the Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame in Spokane (1974), Omak Stampede Hall of Fame (1978), National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City (1991), and Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs (1992).
Deb writes, “It is with much gratitude and pride that I accept this induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. I consider this a tremendous honor.”
Clint Corey
“I’ve always been able to ride pretty much any kind of horse the same,” observed World Bareback Champion Clint Corey in a 2002 interview. “As long as you can do that, it’s going to be like any sport; if you can be consistent at it, you’re going to be at the top, no matter what.”
It is that very “consistency” that catapulted Corey to the top of his profession and induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. Most local rodeo experts agree Corey is the greatest bareback bronc rider to have ever competed in the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Clint Corey was born November 29, 1961, to Nick and Coleta Corey, in Bremerton, Washington. By age 6, Clint was riding calves and steers; by age 11 he was aboard bareback broncs. He soon won his first junior rodeo: “I kinda liked it right then,” he remembers. “Bareback seemed to come more naturally than any of the other events.” World Champion Joe Alexander was young Clint Corey’s hero, and he patterned his career and style after that rodeo great.
Corey, 5’ 6” 140 lbs., turned pro in 1985 and amazed the rodeo world by placing second in the World in bareback bronc riding; this garnered him the 1985 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) “Rookie of the Year” Award. During a remarkable eighteen-year professional career that is only now beginning to wind down, Corey worked himself constantly into the money, with lifetime earnings of nearly $2,000,000. He qualified for the National Finals Rodeo a staggering 17 times. He won the Columbia River Circuit average 8 times (1989-95, ’97, ’01) and was Columbia River Circuit Champion for twelve consecutive years (1989-2000). Corey placed fourth in the World Bareback Bronc Riding three times (’88, ’93, ’98), third in the World five times (’89, ’92, ’97, ’99, ’01), and second in the World on four occasions (’85-’86, ’90, ’95). In 1991, Clint Corey was Bareback Bronc-Riding Champion of the World.
Throughout his career Clint Corey has been known for stability and consistency. For nearly two decades, Corey has steadily accrued day-money, averages, and titles, always qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo. Each year when the dust settled, he was left standing, without fanfare, in the winner’s circle. When asked to describe his winning techniques and strategy, Corey modestly replies, “I guess it’s good fortune.”
“Good fortune” indeed!
“Clint Corey’s career in the Ellensburg Rodeo is legendary,” notes Ellensburg Rodeo historian John Ludtka. Corey is the winningest bareback bronc rider in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. He captured the Ellensburg bareback title an awesome five times—’85, ’89, ’91, ’93, and ’96—an arena record that will be extremely difficult to surpass.
Clint Corey is still active and competitive, traveling from his Powell Butte, Oregon ranch to rodeos across America. Clint and his wife Dianna are most involved in raising their children—Bailey, Blaine, and Zane. But the Corey’s also raise Quarter Horses, and they break colts, run cattle, and farm their acreage. Clint teachers bronc-riding techniques in 3-day schools and also works with special needs children.
Leonard Davis
Leonard Davis was instrumental in the creation of the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair grounds and the orchestration of the first Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923.
William Leonard Davis was born October 20, 1884 in Placer County, California. In 1889 the Davis family immigrated via covered wagon to Okanogan County, homesteading south of Mallot. Because the public schools there did not teach past Grade 8, Leonard and his siblings attended Grades 9-12 in Pullman, at a secondary school attached to the Washington State College (then WSC, now WSU). Leonard stayed on and graduated from WSC in 1914, earning a degree in agriculture. After a brief stint teaching school in Oroville, he and his wife Mary moved to Ellensburg where he was appointed Kittitas County Extension Agent, a post he held until his death in 1928.
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It was as Extension Agent that Davis became a prime mover in the creation of the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair Grounds. As Extension Agent, he naturally was connected to the County Fair, begun in 1920. Davis early promoted the idea of building a permanent fairgrounds with an adjacent rodeo grounds via a huge, voluntary community construction project. As a student as WSC Davis had participated in “work days” or “field days” to help improve the young campus, and he applied this expertise to the task of building a new fair and rodeo grounds in 1923. Davis was thus instrumental in conceiving, organizing, and executing the famed “field day” which resulted in hundreds of Kittitas County citizens building the rodeo and fair grounds. Lou Richards, later rodeo arena director, served as Davis’ “straw boss” for the field day.
As Leonard Davis’ daughter later recalled, “He helped identify the work that needed doing and how many materials and men would be needed. He helped organize teams of 8-10 men to do specific assigned tasks. Farmers brought machinery and horses, others arrived with tools needed or skills they possessed, women prepared and served food for all workers as it was needed. It proved to be an excellent example of a community working together to attain a common goal. Leonard was very proud of his part in that day.”
Driver Family
“The Driver family has donated many hours of service to the Ellensburg Rodeo, not as a chore, but with pleasure. The rodeo has always been an important part of our family life.” Driver Family History
The Driver Family members are 1999 Inductees to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in the Pioneer Rodeo Family Category. The Drivers’ roots in Kittitas Valley rodeo history run deep, and they come with a Texas accent. Ray (1900-1978) and Scott Driver were sons of James Harvey and Adora Gray Driver, who farmed and ranched in Dickens County, Texas. In 1917, however, the Driver brothers grew restless with life in Texas, and they began to work their way to the Northwest. Scott spent a stint in Jerome Idaho.
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By 1922, both Ray and Scott Driver had moved to Ellensburg, to work on the railroad. Scott relocated and both Driver brothers found the semi-arid foothills of eastern Washington state much to their liking. Ray returned to ranching, working for the Cooke family; both eventually worked in the logging business, where they established a solid reputation and achieved success.
It was Ray’s employment at the Cooke ranch that brought him into the Ellensburg Rodeo. George B Cooke (ERHOF ’98) helped in planning the first Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923. Alongside many other area ranchers, the Cookes supplied men, stock, and equipment for building the rodeo grounds. Ray, Scott, and the Cooke cowboys joined five hundred other local volunteers to work on the grounds. In the 1923 rodeo, both Ray and Scott entered the Kittitas County Bronc-riding competition, an event limited to local contestants. The following year Ray won third place honors, and continued to compete.
Meanwhile, a new generation of Driver boys and girls entered the world of rodeo. Ray and Una’s children were Jack, Doris, James (“Bob,”), Donna, and Darlene. Donna was voted Apple Blossom Princess in 1948 and Ellensburg Rodeo Princess in 1949. She later married renowned local cowboy Larry Wyatt (ERHOF ’97) and became his partner in their rodeo stock contracting firm (the Wyatts contracted Canadian pro rodeo venues and the 1971 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City).
Scott and Iva had three sons. Herbert (“Herb”) became a western clothier at his Horsemen’s Center store. Sons Fred Louis (“Lo,” 1909-1999) and Arthur (“Art”) Driver also earned much respect in Ellensburg Rodeo circles. Art was a State Track Relay Champ and football star at Ellensburg High School and went to college on an athletic scholarship. Art served heroically in the WWII Army Air Corps. His B17 went down over Europe and he spent 14 months as a prisoner of war. He served on the Rodeo Board for many years, including fourteen years as Arena Director. He was also Ellensburg Rodeo Posse Captain in 1952 and won the coveted Kittitas County Calf Roping titles in 1950 and 1954. Art Driver and his brother Lo developed the “Dinner Bell Handicap, which is still a popular portion of the Ellensburg Rodeo program.
“He was Mr. Rodeo here,” recalls Rodeo Board Member and neighbor Joel Smith. Local Harvey Vaughan notes Driver “knew what he wanted and what was right and easy to work with…He was an institution.” He had two sons, Steve and Doug.
Like his younger brother, Lo Driver was equally dedicated to the Ellensburg Rodeo as an organizer, participant, and competitor. He served on the Ellensburg Rodeo Board for an impressive 33 years, and was its President in 1959 and 1960. For decades, he and his wife Emily were “ambassadors” for the rodeo, and their daughters Pam and Nancy rode in the Friday night shows and the parade. Nancy served as Queen of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1967. Like his father and Uncle Ray, Lo Driver built a successful career in the logging business; while Emily managed the family’s Main Street diner, next to their home.
For six decades, Lo Driver rode in Ellensburg Rodeo Posse, serving stints as Captain 1947, 1965 and 1966. A 1950s Daily Record photograph shows Driver at the Yakima Airport astride his rearing pinto horse, delivering a telegram inviting President Truman to the Ellensburg Rodeo. And of course, Lo Driver was a cow cutting champion. He worked the rodeo cow cutting exhibition for 25 years, most of it with his beloved horse Yankee, whom Lo worked without a bridle.
Today, the Driver family members carry on the Drivers’ traditions and abiding love of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Dynamite
There is an iconic photo of the wonderfully well-named saddle bronc rider, Buck Hand, at the Pendleton Roundup in 1936. Buck is one shutter frame away from being bucked off a well-formed black gelding named Dynamite. Just beyond Dynamite’s left shoulder is the “snub” horse and rider. In the days before bucking chutes, the bucking horse was led into the arena by another rider and the cowboy mounted the bucking horse from the back of the saddle horse. The photo captures the moment of release. The snub rope is still dangling in mid-air, and Dynamite is shown exploding into his bucking action. The arena director is cautiously peering under the neck of the snub horse. The day sheet is tied to his leg and his performance production card is in his back pocket where he shoved the paper in order to free his hands to help Buck Hand get on the back of the amazing bucking horse “Dynamite.”
There are a number of wonderful details to notice about the photo, but the bucking horse, Dynamite, dominates the frame. This is appropriate because, in 1936, Dynamite was the focus of everyone’s attention. Cowboys could measure their careers based on a successful ride on Dynamite, and spectators were buying tickets to see the result of the contest. At the time of the photo, Dynamite’s bucking prowess had been a featured attraction at rodeos across the Northwest for seventeen years.
Dynamite was a top bucking horse from 1919 to 1937. Over Dynamite’s lengthy career, he performed at almost every regional rodeo large and small, including the prestigious rodeos of the time: Ellensburg, Lewiston, and Pendleton. He bucked off many of the top bronc riders: such as World Champion Howard Tegland at the Ellensburg Rodeo and World Champion Frank Woods, who was flown in during the barnstorming period of aviation for a match ride at the rodeo in Okanogan, Washington. Leo Moomaw, legendary Northwest stock contractor from 1915-1960 and Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductee (2002), said about Dynamite, “I always consider Dynamite the best bucking horse I ever owned.”
In 1919, Leo Moomaw traded a team of work horses to Joe Hudspeth in order to obtain Dynamite. “Joe owned him first but found out he could not ride him and no one else could either.” The black gelding would not be a saddle horse, and Leo Moomaw had found his superstar bucking horse. Leo’s connection to Dynamite would grow along with his pioneering rodeo company and establishment of rodeo itself as an event and an industry.
There are two types of photos of Dynamite. Many photos from the time show Leo proudly holding the halter and lead rope with a completely relaxed Dynamite calmly looking into the camera. The second type of photos show Dynamite in action in the rodeo arena- jumping in the air and kicking, and most likely tossing the cowboys who tried to ride him. Dynamite was Moomaw’s first animal star and remained the star for a long, distinguished career. For eighteen years, Dynamite travelled the Northwest by truck, rail car, and by trail from rodeo to rodeo. Dynamite was always a feature bucking horse and the highlight of the rodeo performance. Because of his high level of performance and the length of his career, Dynamite is recognized as one of the extraordinary animal athletes worthy of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Leo Moomaw relates the story of Dynamite’s passing. “In July 1937, I took him to a rodeo at Nespelem, Wasington, but he didn’t act right, so I did not buck him there. On the way home, about 5 miles from the pasture, he dropped out of the horse herd, so I left him and left the gates open after we got home. Next morning, he was with the saddle horses and seemed to be alright, so I put him with the rest of the horses. He went about 2 miles and died, and my men and I buried him where we found him and put up a marker. This was on July 7, 1937, about 10 miles NW of the ‘Wild Goose Bill’ Ferry.”
Dynamite received the respect of a rodeo superstar until the end. The Moomaw family was among the first rodeo “stock contractors.” Their business innovation was to make the animal athletes the stars of the performance. Leo Moomaw traded for Dynamite when he was first beginning his rodeo company, and Dynamite was the headliner of Moomaw’s rodeo herd for almost two decades. Dynamite’s success was essential to the success of the Bernard-Moomaw Rodeo Company and also essential to the success of rodeo events in Ellensburg, Lewiston, Pendleton, Omak, and many others in the Northwest.
Rodeo is a partnership of men and animals to accomplish something great, and Dynamite is an example of that partnership both in the arena and beyond the rodeo performance.
Ellensburg Rodeo Posse
Dr. J. P. Richardson founded the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse with five other prominent members in 1939. Richardson (father of Rodeo Princess Dorothy Vaughan and grandfather of Queen Heidi Vaughan) had admired San Francisco’s mounted Posse at the Cow Palace Rodeo and wanted to organize a similar group. The Ellensburg Rodeo Posse thus became the first mounted drill team in Washington State (Oregon boasted the Governor’s Mounted Guard). Original members included Robert McConnell, the President of Central Washington College of Education and other community professionals, businessmen, and stockmen. In 1940 they began riding in the rodeo and parade and by 1941 had become an integral part of the community team, which organized, promoted, and executed the Ellensburg Rodeo.
World War II pushed the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse into prominence. Posse men began service as a mounted search and rescue unit during the war. More importantly, as John Ludtka writes in his book The Tradition Lives On, it was the Posse that kept the rodeo tradition alive when governmental fuel rationing edicts forbade rodeo performances during the years 1942, ’43, and ’44.
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The Posse Night Show forms an important part of the Posse’ legacy to the Ellensburg Rodeo. For six decades the Posse has ridden and competed in the Night Show, the Rodeo Grand Entry and horserace, and helped to conduct the Rodeo. The Posse sponsors and conducts the Junior Rodeo and two open horse shows.
Moreover, throughout the year the Posse serves as the Ellensburg Rodeo’s official ambassadors in parades and rodeos– ranging from SeaFair to the Apple Blossom and Lilac Festivals to the Moses Lake and Yakima Fair and Rodeo Parades—throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The two oldest living posse members today [in 1998] are Lo Driver (88 years-old) and Rex Rice (86), both of whom have ridden with the Posse for over fifty years. Driver once took a special invitation to Congressman Hal Holmes for him to deliver to President Harry Truman, inviting him to the Ellensburg Rodeo. Lo rode his horse from Ellensburg over the old Wenas Trail to the Yakima airport to deliver the invitation. Both Driver and Rice rode with the Posse during its 1950s heyday. They remember well the Friday-night drills to the accompaniment of Eddie Arnold’s “Cattle Call” wafting over the loudspeaker and they remember the wild “broomstick polo” games that traditionally concluded each week’s drill. And they remember the annual “Posse House Party,” a lively affair on Saturday night of rodeo with a live band and generous Posse bartenders!
Just as in the old days, the Posse holds its weekly drill at the rodeo grounds. They practice their drill patterns as well as pole-bending, relay races, the cliff race, barrel-racing and, of course, the 1950s old favorite, “cowboy polo.” They also hold a business meeting. Saturday’s rodeo night show is still “Posse Night,” where Ellensburg competes against their fellow Posse riders from across the state in the above events. Each different posse team will compete in an event round as a tag team; the lowest combined team time wins the event. The drill competition requires precision horsemanship and a great deal of practices. Synchronizing that many horses into figure-eights and ‘threading the needle’ is no small feat.
The Ellensburg Rodeo Posse is a cornerstone of the Ellensburg Rodeo’s history and traditions. The Posse is a great way for men who love horses and people to represent Kittitas County and the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Ellensburg Rodeo Royalty
From its 1923 birth onward, the Ellensburg Rodeo has featured a royal court consisting of an Ellensburg rodeo queen and princesses. This is a tradition handed down from the earliest (late nineteenth century) North American rodeos, where cowgirl competitors were honored with the titles of rodeo queen and princess. Over the 89 years of Ellensburg Rodeo history, the Rodeo Board and a select committee annually have chosen a royal court. The queen of the Ellensburg Rodeo is a local cowgirl, as is the princess. Until recently, there was a King County princess; throughout the years princesses represented various northwest communities, from Spokane to Wenatchee to Tacoma. The queen and princess are chosen on the basis of horseback riding skills, oratory, appearance and fashion sense, and poise.
The Ellensburg Rodeo queen and her princess serve as ambassadors and representatives of the rodeo. Throughout the year, they travel around the Pacific Northwest, riding their horses in neighboring rodeo parades and appearing at a variety of events. During August and September, they are booked daily at myriad venues—charity events, social gatherings, newspaper, radio, and television interviews—preceding and during the Ellensburg Rodeo. At each Ellensburg Rodeo performance the rodeo royalty demonstrate their horse-riding skills during high speed entrances into and around the rodeo arena.
Hall of Fame Board Members Rochelle Bierek and Julie Virden are both former Ellensburg Rodeo Princesses. Bierek recalls, “Historically, the royal court provides the glitz and glamour of the rodeo, the beauty to go with the beasts. Being on court is an amazing experience that helps shape girls into the women they are meant to become. It provides tools necessary to become successful in life: communication skills and poise.” Virden agreed, stating “It was a tremendous honor to serve as a member of the Royal Court and promote such an outstanding rodeo. The experiences and opportunities I had during that year helped shape me into the person I am today.”
Bierek and Virden reflected on both continuity and change in the Ellensburg Rodeo Royal Court. In the 1920s, one of the criteria for selection was a girl’s ability to sell rodeo tickets. And back then, the Rodeo Board alone selected the court, with no outside consultation. “Today, the girls compete in speech, riding, and appearance and are judged by a committee with allied rodeo groups and community representation” said Bierek. Virden noted, “While over time the job of the court has remained relatively the same—to promote the rodeo—the selection process and some of the criteria and activities have changed.”
Both women have fond memories of their time on the Court. “Being on court makes you a member of a sorority of women who have a common bond,” Bierek concluded.
Since 1923, more than 340 young women have served on the Ellensburg Rodeo Royal Court. Virden and Bierek stated this year’s event will induct all queens and princesses from 1923-present and will also include all of those selected in the future.
Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes
Induction of the Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame is a tribute to these cowgirls’ thirty-two years of service as ambassadors for the Ellensburg Rodeo and the Kittitas Valley. From 1954 to 1986 the all-girl mounted drill team traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest, appearing in parades and drill team competitions as well as performing in the Junior Rodeo Night Show, Grand Entry, and as a featured act in the Ellensburg Rodeo.
The Wranglerettes made their first appearance at the Ellensburg Rodeo Junior Night Show on Friday, September 3, 1954, and at the Central Washington Fair in Yakima the same year. These ten girls were known simply as the “Kittitas Wranglers”; two years later they became the “Wranglerettes” and two years after that the “Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes.” They were originally coached by Bryce Baker and Lois Clerf, with Bonnie Indermuhle as advisor.
Over their thirty-two year history, the Wranglerettes’ membership ranged from ten to forty-eight. By 1958 the drill team began to win awards in parades and drill team competitions. Bryce Baker said, “We have real good drill team material that has a good chance to be tops on the coast.” Baker was drillmaster, chaperone, horse doctor, and rodeo “father” to the girls. He was assisted by Cal Shull. When Baker died in 1961, George Mills volunteered for the drillmaster position. The biggest challenge was teaching the girls precision in drill and horsemanship. The thirty-three members of the 1960 team won the SeaFair Grand Marshall’s Trophy. Through the years the Wranglerettes appeared in parades and/or horse show competitions at the Pendleton Roundup, Portland Rose Festival, Spokane Lilac Festival, Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival, SeaFair and in Cle Elum, Toppenish, Quincy, Bainbridge Island, Meridian, and Yakima.
By the mid-1960s, the Wranglerettes boasted 48 active members and were annual favorites in the Ellensburg Rodeo performance. In 1965 they joined the Washington State Horseman’s Association (WSHA) in producing the first of many annual Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerette Open Horse Shows, to raise money for uniforms, gear, transportation, and to keep the team competitive and looking sharp. Local merchants and community members responded generously in purchasing advertising in the Horse Show Program. As Bryce Baker had predicted, the Wranglerettes came to dominate regional drill team competitions winning numerous WSHA Drill Team State Championships.
Wranglerette alumni fondly remember the support and dedication of their adult advisors. Bryce Baker, Cal Shull, Carol Clerf Martinez, Dorothy Cole, Roberta Roberts, Linda Anderson Dozier, George Mills, Louie Brune, Vern Burk, George Mathews, Jack Ferguson, Al Frink, Kathy Merrill, Robin Turpin, Stan Mainwaring, Cliff Gage, and many, many more helped the girls make the team successful. Another person who the girls loved and trusted to haul their horses to competitions and parades throughout the Northwest for many years was Rod Hussey.
In the mid-1970s a new generation of Wranglerettes came onto the scene, replacing the classic turquoise and white fringed outfits with more modern gold blazers, slacks, and feathered hats. The Wranglerettes continued to compete and serve as the Ellensburg Rodeo’s ambassadors until 1986. By then almost all of the state’s drill teams were gone, replaced by 4-H Horse Clubs and other opportunities for cowgirls to ride and compete. The Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes rode in the 1986 Ellensburg Rodeo parade and grand entry, and afterwards the club disbanded.
Today [1997], there are 232 Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerette alumni, ranging in age from the 20s through the 50s. They are scattered throughout the Kittitas Valley, the Pacific Northwest, and, quite literally, the world. These cowgirls share a unique bond–they helped to shape a special era in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Allen Faltus
In 1974 the Ellensburg Daily Record interviewed the young President of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board, auto dealer Allen Faltus. “My interest in the rodeo has grown because it is really fun to work with 14 fellows who are so dedicated,” Faltus observed, while wife Jan added, “We have met so many fine people and during the years when we travel around we had so many wonderful experiences, we can’t help but enjoy it all.” Nearly forty years later, Allen and Jan Faltus still retain their love of the rodeo they worked so hard to build.
Allen Faltus’ father Otto was born in Belfair County, Ohio, in 1903 and came to Ellensburg in 1925. He married Elizabeth Allen in Olympia in 1932. Otto started out in the service station business (Texaco) and founded Faltus Motors Sales and Service (Chrysler) in 1930.
Otto and Elizabeth’s son Allen was born in Ellensburg and raised in Ellensburg; after graduating from the University of Washington he assumed operation of the family’s automobile dealership. In 1971 Allen built and managed the Ellensburg KOA Yakima River Campground.
Allen Faltus holds the record for more than four decades of service on the Ellensburg Rodeo Board of Directors. Prior to the mid-1960s, Allen’s main association with the rodeo was Otto’s participation in the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse. Allen’s interest increased in 1966 when his wife Jan (originally from Spokane) volunteered to chaperone the rodeo’s royal court. Allen joined the Rodeo Board in 1967. He served as President of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1974-75 and again in 1987-88. During his tenure he held several other board posts, including Treasury and Rodeo Royalty, assisted by wife Jan.
Since its 1923 birth, the Ellensburg Rodeo has always included businessmen alongside farmers and ranchers and other community members on its Board of Directors. Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Board Members Dr. Ken MacRae and Joel Smith are also former Rodeo Board members who worked closely with Faltus and both point to the importance of his business background and success as Rodeo Treasurer. “Allen Faltus brought a much needed business sense to the Ellensburg Rodeo,” MacRae recalled. “He was the one we all depended on to keep things reasonable and steady….We depended on Allen to keep the budget working. There were many lean years, especially in the earlier part of his service. But we always somehow paid the bills.” MacRae emphasized Faltus’ ability to work well with others: “Allen is the finest gentleman anyone could know; he never had a bad word about anyone.”
Joel Smith also pointed to Faltus’ social and communications skills. “Allen was always the person to run ideas by before bringing anything up at a Board meeting. His opinion was important and always practical.” Smith emphasized Faltus’ well-defined view of what the rodeo should be. “His vision was that the Ellensburg Rodeo needed to be more of a family experience rather than a straight ahead 6- or 7-event rodeo. This brought great ancillary activities to our rodeo like trick riders, clown acts, and other specialty acts.” Smith recalled, “Allen was one of the first to realize that our facility needed attention, and he helped formulate priorities and timelines along with
financing plans to get the projects accomplished. It was an honor to serve
with Allen Faltus.”
Faltus’ 1997 interview with local rodeo historian, the late John Ludtka, confirms the above. Faltus spoke fondly of the Ellensburg Rodeo’s unique program, which included Indian “flat [track] races,” cow cutting, and novelty events such as the Dinner Bell Handicap. “We don’t have a hard-core six-event rodeo; ours has different things that make us different and that has helped us succeed.”
In 1995 Allen Faltus was awarded the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s prestigious “Outstanding Committeeman of the Year” award. He and Jan have two children, Jill and Jeff. Jeff currently is carrying on the Faltus family tradition as a Director on the Ellensburg Rodeo Board.
Ferguson Family
The Ferguson family created and hosted what was probably the first rodeo ever held in the Kittitas Valley at the family homestead four miles east of Ellensburg. The family went on to play a significant role in the creation and growth of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Elizabeth McEwen (b. 1851) and James Ferguson (b. 1839) were both Iowans who migrated West with their families over the overland trail. They met in Washington Territory and were wed in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1867. Elizabeth and James first arrived in the Kittitas Valley in 1872, building a ranch near Naneum Creek on what is now called Ferguson Road. Their ten children were Olive, John, Emily, James, Lottie, Addie, George, Lillie, Benjamin, and Bessie. James Ferguson died in 1917. The connections of the Fergusons to other Pioneer Rodeo Families is evident in Elizabeth’s maiden name (McEwen) and Lillie’s marriage to Thomas Jefferson Morrison. Much of the Ferguson family history has been researched and written by their great-grand daughter with another famous valley surname, Sandy Thomas.
The Fergusons earned their living herding cattle and wrangling wild horses from the Columbia River plateau. This naturally led them into bronc riding and rodeo. Soon, young men from all over the Kittitas Valley came to “Grandma [Elizabeth] Ferguson’s” to break and ride wild horses with the Ferguson boys. Soon the weekly riding became a “Sunday rodeo” as Ben Ferguson explained in a 1970s interview for the Ellensburg Public Library Oral History Collection: “We had all them horses and my brother and a couple of friends put on a rodeo…My brother, he just wanted to have some fun. Just got a neighbor boy or two here, went out and rounded them [cattle and horses] up. They got a wagon load of poles and made the corral and made the arena [and] chutes.” During the early 1920s the Fergusons staged rodeos “every other Sunday” and it was not unusual for 100 to 300 spectators to attend.
The economic potential of all this activity did not go unnoticed. Ben Ferguson remembered that several townspeople saw “that we was having a big time” and began to discuss the possibility of staging a rodeo in the Ellensburg city limits. Sometime around 1922, a group came to ask the Ferguson brothers to assist in staging the first Ellensburg Rodeo: “They [the townsmen] come out and got us to go in there and furnish the horses.”
The Fergusons and their relatives were thus central to the creation of the Ellensburg Rodeo. They supplied horse and manpower for construction of the rodeo grounds, and Elizabeth supplied some of the bucking stock. Several of the Ferguson men and women became rodeo volunteers and competitors. George was a pick-up man, and he and Jim bred horses and raced in the flat and relay races. (Jim later took up professional horse racing with his cousins, Harvey and Eddie McEwen). Ben worked behind the chutes and also as a pickup man and horse racer. He and his son Bud later raced at the Ellensburg Rodeo, Puyallup, Portland, and many other race tracks. Ben also trained race horses. Grandma Ferguson raced her thoroughbreds in Ellensburg, Walla Walla, Portland, and Vancouver BC. Equally talented was George’s wife Mayme (Wyatt) Ferguson, who consistently scored victories in the Ellensburg Rodeo ladies’ flat and relay races on her and George’s prized horse “Buzz.”
At the same time, the Fergusons were enthusiastic participants in the Ellensburg Rodeo Night Pageant. This event was a night-time equestrian drama akin to Pendleton Oregon’s Happy Canyon Show. Like Happy Canyon, the Ellensburg Rodeo Pageant traced the development of the American West, from the time of Indians to the first white explorers and finally to the civilization brought by the ranching and agricultural settlements. George played the role of a U. S. Army cavalryman in a “battle” with the Yakima Indians that recreated the historic Yakima Indian Uprising. In the drama, George rode to the rescue of Mayme and their daughters, Thelma and Phyllis. Ida Nason, a respected elder of the Kittitas Band, played the role of Sacajawea in the pageant.
In retrospect, the Fergusons helped to originate early Kittitas Valley rodeo, transform it into the famed 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo, and then nurture its growth in the years that followed.
Tom Ferguson
A six-time World All-Around Champion cowboy, Tom Ferguson is one of the greatest cowboys to ever compete in Ellensburg. Ferguson was an Ellensburg Rodeo crowd-pleaser and timed-event champion throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s.
Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Ferguson moved to San Martin, California, as a child with his parents, Maxine and Ira. As soon as he was old enough, Tom became an adept arena-trained calf roper and bulldogger and competed in youth and high school rodeos. During his college days he became a Cal Poly State star.
In 1972, Ferguson turned professional and joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association. From that point on Ferguson swept the rodeo circuit, winning six consecutive World All-Around Titles (one shared with Leo Camarillo in 1979).
Tom Ferguson competed in Ellensburg at the height of his career, and today expresses profound respect for and good memories of the Ellensburg Rodeo and his time here.
During his many visits to Ellensburg Ferguson garnered three calf roping buckles (‘79, ‘80, ‘82) and two bulldogging championships (‘74 and ‘82), all the while winning an amazing six Ellensburg All-Around titles in ‘76, ‘77, ‘78, ‘79, ‘81, and ‘82. Tom Ferguson is thus one of the greatest cowboys to ever compete in the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Fitterer Family
1860s pioneer emigrants to Washington Territory, Ellensburg’s Fitterer family has played a pivotal role in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. The Fitterers have marched at the forefront of the rodeo’s volunteers, royalty, and participants from its 1923 inception until this very day.
The saga of this family began in 1867, when Phillip George Fitterer was born to German-Anglo Catholic immigrants Theodore and Marianna Walters Fitterer. Theodore, a Mankato, Minnesota, homesteader, was a veteran of the Sioux Indian wars. After a childhood on the northern Great Plains, Phillip bought passage on the Northern Pacific Railroad to Yakima, in Washington Territory, to make a start in the hotel business; his brother Frank soon followed.
In 1891, Phillip married married Emma Daverin (1869-1960). Like Phillip, Emma came from sturdy pioneer stock, the child of Martin and Bridgit Downes Daverin, Oregon Trail trekkers who crossed central Washington Territory in an oxen-drawn covered wagon. Emma Daverin and her twin brother John were born near the Walter Bull ranch (in the southwestern Kittitas Valley) in 1869, placing them among the first white children ever born in the Kittitas Valley. In 1892, Phillip and Emma moved permanently to Ellensburg, where the two Fitterer Brothers managed the Horton House (later, Antlers) Hotel. The great Ellensburg fire had recently destroyed much of the downtown, making opportunities for hard-working entrepreneurs like Phil and Frank Fitterer. In 1896, the two used their connections with hotel furniture brokers to build an inventory and transition into the retail furniture business. Phillip and Frank Fitterer launched Fitterer Brothers Furniture Store, an Ellensburg family business that has flourished to this day.
It was Phillip and Emma Daverin Fitterer’s first child—Clarence Fitterer (1894-1984)—who would begin the Fitterer family’s historic involvement in the Ellensburg Rodeo. As young men, Clarence and his brother Louis (1895-1965) worked at the family furniture business, including the care and handling of dozens of delivery draft horses, their tack, and the wagons they pulled to deliver Fitterer Brothers furniture to widespread customers. When, in 1923, Kittitas County fair enthusiasts, local ranch cowboys, and Indians began to plan for an Ellensburg Rodeo, Clarence Fitterer helped to provide business and marketing expertise—not to mention horsemanship skills he learned as a teamster—to oil the wheels of the challenging rodeo endeavor. Fitterer joined fellow townsman and newspaper editor Cliff Kaynor (ERHOF 1998), County Extension agent Leonard Davis (ERHOF 1997), and many others to comprise the town and business connection so vital in the birth and growth of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Clarence Fitterer was one of three founding members of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board, and he served until 1929. In 1945, Clarence was elected Ellensburg Rodeo Posse Captain.
Carrying on the family’s business and rodeo traditions were Clarence Fitterer’s sons George (1918-1976) and Joe (1919-) and daughter Phyllis (1928-1993). Joe, the oldest living Fitterer rodeo participant, reminisced recently that he and his brother George literally grew up with the Ellensburg Rodeo. He remembers riding his bicycle to the rodeo grounds to watch the Yakama Indians make camp, and he still possesses a rare corn husk bag he received from an Indian woman he helped in setting up her teepee. Joe remembers the clowns and colorful trick riders of the late 1940s, and many other aspects of the Ellensburg Rodeo “after the War” (World War II). “It was more of a hometown show then, with more Kittitas County cowboy competitors, but it was and has always been a first class show,” he remembers. “The cowboys were rough and tough!”
George Fitterer played trombone in the Ellensburg Rodeo Cowboy Band and coordinated the rodeo parades (there were two parades back then) until the mid-1960s; George’s son Brad remembers his dad “was up early Saturday morning and we didn’t see him until he came home exhausted after the rodeo.” Sister Phyllis became the first (but not last) Fitterer Rodeo Queen. Clarence Fitterer’s children would carry the Fitterer rodeo banner well into the twentieth century. Indeed, Joe and George’s and Phyllis’ children and grandchildren—the great- and great-great grandchildren of Phillip and Emma Fitterer—are carrying on those rodeo traditions and responsibilities to this day.
For over sixty years, Fitterer horsemen rode with the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse and Junior Sheriff’s Posse and have worked behind the chutes. Clarence, Joe, and George were all Rodeo Posse members from the early 1940s through the 1950s. As teenagers in the 1960s, Joe’s sons Jon, Geoff, and Karl rode in the Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse; J.D. and Kathie joined their brothers in 4-H, and Karl worked as a paramedic behind the chutes. Phyllis’ son Dan Fennerty was a contestant in the Wild Cow Milking; Joe, Bettie, Jon, Susan, and Rich Fitterer all belong to Gold Buckle Club.
Jon Fitterer long worked the Posse night shows and helped shape the junior rodeo from 1987-2000. As assistant chute boss from 1988-present, Jon moves rough stock and livestock during the daily rodeos. “It would take four people to replace Jon,” notes Arena Director Joe O’Leary.
The Fitterer Family is the only three-generation Ellensburg Rodeo Board family, with thirty-two years combined service on the rodeo’s Board of Directors. Clarence’s tenure was followed by that of George, who served in 1941 and (after World War II service) from 1949-51. Brad has served from 1984 to present—he is the one Fitterer family Rodeo President (‘95-‘96) and longest serving of the Fitterer family Rodeo Board members. Thus, a Fitterer family Board Director—Clarence, George, or Brad— has helped to orchestrate 40% of all Ellensburg Rodeos held to date.
During his eighteen-years of service, Brad Fitterer has worked alongside fellow Ellensburg Rodeo Board members to substantially increase the prestige and revenue generated by the Ellensburg Rodeo—to triple the Rodeo’s purse, quadruple revenue, and increase attendance by 30%. Brad has been especially involved in the creation of the “Behind the Chutes” dancing and tavern venue, the rescheduled Friday evening performance, the Cattle Baron’s Brunch, The Rail Fence newsletter, and of course the new Ellensburg Rodeo Headquarters in the historic Driver House.
Past Rodeo Royalty includes Queens Phyllis Fitterer (1947) and Kathie Fitterer (1965), and Brad is married to 1972 Rodeo Princess Connie Linder. Indeed, 2002’s Ellensburg Rodeo Queen, was Kelsey Fennerty—daughter of Dan and Vickie Fennerty, grand-daughter of Phyllis Fitterer, and thus a direct descendant of the Fitterer family “Pioneer Rodeo Family” Inductees. Kathie Fitterer Ambrose, recently reflecting on the role of Fitterer family rodeo queens, noted, “Being on the royal court was an unforgettable honor for us. We were representing not only the community but the Fitterer family as well, and it doesn’t get any better than that.”
The Fitterer family involvement in the Ellensburg Rodeo, from 1923 to the present, is reflective of literally tens of thousands of hours of voluntary labor by Fitterer men and women on behalf of their beloved community and the rodeo that has made it famous.
John P. Foster
Ellensburg photographer goes to Smithsonian. John Foster again makes top 10 list. Russell and CWU photographer among White House guests. Headlines such as these typify the career of lensman John P. Foster who is an inductees to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. Foster’s photos of rodeo ‑‑ many from the Ellensburg Rodeo were picked eight straight years on the “Top 10” photos by Horse and Rider Magazine. His photo of world champion cowboy Larry Mahan being dragged across the Ellensburg arena was selected for the Smithsonian National Portrait gallery to represent rodeo in its sports section. That photo, published in the Daily Record, Seattle Times, Rodeo Sports News and carried on AP and UPI wires, was voted top rodeo photo of year by the International Rodeo Writers’ Association.
Foxy Coke and Katherine Wyss Bach
A funny thing happened at a 1970s Yakima County Fair and Rodeo barrel-racing competition. In her go-round, renowned Ellensburg barrel racer Katherine Anderson Bach took a spill on her stalwart horse Foxy Coke. Bach literally “bit the dust” as she was thrown completely off Foxy Coke. Stunned and laying on the ground, Bach was surprised to hear the crowd roaring its approval. Why would they clap at such an accident? When she looked up and turned around, she saw the reason for all the cheering: “Foxy Coke was still doing his job,” she jokes. “He was speeding around the barrels without me while the crowd cheered him on; he didn’t stop until he’d finished the entire course!”
Katherine Bach resided in Ellensburg from 1957 to 1987. A Gold Card Member of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and Professional Women’s Barrel Racing (a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association subsidiary), Bach helped to pioneer the barrel racing event in the Pacific Northwest and Western PRCA venues, winning dozens of championship buckles along the way.
Katherine’s story began much earlier, in the ranching and rodeo country of northeastern Oregon. In the early years of the Great Depression, Conrad Wyss (1903-1984), a Swiss immigrant, married Jetta Bennett (1914-1991), whose family’s roots lay in the American South. The couple began a dairy farm in Reith, Oregon, near Pendleton. Katherine was born in 1936; she had a brother and sister. “Dad delivered Grade A raw milk door-to-door in Pendleton in a panel truck,” Katherine remembers. Conrad also raised oats and alfalfa, and the Wyss family kept riding horses and a team of work horses. Katherine began to ride bareback as a very small child, “as soon as I could shinnie up the horse’s leg!”
As a child, Katherine attended elementary school in Reith. She later took the bus to Pendleton Junior High and Pendleton High School, where she was a cheerleader. She also swam competitively and joined the “Mustangers” riding club. She fondly remembers Mustangers “playday” competitions, complete with precision drills, track racing, pole bending, “musical chairs,” and “egg races.” Barrel racing, the event in which Bach would one day leave her mark, was still a Southwestern (mainly Texas) competition that had not yet migrated north.
Around the age of 13, Katherine began her formal involvement with the Pendleton Roundup, playing the role of the “captive girl” kidnapped by Indians in the Happy Canyon Night Pageant. She soon rode in the Happy Canyon “quadrille” (a square dance with eight mounted cowboys and cowgirls) and competed in the Roundup’s daily relay races.
In 1954, she was selected Roundup Princess and in 1955 served in the coveted role of Queen of the Pendleton Roundup. Both years she simultaneously competed in relay racing while performing her royal court duties. “Nowadays, the Pendleton princesses and queen don’t compete in rodeo events while serving on the court,” she notes.
Katherine married Ellensburg calf roper and businessman Jerry Anderson in 1957 and moved to the Kittitas Valley, her home for the next three decades. It was around this time that the barrel racing event, which had come north from Texas, found its way into Northwest rodeo venues. Bach took up the contest mounted on an extraordinary grey quarter horse named Foxy Coke (1956-1984).
Foxy Coke was a race horse she acquired from Virgil Studebaker of Enumclaw; J.B. McMeans was one of Foxy Coke’s trainers. “He was one in a million,” Katherine notes, though she also has much praise for Whiskers and Too-Too, horses she rode from 1981-2001. “Katherine trained many very nice barrel horses,” states cowgirl and former Ellensburg Rodeo Queen Gena McNeil. “I think the highest compliment would be to say that her horses loved her.”
The decade of the mid-60s through the mid-70s was Katherine’s and Foxy’s heyday, as they won scores of Pacific Northwest Barrel-racing titles. Katherine joined the Washington Barrel Racing Association in 1960 and the Girls Rodeo Association (now WPRA) in 1974. She and Foxy Coke won championships in Ellensburg, Omak, Othello (six times), Yakima (“Yakima was one of Foxy Coke’s favorite rodeos,” she recalls), Joseph, Prineville, Bremerton, Mt. Vernon, Kennewick, Eugene, Yakima, and other rodeos. She was the Washington Barrel Racing Association champion in 1965 and WBRA Finals Champion in ‘66, ’70, ’71, and ’73. In 1974, her first year on the Columbia River Circuit of the PRCA, Katherine was Rookie Barrel Racer of the Year.
“Katherine was, and still is, a real inspiration to many of us,” states Gena McNeil. “She is a horsewoman of the highest caliber and willing to teach those who are committed to learning. She is ever the lady, always composed. I am proud to say she is my friend and is very deserving of this induction.”
Katherine Bach helped pioneer in Northwest barrel racing; she was longtime Secretary of the Washington Barrel Racing Association, and regional representative of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association. She played a pivotal role in the movement to establish barrel racing as a featured PRCA event. Yet she is quick to give most of the credit to other women she worked alongside. “I was a competitor, not a politician,” she remembers.
Ellensburg Rodeo historian and ERHOF inductee John Ludtka remembers Katherine as a “stately horsewoman who dominated Northwest barrel racing as it became more and more accepted by rodeo producers. Her remarkable success made locals proud, and thus made it easier for the Ellensburg Rodeo Board to move barrel racing from a night show slot to a featured event in the daily Ellensburg Rodeo performance.” Ludtka adds, “Of course, Katherine won the premier 1962 competition.”
In addition to her many rodeo activities, Katherine, with Jerry, raised a son, Curtis Anderson, and worked for the Ellensburg School District from 1971-1979. Katherine later married Courtney Bach (father of PRCA champion heeler Allen Bach) in 1979 and continued to compete in PRCA barrel racing venues. In 1987, Courtney Bach succumbed to cancer; Curtis had died unexpectedly in 1985.
Katherine Bach left the Kittitas Valley for Hermiston, Oregon, in 1987. She continued to race competitively until 2001 when, sixty-five years-old, she retired. “I quit barrel racing three times before I really quit,” she jokes.
Today, Katherine Bach keeps a Pendleton mailing address but leads a roving lifestyle in her truck and camper, following the sun, visiting and working with family and old rodeo friends across the North American West. “I’m sort of a gypsy,” she jokes. She pulls a horse trailer and rides daily. “I always have my horse Boomer. I live a really simple life.”
When she learned of her induction into ERHOF, Katherine responded with typical modesty: “I’m astounded,” she said. In fact, Katherine Wyss Anderson Bach possesses an astounding record of barrel racing success that ranks her as one of the Kittitas Valley’s greatest cowgirls.
Gage Family
The descendants of Reece and Miranda America German Gage rode into the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 and remain there to this day. Reece and Miranda Gage migrated from Texas to the Kittitas Valley in 1885 and ranched in the northeast corner of the Valley near the mouth of the Clockum Canyon on what is now Gage Road. Their children were Joy, Robert, German, Calvin, Doma, Pearl, Mirtie, Merle, and Alice. Their sons Joy and Robert took up cowboying early on and led the transition of the Gages from the cattle range into the rodeo arena. Both would impact the Ellensburg Rodeo as volunteers and competitors and through the work and cowboy skills of their children and grandchildren.
Joy’s older brother Robert Franklin Gage (b. 1880) married Buena Riggs in 1906 and they brought fourteen rodeoing children into the world: Tressa, Harrell, Ethel, Esther, Clifford, Robert Jr. (Shorty), Peggy, George, Fred, John, Betty, Marian, Ellen, and Seth (Sonny). The Robert Gage family figured importantly in early rodeo as both volunteers and participants. The family home on the corner of 6th Avenue (near today’s Fair Office) was adjacent to the 1923 rodeo grounds construction site, so the Gages were literally in the middle of the action. Tressa L. Gage-Mundy-Graham and Esther Gage Van De Grift remember that summer of 1923 well. Their father “was a volunteer working with horse teams,” Tressa recalls, and Esther notes that 14 year-old Harrell Gage helped too. Women volunteers “built an open fire on the parking strip in front of my folks place and cooked a big tub of beans to feed the people,” Esther recalls. “Tables were set up in the little orchard on my folks’ place for the bean feast.”
Esther continues, “My folks watched the Rodeo one year with six sons—Harrell, Clifford, Shorty, George, Fred, and John—all participating in arena events.” Harrell Gage rode bucking horses and so did Fred and Sonny, who became RCA members. Shorty Gage joined the RCA as a bronc rider and later became the Ellensburg Rodeo’s longtime scorekeeper. Cliff Gage was a timed-event competitor, roping calves and competing in the wild cow milking (Cliff is perhaps the only living charter member of the Kittitas County Roping Club). George Gage was a member of the legendary Cowboy Turtles Association (progenitor of the RCA) and rode roughstock throughout North America during the 1940s and 1950s.
Soon, a third generation of Gage cowboys and cowgirls hit the rodeo road. Bob’s son Jerry rode broncs and bulls and became a respected rodeo clown. Cliff’s son Steve was a rodeo competitor and George’s son Gig rode roughstock, clowned, and still competes in the Wild Horse Race. Cliff’s daughter Ruth Ann competed in all-girl rodeos and rode with the Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes (ERHOF ’97). Cliff served for many years as Assistant Drillmaster and Drillmaster of the Wranglerettes.
Thus, in all facets–volunteer work, behind the chutes, and in the arena–the descendants of Reece and Maranda Gage stand at the core of the history and traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Phil Gardenhire
When respected rodeo announcer Phil Gardenhire died in an Oklahoma automobile accident on April 14, 1999, the shock reverberated throughout the professional rodeo world. The shock came to Ellensburg, where Gardenhire had served as announcer since 1985. “It was a big, big loss for all of us,” Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame and Rodeo Board Director Joel Smith noted recently. “Phil was a very important part of the growth and direction our rodeo, and we miss him.”
Born in Poteau, in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, on September 29, 1952, Phillip Duane Gardenhire spent his youth in California and Oklahoma. He graduated from Poteau’s Howe High School in 1970 and served in the United States Army from 1970-1973. Phil married his wife Kay Deere in 1971, and their son Tyler was born in 1985. Phil Gardenhire studied at Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah and worked as a radio disc jockey before beginning his life on the rodeo road.
Gardenhire had been introduced to rodeo through his bullriding brother, a job working as a horse groom, and his own stint as a bronc rider in International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA) contests. Seeking a career in rodeo, Phil tapped the public speaking and promotional skills he had learned as a country music disc jockey. Asked to announce a rodeo near his hometown in Heavener, Oklahoma, Gardenhire’s aptitude for the rodeo announcer’s game was readily apparent. In 1984, he joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association as an announcer; one year later he came to Ellensburg and, simultaneously, was asked to announce the National Finals Rodeo. It was a promising start for a “rookie” announcer.
In a ProRodeo Sports News interview, Winston Bruce, World Champion bronc rider and stock contractor well known to Ellensburg fans, remembered Phil Gardenhire “dedicated his life to the [rodeo] business…He was very particular about language and he knew how to handle the clowns. Many times today we all get busy and overlook the details. Not Phil. He was always first class and he always did his homework. He liked for everything to go well.”
Early in his career, Gardenhire re-introduced the “mounted announcer” persona to professional rodeo, working astride his handsome paint horse (in Ellensburg, however, Gardenhire always announced from high atop arena in the announcer’s booth, in accordance with a long-standing tradition). Gardenhire also pioneered the practice of interviewing cowboys during the show, seated astride his horse with microphone in hand. “Phil could read an audience and was able to communicate with them very well,” Bruce recalled.
Phil Gardenhire announced the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1985 to 1998, the second longest stint in the “crow’s nest” in Ellensburg Rodeo history. “Phil Gardenhire was all class, a man of great dignity, style, professionalism,” recalls Joel Smith. “Phil was very innovative and brought great energy to our arena and its rodeo fans. Phil started traditions again in Ellensburg.”
Those traditions had been waning after the 1972 retirement of legedary Ellensburg Rodeo announcer George Prescott, a 1997 Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame inductee. In the 1970s and early ‘80s, Prescott was followed by a number of announcers, none of whom quite filled his shoes. Rodeo Board member Alan Faltus was instrumental in hiring Gardenhire in 1985, at the very beginning of Gardenhire’s PRCA career; Faltus considered Gardenhire a potential standout in the rodeo profession and he was right. In retrospect, it is now clear Gardenhire brought stability and professionalism to the Ellensburg Rodeo, at last filling the void created after Prescott’s tenure.
Alongside his Ellensburg duties, Phil Gardenhire announced a host of prime North American rodeo venues from 1984-1999. He announced the National Finals Rodeo in 1985, 1987-89, and 1993. And he announced the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, National High School Rodeo Finals, Professional Women’s Rodeo Association Finals, and PRCA rodeos in Dodge City, Fort Smith, and Colorado Springs, the Pendleton Roundup, and the Calgary Stampede.
Phil Gardenhire was also a community volunteer, devoted family man, and a devout Christian. He was a deacon and lay minister for his Baptist church and a PRCA rodeo minister. When Gardenhire’s life ended unexpectedly in 1999, 500 mourners attended his Heavener, Oklahoma funeral and memorial service.
Phil Gardenhire’s wife Kay and son Tyler, and Kay’s sister said it was real hard to talk about Phil so soon after his death,” says Smith. “But the Hall of Fame and the Ellensburg Rodeo wanted the Gardenhire family to know how highly we regarded Phil and his work in Ellensburg.”
Grated Coconut
With a white blaze and two white stockings on his back feet, he is a stocky dark bay stallion whose power rocketed cowboys to high scores or into the dirt. Cowboys who have successfully ridden him have set arena records and taken home the cash. Two cowboys set arena records on him with 91 points, and Davey Shields Jr. clocked in a score of 95 to win $50,000 at the Calgary Stampede in 2005.
Grated Coconut was honored as the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association’s (PRCA) top bareback riding horse of the year six times (2003-04, 2006-09); he was also a five-time Canadian bareback horse of the year.
Although Grated Coconut was famous for “kicking to the moon,” he was also admired for his placid disposition. One writer described how the horse’s owners worried about the prospects of such a sociable horse being a bronc: “Outside of the arena, he was as friendly as a child’s pony. He could be led around by anyone and enjoyed the attention he got. But his owners – none other than the Calgary Stampede Company itself – needn’t have worried about his buck. Once the chute opens, no horse bucks like Grated Coconut.”
Bareback bronc names can be pretty colorful. Often monikered after liquor (Dry Whiskey, Champagne Bubbles, Gin Neat) or War (Enemy Rockets, Fearless Warrior) or explosive devices (Galactic Rocket), it’s odd to see one named after food. The Calgary Stampede Ranch names its foals by lineage and letters ascribed to a particular year. Grated Coconut’s mother was Coconut Roll, also famous as a bronc with two PRCA horse of the year titles, and “G” was the letter when Grated Coconut was born. Names are picked out of a hat, and the staff chooses which one fits the horse’s character best.
Today, Grated Coconut is sixteen and retired on the Calgary Stampede Ranch, producing offspring in their Bred to Buck program. It was reported that in 2007, “the six top buckers in the finals at the Calgary Stampede included Grated Coconut, three of his foals, and his half-brother,” so the legacy made famous by his mother continues.
Dick Griffith
“Who was that old man?,” asked a flippant Pendleton, Oregon boy after seeing a 43-year old cowboy win a bullriding go-round at the 1957 Pendleton Roundup. The answer, according to the Rodeo Sports News reporter who overheard the conversation, was “Dick Griffith, one of the greatest cowboys to ever set foot in a rodeo arena.” Griffith’s ’57 Pendleton win, immediately preceded by day-money and a fourth-place finish in Ellensburg, was just one of several “comeback’s” this flinty roughstock and trick riding athlete made in his impressive 37-year rodeo career.
Dick Griffith (1913-1984) belongs to a five-generation rodeo family which helped found and develop the sport of North American rodeo. Young Dick traveled the rodeo circuit with his dad Curley, an early rodeo trick rider and bronc riding competitor. As he matured, Dick also rode broncs, helped found the Cowboy Turtles Association, and competed in the new event of bullriding. Dick Griffith went on to win five bull riding world titles (’39-’42, ’46) while simultaneously building a career as a trick riding contract performer.
Born on September 13, 1913, young Dick Griffith made his rodeo debut as a contract performer in the 1920 Fort Worth rodeo arena. Alongside his dad Curley, Dick traveled the 1920s rodeo circuit riding “Roman-style,” his feet planted on the backs of two galloping Shetland ponies. When Curly died in a rodeo accident in 1926, Dick’s grandparents tried to steer the youth in a more conventional direction, but by 1931, the adventurous eighteen-year old was back on the North American rodeo circuit as a bronc rider.
Griffith was a founder and bareback bronc representative in the Cowboy Turtles Association, progenitor of the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA) and today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He also pioneered a newly sanctioned new rodeo event called “bullriding.” In the late 1930s, Griffith dominated the bullriding event, winning dozens of prize buckles in Houston, Cheyenne, Ft. Worth, Calgary, Pendleton, Madison Square Garden, and many other venues. He won four consecutive world-championship bullriding titles from 1939-1942 and a fifth International Rodeo Association (not RCA or PRCA) title in 1946.
Ellensburg Rodeo historian John Ludtka writes that Dick Griffith called Ellensburg his “lucky rodeo.” He won day money here and was two-time Ellensburg bullriding champion (’39, ’40; 1940 was the first “sanctioned” Ellensburg bullriding contest). In addition, Griffith was contracted as an Ellensburg Rodeo trickrider throughout the late 30s and 40s. In 1941, Ludtka notes, Griffith’s “luck” ended when he was thrown and injured in the Ellensburg arena.
Dick Griffith learned early on the surest way to make a living at rodeo was not to rely on prize money alone. Throughout his 30s and 40s roughstock career, he continued to work as a trick riding contract performer, dividing his time between the rodeo track and arena and the bucking chutes. Dick also took showmanship from his trickriding act onto the backs of wild bulls. “Griffith had a flair for color and showmanship in everything he did,” wrote one sports reporter. “On light colored bulls he wore black chaps and hat; on dark ones white.”
Dr. Clifford P. Westermeier, the late University of Colorado professor and rodeo historian, noted in 1947 that Dick Griffith was the “International Champion Trick Rider and has won every major [trickriding] championship of this country.” Griffith’s repertoire, performed on his galloping horse, included vaults, splits, cartwheels, shoulder stands, crupper tricks (performed on the horse’s hips), rollups, and flips and somersaults. For years Griffith’s finale was to “Roman jump” a convertible automobile with the top down, his feet planted astride two horses!
In the course of four decades, Dick Griffith suffered multiple injuries, including eighteen arm fractures, a broken back, a shattered thigh, and several concussions. It was the car jump trick that marked the beginning of the end of Griffith’s rodeo career. Performing in Eureka, Calif. in 1951, one of his horses slipped and he fell between them. “One (horse) fell on top of him and kicked him at the base of his skull,” a newspaperman reported. In characteristic form, Griffith continued to work, but “on the way to Ogden, Utah, he collapsed and was rushed to a hospital.”
Griffith continued on as trainer and manager of a trickriding troupe, but did not perform. After a five-year layoff, the gritty Griffith briefly resumed his trickriding career, performing in Denver and several Colorado rodeos in 1955. And it was in September 1957 that Griffith told Rodeo Sports News “I decided there wasn’t much to do around home and I’d come up to the Northwest and see if I could still ride a bull.” As noted at the beginning of this story, Griffith traveled to Ellensburg and Pendleton and proved that the “old man” still had some life left in him.
Although Dick Griffith soon left the rodeo arena as a competitor and contract performer, he remained in the entertainment industry. Griffith trained and managed other trickriders, and he and his wife and children took their horsemanship and stunt talents to Hollywood, where they found work in the movie industry. There, and in Las Vegas, two subsequent generations of Griffiths have, earned worldwide acclaim for their horsemanship, showmanship, and rodeo skills prowess.
A 1984 issue of ProRodeo Sports News reported that Dick Griffith had died of cancer and of “the old-age after-affects of the many injuries” he received during an illustrious four-decade rodeo career.
Katherine ‘Kay’ Forbes Hageman
The late Kay Hageman (1926-2007) was, for over three decades, the key player in the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce’s marketing the Ellensburg Rodeo and coordinating many rodeo events. Known for her intelligence, professionalism, wit, and sociability, Hageman gained a regional reputation as an effective representative of Ellensburg and its rodeo. She loved Kittitas County and spent her entire life here.
Kay Hageman born on September 10, 1926 to Harold and Bessie Vincent Forbes, the youngest of five children and the only one born in a hospital. Kay’s parents were territorial pioneers, having come to the Swauk Creek District (at the base of Blewett Pass) in the late 1880s, and she grew up on the family’s Swauk homestead in a world with strong connections to the pioneer past. The Forbes family farmed, ranched, logged, and mined to earn a living.
In 1945, following World War II and her graduation from Cle Elum High School, Kay moved from the Swauk to Ellensburg, where she took a clerical job at the Washington State unemployment office. She married Bob Hageman, a member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse, and they built a log home on Dry Creek Road. On July 1, 1953, she went to work as secretary for the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce and began what was to become an pivotal career as a Chamber employee.
From the Chamber of Commerce’s Antler’s Hotel headquarters on 6thand Pearl, Kay Hageman worked alongside Chamber Manager and legendary rodeo announcer George Prescott (also an ERHOF inductee). “I was green as grass when I started as secretary to George,” she recalled. Kay immediately became a well-liked and respected member of the downtown business community.
In 1957, Prescott stepped down as Manager (though he continued to announce the Ellensburg Rodeo for more than a decade) and the Chamber board began to search for what the Ellensburg Daily Record described as a “top man” to take Prescott’s place. Hageman served as “interim Manager” until 1957, when the Chamber board concluded she was obviously the most qualified candidate. Hageman became the Chamber of Commerce’s first female Manager and one of the only female Managers in the state.
Kay Hageman worked under a board of directors and a Chamber President, selected annually from the business community. She flourished in that ever-changing administrative structure and gained a reputation as a smart, hard worker and both a team member and leader. During her tenure, Kay Hageman was heavily involved in promoting a new community hospital (KVCH), the historic preservation and retailing in the downtown business district, agriculture awareness, the Kittitas County Fair, Central Washington University, Olmstead State Park, and many other economic developments. She represented the county in the dedication of the Washington State Ferry Kittitas.Hageman welcomed and entertained VIPs, including governors, senators, and congressmen and congresswomen, and she was well-known and respected in Olympia.
Looking back on the ranch and rodeo role in community business, Hageman recalled entertaining hundreds of “tour groups…. We accommodated tourists, and the posse, local ranchers, and cowboys always helped out with western entertainment.”
Kay Hageman began her Chamber career during a time when the Ellensburg Rodeo and Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce were nearly one in the same organization. Rodeo business dominated the Chamber “from July ‘til after Labor Day,” she remembered, with long lines and phones ringing constantly. “The rodeo has been a boon to the local economy and really put us on the map,” she stated.
Hageman performed rodeo tasks as varied as publicity and marketing (including television and radio ads), recording contestant entry fees, coordinating hundreds of rodeo volunteers, entertaining VIP guests, arranging lodging for rodeo visitors, and keeping financial records and competition statistics. She even accompanied and chaperoned the Ellensburg Rodeo Queen and other state royalty attending the Pasadena Rose Parade.
It was Kay Hageman who conceived the idea of coordinating with the annual Western Art Show to use original art for the annual rodeo poster, and she worked with Ellensburg Rodeo Board Member John Foster (also an ERHOF Inductee) and the Western Art Association to select of Joy Gordon’s “Dust Stirring” as the first art poster.
“You don’t think about (Ellensburg Rodeo) volunteers without thinking about Kay Hageman,” stated longtime rodeo board member and ERHOF inductee Allen Faltus. “She is special.” Always quick with a witty reply, Hageman once stated that being Chamber director “kept me young. Of course, I was only twelve when I started this job.”
In 1987, Kay Forbes Hageman retired after thirty-five years of service. She was the longest serving Chamber of Commerce manager in the state of Washington. In retirement, she continued to live with and care for her mother Bessie in their Manitoba Street duplex until Bessie succumbed at age 100. Hageman was 1988 Grand Marshal of the Ellensburg Rodeo Parade and a performance of the 1988 Ellensburg Rodeo was dedicated to her.
Kay Forbes Hageman died December 23, 2007, at 81 years of age. She had a rich life that began on a Swauk Creek homestead and led to the Manager’s seat at the Chamber of Commerce and, now, induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. She is survived by a score of nieces and nephews, including John David Forbes, who will accept her induction on August 30.
Miles Hare
Bullriding is one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and only the bullfighter makes the job less dangerous, by running in front of a 1,500 pound bull, diverting its attention, and becoming its new target. Bullfighters have to be agile, wary, strong, and able to read the bodies and minds of angry bulls. Nebraskan Miles Hare was one of the country’s premier rodeo bullfighters for over thirty years. He was invited to the National Rodeo Finals (NFR) six times, two more times as an alternate.
Like the bullriders, the bullfighters seem to understate their risks and injuries. At work, they are always in harm’s way, so the odds are that somewhere along the road they will get kicked, butted, stepped on, bashed, tossed in the air, slammed into a gate, or trampled. In an interview, Hare said that “I’ve not been injured that much. I’ve broken ribs a lot, and my tailbone. I broke my shoulder last year. That’s going to happen when you’re thrown twelve feet in the air. If you don’t land on your feet, you’re going to land on your head.” He wore a steel knee protector from being hooked by a bull, a girdle to protect his ribs, his ankles and hands were taped, and he wore spiked shoes, but still sustained many injuries which to him were just part of the job. He said that “I break a finger now and then on a horn. A worse injury for me is a muscle bruise. I’d rather break a rib than bruise my legs where I do my running.” He said it was the bloodless injuries that do the most damage.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable testaments to Miles Hare’s toughness and ability is the fact that he retired at the age of fifty-two, and his first bullfighting event was one organized by his father, Dean, when Miles was 13. He was a bareback bronc rider in high school, and went to Nationals where he won a go-around. At 22, he was the youngest bullfighter to be invited to the NFR. Joel Smith said that “Miles set the bar very high for the rest of the bullfighters of his generation. Because of his knowledge of cattle, he was able to continue his job in the arena at a very high level for thirty years. Many of today’s bullfighters not only look up to Miles, but acknowledge him as one of the greatest.”
Although the bullriders study the bulls of their draws, the bullfighters have to know them all. Not only does he have to know how fast and athletic the bull is, but what its bucking habits are, how many and high its jumps, which direction it is likely to turn, its spins and rotations, what its temper is like, what it seems to be thinking. On the night before the rodeo, Miles would check out the bulls and talk to the contractors if he could. The most difficult bulls were the ones not prone to patterns. Smith said that “Miles was tough, knowledgeable, fearless, and dependable to those who tied themselves to the bulls.”
Miles Hare found all that drama and danger exhilarating, and said “I thank the Lord for mean bulls, for I wouldn’t be making money without them.”
Devere Helfrich
The National Cowboy Hall of Fame describes Inductee DeVere Helfrich as the “Dean of Rodeo Photography.” ProRodeo Sports News declared him “the world’s greatest rodeo photographer” and, following his 1981 death, stated Helfrich “will forever be ranked as one of the top rodeo photographers of all time, no matter who comes along with what degree of talent in the future.”
DeVere Helfrich was a premier rodeo photographer of the “golden age” of post-World War II professional rodeo. Born near Prineville, Oregon, in 1902, Helfrich learned cowboying on his Uncle Walt McCoin’s Bend, Oregon ranch. “He never rodeoed, but he had his own horse and they had moved cattle,” daughter Delores Scott recalled. “So he knew how animals thought and acted better than a lot of people.”
DeVere married Helen Grace Reed in 1926 and worked in the irrigation business and as an ice cream maker until World War II. When wartime food ingredients rationing made his ice cream business untenable, Helfrich searched for another profession. He had long been a proficient hobbyist in photography. Combining this expertise with his ranch background and love of the sport of rodeo, DeVere, with Helen at his side, entered the world of rodeo photography.
DeVere and Helen Helfrich traveled the rodeo road for twenty-five years, shooting thousands of rodeo photographs and selling them to competitors, contractors, family members, fans, magazines, newspapers, and rodeo organizations. “My dad took all the action shots and mother took all the posed pictures,” daughter Darle Runnels remembered. Initially the Helfrich’s developed their photographs in makeshift motel bathroom ‘darkrooms,’ but “in the fifties,” Runnels recalled, “They bought a trailer and made part of it into a darkroom.”
The Helfrich’s sold most of their photographs to stock contractors and the cowboys themselves. One of their most popular products was postcards that rodeo hands used for personalized greetings and correspondence. Runnels joked, “Mom and dad were always happy when a cowboy got a new girlfriend or a new wife because sometimes the ex would throw away or take off with all the pictures and they’d order a whole new set: ‘Give me everything you ever got of me’ “!
The Ellensburg Rodeo was an annual stop in DeVere Helfrich’s busy schedule, and he shot hundreds of memorable photographs in the Ellensburg arena. John Ludtka, former Daily Record editor, historian, and ERHOF Inductee, remembers Helfrich was the “go-to” man for sharp, publishable photographs of every cowboy or critter on the professional rodeo circuit. “Helfrich had a complete historic archive, and he was Johnny on the spot” with new shots. Ludtka recalls. “He shot them and worked all night in his darkroom to have them ready. You could depend on him and his price was right.” Several of Helfrich’s images adorn Ludtka’s The Tradition Lives On: A 75-year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Asked how he shot his vivid arena photographs, Helfrich noted, “I like to work 30 to 40 feet from the action. The photographer has to be in time with the horse, not just the rider.” His daughter Delores Scott recalled his preparing for shots and where he would station himself by discussing each animal’s style with the cowboys themselves. Delores’ revelation that Helfrich had severe eyesight problems makes his success even more impressive: “Daddy had (sight in) only one eye,” she stated. “I don’t think anybody who ever rodeoed with him ever knew that…(but) he had better vision than any of the rest of the family with that one eye.”
DeVere and Helen Helfrich retired in 1967, but continued traversing the West by automobile, taking photographs, and writing books. They published illustrated histories about the Oregon Trail and a series of oral histories, Klamath Echoes.
DeVere Helfrich died of cancer in 1981. In 1991, he was inducted, posthumously, into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Forty thousand of DeVere Helfrich’s photographs are today housed in the archives of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, ensuring his giant legacy for the preservation of the history and traditions of North American rodeo.
Nell Henderson
The timer’s function is to accurately and reliably provide times for events, even those done electronically, in case of a malfunction. As Ken MacRae, a recent inductee of the ERHOF, points out “The timers have a very specific and critical task. Thousands of dollars are paid out often with only tenths of a second separating winners from non-winners. Up until about the middle 1960s, the committees could use local people as timers but since then a timer must have a PRCA timer’s card, and undergo training. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association always uses two timers. There is a degree of judgment involved as the exact moment the barrier flag signals the beginning of the run and the exact moment the flag judge in the field signals the end of the run by dropping his flag.” Henderson’s precision and reliability when reading these flags are what earned her the honor of timing for the NFR. It is the accuracy of her judgment that rodeos came to rely on.
As MacRae further explains, “In the Ellensburg riding events, the start of the eight second duration of the ride is signaled by a flagger at ground level in front of the bucking chutes.
We tend to think of the rodeo as those three or four hours during the big show, but a timer’s day can be a long one because the slack also needs precise timing and backup. Art Stoltman recalls that a national roping champion was once very dissatisfied with the time clocked electronically, claiming it was way too slow. He appealed to Henderson’s stop watch, and it had the exact same time as the electronic one. So the timing is not only for electronic malfunctions, but also a way of deflecting complaints. Because of slack time, Henderson would often start her rodeo day at 5:30 in the morning and not be done until seven at night. She got into timing because her family participated in rodeos, and she thought it was “natural” to volunteer. It might seem a little unnatural to put in such long days, but she did it at Ellensburg for twenty-three years.
Henderson’s involvement in rodeo, however, went beyond timing. For the Columbia Pro Rodeo Association (CPRA), she kept a newsletter called “Nell’s Notes” in which she outlined rule changes, time schedules, and other protocol issues for cowboys moving from one event to another. In her resignation announcement to the CPRA, she said, “I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed this job and the people who I’ve had the pleasure to talk to, work with, and meet over the last 15 years. I know once I step back I’ll lose contact with a lot of you and that makes my heart sad. It’s just ‘Rodeo,’ it’s what we do – and that doesn’t leave room for much else.” When she recalled timing at the Ellensburg Rodeo, she said, “Just how does a person put into words all the good memories of the Ellensburg Rodeo? It is the people you work with that make for the many good memories.” Her induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame is for the public recognition for all those years of diligent, precise work.
Inducted in 1998
“He’s one in a million. He’s a miracle…I doubt there will ever be another horse like him.”
-Charmayne James, describing Scamper, 1989
Charmayne James and Scamper
Charmayne James is the greatest barrel-racing cowgirl in the history of North American rodeo. Born in Amarillo, Texas in 1970 and raised near Clayton, New Mexico on a small feedlot and cattle marketing operation, Charmayne James was by three years of age already showing great promise as a cowgirl. She remembers riding “soon as it got light in the morning until night.” As she matured, she routinely defeated women twice her age in local barrel-racing and breakaway roping competitions. She remembers “My dad told me I could rodeo if I could pay my own way.”
Charmayne also showed great skill as a horse trainer. She bought a rank, six year-old feedlot horse, Gill’s Bay Boy, for $1200 and trained him to barrel-race. At age fourteen Charmayne and Gill’s Bay Boy—who she nicknamed Scamper—turned professional and hit the rodeo road. So consuming was her rodeo career that Charmayne graduated with honors from high school on the road via correspondence courses that she completed somehow during her busy rodeo schedule.
Charmayne James’ rookie 1984 season was nothing short of sensational. She consistently finished in the money all year and went on to take both the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and National Finals Rodeo championship buckles.
In Ellensburg James dominated the barrel-racing for over a decade. She first raced here in her 1984 rookie season and won the buckle. In 1987 she tied with Lana Hemsted when both broke the Ellensburg arena record with times of 17.09 seconds. Although a highway accident overturned Scamper’s trailer in Wyoming en route to Ellensburg in 1991, the horse emerged unscathed and the two won their sixth Ellensburg title that year. Ultimately, Charmayne won the Ellensburg Barrel-racing title a record seven times and still holds, with Hemsted, the Ellensburg arena record time. “This has been a great rodeo for me,” James remarked in John Ludtka’s book The Tradition Lives On. “Scamper likes the big arena, and the money is definitely better—a big plus. The Northwest rodeos like Ellensburg give back to the competitors.”
James is quick to give due credit to her gelding Scamper and their teamwork in reaching the pinnacle of professional sports achievement. “Scamper is a gifted athlete and is a quite a personality as well,”” she says. “He is so smooth, there are no wasted motions. If you ride him like you know how, it is not very hard, and his winning is what makes things look easy.” Amazingly, Scamper once won their 1985 NFR go-round bridleless (it was an accident)! In 1996 Scamper was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Following her own induction into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, James said of Scamper, “Someday, someone will come along with another great horse, but there will never be another just like him.”
Scamper went into semi-retirement in 1994 when arthritis set in; James still works with him and he appears frequently in non-competitive venues. James, meanwhile, took up team-roping in 1989 while simultaneously retaining her status as one of the top barrel-racers in North America. As historian Mary Lou LeCompte writes in Cowgirls of the Rodeo, “Charmayne James has been the premier athlete and superstar” of women’s rodeo. “She is by far the most successful and best-known cowgirl of the modern era, and perhaps of all time.”
In 1998 Charmayne James was inducted into Amarillo’s Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame; in 1992 James entered the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Dallas, Texas.
John W. Jones, Jr.
Steer Wrestling is a big man’s sport, requiring the strength and weight and agility to grab a running 600-pound steer by the neck and wrestle it to the ground using its horns and nose as leverage. Kendra Santos, in an article celebrating the Salinas and Pendleton rodeo centennials and John W. Jones Jr’s dominance at both, wrote “many consider [Jones, Jr.] the most technically correct bulldogger of all time, in part because he had to overcome a considerable size deficit.” When he was on the rodeo circuit he weighed 185 pounds, which is small by today’s standards.
In Ellensburg, Jones Jr. was all-around champion in 1983, won the steer wrestling in 1984, and tied for first in 1987. He said, “Ellensburg has been one of my favorite rodeos. The Rodeo Committee always made us feel welcome and produced a top notch rodeo, had the best cattle, and had the best arena conditions for an equal chance for all contestants.”
In 1980, Jones bought his Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) permit, and in 1981 was named Rookie of the Year. According to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame notes about him, he ultimately qualified for the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) ten times, won three world bulldogging titles (‘84, ‘87-88), won the NFR aggregate in 1988, and twice qualified for the NFR in tie-down roping. He won the buckle in Steer Wrestling at Salinas, CA, four times, and he won it twice at Pendleton.
As the “Jr.” implies, there is a “Sr.,” and he had as much success as his son. John Jones, Sr. won the NFR’s aggregate title three years in row and, later, a fourth time. He also was a Rookie of the year in 1956. This Jones duo was the first father and son to both win the Rookie of the Year and a world championship. They are both in the PRCA Hall of Fame. Ken MacRae, a local inductee into the Ellensburg Hall of Fame, said of John W. Jones, Jr., “He was an outstanding steer wrestler. He patterned his style after his father’s…and that was keeping the steer’s head rather low as he shaped him before reaching for his nose. John W. Jones, Sr. and Jr were both quiet, reserved gentlemen.”
In the Salinas Rodeo Hall of Fame notes, it says John Sr. “may have won more world championships but he didn’t like to travel and didn’t seriously pursue gold buckles.” This modesty and humility seems to be a family trait. Santos remarks that “they’re the most genuine, family-oriented folks ever.”
John W. Jones, Jr.’s family lives and ranches in California. His son-in-law, Bear Pascoe, has a Superbowl ring from his days of playing with the New York Giants and now plays for Chicago. At 6’ 5” and 285 pounds, he’s a little more like the size that Santos envisioned as an ideal steer wrestler. When asked what he’d like to do after football, Pascoe said “I’d like to get back to California and ranching. I’d love to give rodeo a try, steer wrestling, and team roping. My father-in-law Johnny Jones is a legend and my dad steer wrestled, team roped, and roped calves as well, and has always been my hero.” Although he definitely has the size for a great steer wrestler and the athletic ability, Pascoe has large shoes to try to fill.
J.C. ‘Cliff’s Kaynor
“This rodeo is to the Indian a continuation of their old potlatches, feasts, races, and sports which they held in this valley for hundreds of years before the white man came. To the long-hair, the primitive Indian, the Ellensburg Rodeo is a continuation of sacred rights.”
-Cliff Kaynor, Editor and Publisher, Ellensburg Evening Record
Newspaperman Cliff Kaynor was a founder of the Ellensburg Rodeo and a tireless booster of the rodeo for over five decades of his life. Born in Ames, Iowa, February 20, 1887, to Henry G. and Sarah Ann Stamp Kaynor, Kaynor learned the newspaper trade as a young Iowa reporter. He moved West in 1907 and worked for the Seattle Times, Yakima Daily Republic, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer while attending the University of Washington.
It was in his role as editor and publisher of Ellensburg’s Evening Record that Cliff Kaynor accomplished his most important work in promoting the Ellensburg Rodeo. Kaynor’s vision was to build and improve the rodeo so as to “one day make the words rodeo and Ellensburg synonymous.” In hundreds of articles and editorials he promoted the rodeo, touting its Yakima Indian village as “a resurrection of the old days of the Wild West” and prodding locals to support the rodeo with their pocketbooks and volunteer work. It was Kaynor who worked with Lon Cook to gain the Milwaukee Railroad’s support, annually launching special “rodeo trains” to Ellensburg. He promoted these endeavors in the Record and other papers as well; he was a force in the state newspaper association (the publisher’s group). And Kaynor’s promotions evidently knew no limit: for years he took out classified advertisements in literally hundreds of American newspaper dailies, lauding Ellensburg and the merits of its ‘famous’ rodeo! One important testament to Kaynor’s national stature is found in Clifford P. Westermeier’s book Man, Beast, Dust: The Story of Rodeo. This book, one of the most important ever written on the subject, fully acknowledges Cliff Kaynor and his role in the growth of, as well as the preservation of the history of, North American Rodeo.
One of Kaynor’s greatest legacies still plays a prominent role in each Ellensburg Rodeo performance, for it was Cliff Kaynor who wrote the narrative story told as the Yakima Indians descend Craig’s Hill and enter the arena. Kaynor was a talented amateur anthropologist and folklorist. His narrative is no doubt romanticized and popularized (professional anthropologists might well dispute his use of the Coastal term “potlatch” below, for instance). Yet it nevertheless remains the authoritative version of the Indian and Euro-American oral traditions from which the rodeo grew. “The word Kittitas in Indian language means land of plenty food,” Kaynor wrote in the narrative so familiar to generations of Ellensburg Rodeo fans. “Here, as far as the memory of the Indian elders, were held each Spring and Fall the potlatch for all the tribes of Central and Eastern Washington. So at rodeo time hundreds…came back to the land…for their potlatch and they participate in numerous [rodeo] events.”
The above story, transcribed from Indian oral tales by Kaynor, has had considerable impact on the heritage and self-concept of Central Washington Indians and non-Indians alike. Many were, and still are, moved by Kaynor’s conclusion the “the name Kittitas took on a broader meaning until it became known as the valley of peace and contentment as well as the land of plenty.” To this day, many Kittitas Valley residents see their community and its environment in exactly these terms. Thus local pride finds sustenance in a Yakima Indian tale told seventy-six years ago by Cliff Kaynor.
For over fifty years, Cliff Kaynor’s restless energy and work ethic found expression in myriad community and professional endeavors. As John Ludtka notes, Kaynor was President and Board Member of the Ellensburg YMCA (1914-44); President of the Chamber of Commerce (’23 and ’33); Chairman of the School Board (’17 and ’18); a founder of Rotary (’22); President of the Ellensburg Parks and Playground Association (which built the community’s first outdoor swimming pool); a 30-year member of the Episcopal Church vestry; a charter member of the Golf and Country Club; and a founder of the Snoqualmie Pass Highway Association.
In addition, Kaynor earned a national reputation as a community journalist. The Ellensburg Daily Record was a pioneer rural subscriber to the Associated Press; Kaynor served as President of the Washington State Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association (in 1965 he received its coveted Amos Award for community service); he was a founding inductee to UW’s Sigma Delta Chi Journalism Honorary Society. And in 1975 Cliff Kaynor was inducted to the Washington State Journalism Hall of Fame at WSU in Pullman.
As time passed, Kaynor somehow retained all of his original enthusiasm for the rodeo. There are pictures of him nailing up rodeo posters, and he even conducted oral interviews of pioneers for the oral history collection of the public library. He retired in 1959, the fiftieth anniversary of his purchase of the Daily Record. Twenty years later, after a long life of professional success and community service, Cliff Kaynor died in Ellensburg on July 19, 1979.
Smokey Kayser
“Why do we call him ‘Smokey’? Each time he left the roping box, he moved so fast that he smoked. I mean, he SMOKED. He was that fast.”
-Dick Powers
Smokey Kayser was born in 1929 and raised on a working cattle ranch near The Dalles, Oregon. Although Smokey’s family was a ranch family, they were not rodeo cowboys. However, Smokey had wanted to rope competitively since he was a small child. At age 17, he hit the road and began his rodeo career.
Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s Smokey Kayser competed full-time as an RCA cowboy in roping, bulldogging, and wild cow milking competitions. He was a contemporary of George Prescott (ERHOF ’98) and even team-roped with him on occasion.
He also lived and worked (and shared roping horses) with Wayne McMeans. One of Smokey’s favorite horses was Spook, a mount he purchased from Ellensburg’s Larry Wyatt (ERHOF ’97).From the earliest days of his career, Smokey was a leading contender; a combination of athletic prowess, speed, technique, and good horses often put him in the money. He traveled the rodeo road throughout the 50s, working 25-30 shows a year. His favorite rodeos were in Sherman County and Joseph, Oregon, and of course the Ellensburg Rodeo.
His record is impressive: During the fifteen years when Smokey Kayser was at the height of his game, he won or placed in his events in Roseburg, Sisters, St. Paul, Portland, Joseph, and Prineville, Oregon; Spokane, Omak, Tonasket, Colville, and Puyallup, Washington; and Cloverdale, BC, in Canada and several other rodeos.
Of course Smokey Kayser’s notoriety in Ellenburg rests on a score of strong performances, event and go-round victories, and the coveted Ellensburg All-Around title in 1959. Smokey is only the second Kittitas County cowboy (the other is Frank Wood, ERHOF ’97) to have won the All-Around, but he hailed from Goldendale, not Ellensburg, when he did so. How he came to live in Ellensburg is a good story, told by John Ludtka in The Tradition Lives On. After winning the Ellensburg All-Around, Smokey never cashed the check, but instead carried it in his pocket until 1960. Then he and his wife Clem used the money to make a down payment on their Ellensburg ranch. “That story is true,” Smokey reported in a recent interview at the same ranch. “But of course I carried a check of that size in my wallet, not my shirt pocket!”
Smokey is quick to credit the role of Clem, who he married in 1950, in his ranch and rodeo career. When he was competing in 25-30 rodeos a year, Clem often stayed home to feed cattle, irrigate, and take care of the kids; she has herself spent years in the saddle. Clem remembers the endless string of rodeo cowboys Smokey brought home for a meal—in fact they still arrive regularly! Sometimes the whole Kayser family hit the road together, with Smokey and Clem and Sam, Lynette, Lori all in the seat of their Ford pickup.
A good purse in those days averaged around $500, but Smokey had to pinch pennies to make ends meet. He often had to cross the Columbia River, and in those days it cost $1.00 toll for a horse and trailer. “I finally figured out that if I crossed early in the morning and gave them a $100 bill, they wouldn’t have change and I could cross free,” he recalls. That trick worked several times before the toll collectors figured Smokey out. “The last time I tried it, those guys handed me ninety-nine $1-dollar bills and I needed a paper bag to carry my change home!”
Smokey began to cut back on his competitions in the 1960s but kept his hand in for several decades. Nowadays [1998] he still ropes at home; but mostly he enjoys following the horsemanship and achievements of his son, grandson, granddaughter, nieces, and nephews at their own rodeos. Smokey may have at one time been the first rodeo cowboy in his family, but today this roper from The Dalles has left a legacy to rodeo, and especially timed-event competitions, throughout the Pacific Northwest.
In good cowboy fashion, Kayser shuns the limelight and feels somewhat awkward with the praise and notoriety that has accompanied his induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. He is quick to give credit to his wife and his fellow cowboys. And he speaks highly of those who organize and conduct the Ellensburg Rodeo. “The Rodeo Board has worked long and hard to make the Ellensburg Rodeo the top rodeo that it is today,” he stresses.
Smokey Kayser’s cumulative record in calf and steer roping, team roping, wild cow milking, and bulldogging combine with his 1959 Ellensburg All-Around title to make him, without a doubt, one of the top hands in the history of Pacific Northwest rodeo. Although he is today [1998] an aged cowboy with his own grandchildren competing, he nevertheless retains the steely-eyed qualities of the superb athlete who, in the 1940s and 1950s, ‘smoked’ out of the roping box and into Ellensburg Rodeo history.
Smokey Kayser died in 2000.
Joe Kelsey Rodeo Company
A December 1966 issue of Rodeo Sports News touted the Joe Kelsey’s Tonasket, Washington rodeo stock company as “one of the oldest and most reliable stock contracting firms in the sport of rodeo.” The Joe Kelsey Company furnished bucking stock for the Ellensburg Rodeo for more than four decades, from 1947 to 1991.
Born in Butte Montana on April 16, 1910, Joe Kelsey (1910-1985) moved with his family to Washington State’s Okanogan Valley as a young boy. Kelsey made his start in rodeo as a saddle bronc rider and founding Cowboy Turtle (predecessor to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association [PRCA]) in the late 1920s and 1930s. Among other honors, he won the Ellensburg saddle bronc riding buckle in 1945; he won the Omak Stampede saddle bronc competition in ’43 and ’44, and was inducted into the Omak Stampede Hall of Fame.
Kelsey entered the stock contracting business as an employee of Moomaw and Bernard (ERHOF Inductees in 2002), and worked alongside Moomaw for over a decade.
He bought his first bucking string in 1949. “From the time on,” writes one rodeo historian, “Joe Kelsey provided top-notch bucking and roping stock for rodeos in Washington, Montana, Idaho, and western Canada,” including Pendleton, Calgary, and Ellensburg. Kelsey’s son, Joe Jr. (“Sonny”), worked in the family business from 1945 to 1991. The Kelsey Company’s tenure at the Ellensburg Rodeo ranks them alongside ERHOF Inductees Christensen Brothers, Harry Vold, and Moomaw-Bernard Stock Contractors. The Joe Kelsey Company worked the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1947 to 1958 and then, sometimes in new partnership arrangements, supplied stock from 1983-84 and, after Joe’s death, from 1985-91.
The Kelsey Stock Company produced many famous bucking horses and bulls. The mere sound of these animals’ names would, according to one rodeo historian, “numb the heart–or the britches–of any cowboy”! Among over two dozen award-winning Kelsey bucking broncs were Widow Maker, Snake, Hell to Set, Slingshot, Set to Velvet, Velvet River, Big Sky’s Velvet, Pee Wee, White Hope, Whiz Bang, John Doe, Try Me, Brown Jug, Little Rubber Doll, Devil’s Dream, Shake ‘em Down, Hot Seat, Smuggler, Pete Taggares, Sky High, Sky Rocket, and Yukon. Kelsey’s most famous bulls were Red One, 0 (“Ought”), Geronimo, Big John, Bull #17, Bull # 53, and Velvet Hour.
Kelsey’s 0 (“Ought”) a 1997 ERHOF Animal Inductee, was named after the numerical score cowboys almost always earned after he threw them! Kelsey’s bulls and broncs earned the Columbia Circuit Horse of the Year, Calgary Stampede Outstanding Horse, and National Finals Rodeo Saddle Bronc and Bull of the Year Awards.
Two legendary Kelsey animals inducted alongside “Ought” and the Kelsey Company are the bronc “Widow Maker” and bull “Red One,” both 1970s-era buckers. Widow Maker worked two decades in the arena and was chosen to be a National Finals Rodeo bronc.
Kelsey originally purchased Red One from an Oregon rodeo school and, although he was “a little scrawny,” several cowboys thought the bull had great potential. He won the 1976 National Final Rodeo’s Top Bucking Bull award, where World Champion Donny Gay became the first cowboy to ever ride him, earning a record-tying 95-point score (this record held until 1996). In a two-year period of 1977 and ‘78, Red One was ridden only twice in 158 appearances. It is a record reflective of Kelsey’s great rodeo stock contracting company.

RED ONE

WIDOW MAKER

OUGHT
Loyd Ketchum
When asked to describe the aim of a hard day’s work as a professional rodeo “bullfighter,” Loyd Ketchum responds earnestly, “When every bullrider walks away safe, it’s been a great day at the office.”
Rodeo bullfighting clown Loyd Ketchum holds one of the longest tenures—fifteen years—of any Ellensburg Rodeo contract performer. Ketchum first came to Ellensburg in 1989, at the beginning of his clown/bullfighter career. Ellensburg was Ketchum’s first major rodeo and former arena director Ken MacRae remembers the local board immediately agreed Ketchum “was a real find.”
A native of Montana’s “Big Sky” rodeo country, Loyd Ketchum grew up in and around Miles City, Montana. It was while studying auto mechanics at Miles City Community College that he began rodeoing, choosing the dangerous bullriding event as his specialization.
When he decided to forego a career as a professional bullrider, it was not for fear of an arena accident. Joining the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) in 1987, Ketchum immediately went to work in the related and more dangerous business of a bullfighting clown. The work of a bullfighting clown is three-fold. His main jobs are to arouse the bulls and make them buck harder during the rides and then protect the bullriders after they have been thrown or have dismounted the beasts at the end of their rides. This means the clown purposely puts himself in harm’s way during and after each and every ride (six to ten per performance), compelling the enraged bulls to buck and then distracting the beasts while the cowboys pick themselves up and (hastily) exit the arena.
The final facet of the bullfighter’s job is to compete in the freestyle bullfighting event. This portion of the rodeo program features the clowns and bulls, without the cowboys, engaging in a timed battle of wits and speed in which the clowns are scored for their athletic and strategic prowess.
Decked out in a big white straw cowboy hat, full clown paint and garb, and cleated professional sports running shoes, the five-foot five-inch tall, 150 pound Ketchum has saved cowboys’ lives on many occasions. “Bullfighting is something you have to live and breathe,” Ketchum says. “My main goals are to protect the cowboy and make the bull buck to the best of his ability.”
For nearly two decades Ketchum has worked professional rodeo’s premier venues, including the National College Finals and Dodge Circuit Finals Rodeos. He was chosen four-times (1992-96) to be a National Finals Rodeo bullfighter and earned the title of World Champion Bullfighter in 1991. Ketchum helped inaugurate freestyle bullfighting in Ellensburg in the early ‘90s and won the championship several times (the event is no longer on the program). Still in his prime, Ketchum continues to work dozens of rodeos each year.etchum’s peers attribute his success and longevity to professional acumen. “He grew up in the back pens, learning how to read bulls,” fellow bullfighting clown Joe Baumgartner notes. Rodeo cowboy Justin Andrade concurs: “Hank can read the bulls and bull riders” and “reacts on instinct.” Ketchum assesses his work with typical cowboy understatement: “If you know where wreck is going to be, you can be there to prevent it.”
ERHOF Board and Rodeo Board member Joel Smith commented that Loyd Ketchum is highly respected throughout the world of North American rodeo and “is a world class human being.” When Smith informed Ketchum of his selection for this year’s Induction, Ketchum replied he was “humbled and highly honored” at his selection.
Butch Lehmkuhler
Rodeo clown Butch Lehmkuhler has been an Ellensburg Rodeo crowd favorite for nearly two decades. Born in 1954, Lehmkuhler attended Chadron State College in western Nebraska, earning degrees in Physical Education and Psychology in 1976. He joined the PRCA in 1977 and throughout his rodeo career has simultaneously worked as a high school drafting and woodworking teacher and coach. He resides in North Platte, Nebraska with wife Melanie and their children Bailey and Dean.
Rodeo aficionados call Lehmkuhler a “contract performer”—an entertainer who performs in-between rodeo events. Costumed in clown garb, he jokes with the crowd and cowboys, and performs acrobatics on a trampoline. During the bullriding finale, however, he performs one of his most important duties as a barrelman, assisting the bullfighting clowns in protecting thrown or dismounting bullriders. The term “barrelman” is derived from the clowns’ use of a barrel to protect themselves in tight situations, confuse the animals, and create comic effects when ‘hiding’ inside. Some call the barrel a “can,” and Lehmkuhler has won several of the prestigious annual “Coors Man in the Can” awards.
Retired Ellensburg Rodeo Arena Director and ERHOF Board Member Dr. Ken MacRae remembers, “Butch Lehmkuhler really set the bar for rodeo funny men during his career. His banter with the late announcer and ERHOF Inductee Phil Gardenhire throughout the 1990’s rodeos proved to be some of the most funny, memorable moments in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. This man is gifted in spontaneous chatter, and filled those slow times during the rodeo performance. They were a very important part in our success for the many years they worked together here. They both were very special to me and it was Butch who called me to let me know of the tragic accident that took Phil Gardenhire’s life.Butch was always willing to suggest ways of improving our show for both the fans in the seats and the rodeo athletes participating in our events. Their knowledge and support were greatly appreciated.”
Hall of Fame Board Member Nip Tucker echoed MacRae’s sentiments: “Our children came of rodeo going age during the Lehmkuhler years. Butch’s unique form of entertainment, especially his trampoline act, was one of the highlights of the Ellensburg Rodeo for our kids. Butch Lehmkuhler exemplified the Ellensburg Rodeo theme of family fun.”
Joking about his dual status as a professional rodeo clown and public school teacher, Lehmkuhler says, “I go back to the classroom and learn for nine months, and [then] get to go back out and get paid to do all those things the kids get in trouble for doing at school!”
Rod Lyman
Montanan Rod Lyman joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) as a steer wrestler in 1984 and never looked back. During an impressive career that continues to this day, Lyman has qualified for the PRCA National Finals Rodeo (NFR) sixteen times. He has won dozens of event and all-around buckles, including the Southwestern PRCA Circuit Finals steer wrestling and All-Around titles. His lifetime earnings amount to well over $1,500,000.00.
A native Montanan born in 1961, Rod Lyman wrestled and played football before turning to rodeo timed-event competitions. He competed for, and graduated from, Montana State University in Bozeman. When not rodeoing, Rod and his wife Stefani raise and train horses and divide their time between Texas and Montana “Flying R” ranches.
Bulldogging friend and fellow Montanan Brad. Gleason ascribes Rod Lyman’s greatness in large part to his unwavering professionalism. “He showed his seriousness,” Gleason states, “by staying a full year with the steer wrestling Duvall Family in Oklahoma, learning from them, training himself in the technical side of the sport and riding their horses for the first year he made the NFR. Since then, he has always found and kept good horses, practiced hard and been a steady winner.”
In Ellensburg, Rod Lyman has won the bulldogging a near record four times (’90, ’94, ’96, & 2000) and won the Ellensburg Rodeo All-Around Championship in 1990. “The outstanding record of money won at Ellensburg,” notes Gleason, “has often made the difference between Rod making the NFR or not.”
Bill Linderman
Bill Linderman is a 2001 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. Linderman’s is a giant name in the history of 1940s and 1950s North American rodeo and was a regular in Ellensburg during that legendary period. William E. (Bill) Linderman was born on April 13, 1920 in Bridger, Montana, to a family that produced five professional rodeo cowboy brothers. Bill went to work in the hard rock mines of Montana as a young man. With massive arm and shoulder strength he built as a miner, the six-foot, 175 lb. Linderman “hit the rodeo road” in the early 1942. Bill Linderman worked both sides of the arena–he regularly competed in bareback bronc, saddle bronc, calf roping, and bulldogging events. Because of his great prowess in the post-World War II years, his fellow cowboys dubbed Linderman “The King.” During a near-fifteen year professional career, Linderman won RCA World Championships in Saddle Broncs (’45, ’50), Bareback Broncs (’43) and, evincing his timed-event expertise, Steer Wrestling (’50). Linderman also captured world three World All-Around Cowboy titles (‘45, ‘50, and ‘53).
During this time Linderman was, according to one historian, “spectacularly beaten up…he broke his back, fractured his skull, broke his arm three times as well as his neck, foot, leg, and collarbone.” Linderman could be stoic yet witty about the pitfalls and uncertainties of the rodeo sport: “Rodeo is about the only sport you can’t fix,” he once remarked. “You’d have to talk to the bulls and the horses, and they wouldn’t understand you.” As his arena career was ending, Bill Linderman began a new career as an officer in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA). He served the sport from 1950 to 1965 as the RCA’s president, secretary-treasurer, and board member. In this capacity Bill Linderman became an official spokesperson for the professional rodeo cowboys, and he tackled the chore with characteristic dramatic flair. He once drolly explained to a journalist: “In rodeo, if a competitor’s broke, [his fellow cowboys] will not only loan him transportation and entry fee, we’ll throw in a saddle. Besides that, we’ll tell him how the horse he draws bucks.” In Ellensburg, Bill Linderman made many friends and won much respect as a competitor and RCA officer. Linderman consistently won day money in Ellensburg, and in 1955 he made an impressive three-buckle sweep, winning the Saddle Bronc, Bareback Bronc and Ellensburg All-Around buckles. On November, 11, 1965, the rodeo world was shocked to learn that Bill Linderman had died in a commercial airplane crash in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was forty-five years old.
John Ludtka
It is telling that John Ludtka was genuinely surprised to learn of his selection for 2006 induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame (ERHOF). Ludtka— former Daily Record editor and publisher and author of The Tradition Lives On: A 75-Year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo (1997)—personally reported on the Ellensburg Rodeo for more than one-third of its history. Ludtka’s modesty evinces a genuine Western candor and belief in the community volunteerism that has built and strengthened the rodeo he knows so well.
“John Ludtka has given so much to this community and the Ellensburg Rodeo,” stated ERHOF President Teri Phillip. “John’s induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame is a very good way to preserve the long history of his work and dedication.”
John Ludtka was born in Huron, South Dakota in 1930. His father was a newspaperman. John attended South Dakota State University, earning his BS and MS degrees in Journalism.
A stint as a platoon leader in the U.S. Army’s 2nd Armored Division (West Germany) preceded a long and successful career as a journalism professor and newspaperman.
Although John was raised in the ranch and cattle country of the Dakotas, he first grew seriously interested in the sport of rodeo in New Mexico. As a young journalism professor at Eastern New Mexico State College (now Eastern New Mexico University), home to one of the oldest college rodeos in North America, John came to share his students’ enthusiasm for rodeo. He jokingly remembers having “barely resisted” their “efforts to get me to ride a bull.” And, though they decked him out in cowboy duds for their annual rodeo, John’s students “good-naturedly” concluded he “looked more like a ‘sheep herder’ than a ‘Marlboro Man’”!
John, with wife Janice and children Mark, Cathy, Karol, and Lynn, moved to Ellensburg in 1963 and he took a post as Central Washington State College (now CWU) Professor of Journalism and public information officer. John and
Janice purchased the Record Printing Company in 1968. John became editor (and, later, publisher) of Jim and Joy McGiffin’s Ellensburg Daily Record until the paper was sold in 1993.
During their three decades in Ellensburg, the Ludtkas figured importantly in the community’s economic, cultural, and institutional growth, with active involvement in the Kittitas County Fair, 4-H, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, Swim Team, Western Art Association, Community Hospital Foundation, CWU (including the Chimpanzee Center), the Clymer Museum of Art, and myriad volunteer endeavors.
John Ludtka’s involvement with the Ellensburg Rodeo has been continuous and has ranged from writing and publishing the official rodeo souvenir program to helping his Swim Team children serve as rodeo ushers and sweep up the grandstands after night show and daily performances. He reported from the press box after each performance.
Ludtka published the all-important “day sheets” listing the competitors and stock in each rodeo performance. He remembers this painstaking and time-consuming job “became a bit easier in later years when the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) sent out the draw and electronic printing took the place of the hot type used for many years. And it made it much faster for Record print foreman Frank Oechsner when offset printing replaced the letterpress operations….” With the old technology, Ludtka remembers, printing day sheets took until “well after midnight each night” of the rodeo weekend.
“John Ludtka is the historian of the Ellensburg Rodeo,” notes ERHOF founder and University of Washington, Tacoma, History Professor Mike Allen. “Frankly, many communities have failed to retain accurate data and the firsthand accounts of their early rodeos,“ Allen states. “Despite the best of intentions, their history is lost simply because no one has taken the time and care to preserve it. The Tradition Lives On, John’s official 75-year anniversary history of the Ellensburg Rodeo, has recorded for posterity the story of our rodeo and its legacy to our community and the world of North American rodeo.”
Ludtka was a founding ERHOF Board member. “It was exciting,” he states, “to have the opportunity to help put the spotlight on great rodeo participants and supporters.”
John and Janice divide their time between Leavenworth and Las Cruces, New Mexico and remained interested and active in Ellensburg affairs and visit often.
In recognition of three decades of work for the Ellensburg Rodeo, the Ludtka Family was designated Kittitas County Honor Family by Top Hands. John was the first recipient of the Rodeo Board’s prestigious “Maynard Linder Spirit of the Rodeo” award for rodeo volunteers. And upon retirement from the Daily Record, the Rodeo Board and Chamber awarded him an “Honorary Rodeo Champion” buckle.
Despite his “Rodeo Champion” buckle, John Ludtka jokes that his Eastern New Mexico State College students were probably correct when they said he was “more sheep-herder” than “Marlboro Man.” Yet in his modesty and reluctance to take the limelight, John Ludtka evinces one of the strongest tenets of the “Cowboy Code” of behavior.
Reflecting on his induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame, Ludtka stated simply: “All our family activities with the Rodeo, the Fair and other community endeavors were in keeping with the traditions that so many others have kept alive here and continue to improve on. We were just trying to do our part.”
King County Posse
“‘Silver Saddles and Golden Horses’ has become not only the King County Posse’s slogan, but its standard as well,” states an essayist honoring Washington State’s most colorful horsemen and women. The King County Posse formed as the “King County Sheriff’s Posse” in 1941, led by Wilfred Hall of Auburn and Daniel Bekins of Seattle. The Posse emulated other groups that had arisen in the early twentieth century West.
These horsemen aimed to keep alive the old nineteenth century “posse” traditions in a much tamer form, supporting local government and helping foster civic pride while participating the burgeoning professional rodeo scene.
Like other hobbyists across the West, King County Possemen were deputized lawmen holding honorary commissions and serving without wages. Their commissions came from the King County Sheriff; they wore official sheriff’s badges, carried sidearms, and assisted law enforcement officers in mounted “search and rescue” assignments.
Early King County Posse literature noted, “Each of us is a volunteer deputy sheriff obligated to render such service as he may be called upon to perform in case an emergency should arise.” The coming of World War II certainly loomed on Westerners’ minds as these words were written.
Ellensburg’s older Ellensburg Rodeo Posse (ERHOF Inductees 1998) advised and assisted the King County Posse from the beginning. Dr. J. P. Richardson had helped found the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse in 1939. Richardson (father of Rodeo Princess Dorothy Vaughan and grandfather of Queen Heidi Vaughan) had admired San Francisco’s mounted Posse at the Cow Palace Rodeo and wanted to organize a similar group. The Ellensburg Rodeo Posse thus became the first mounted drill team in Washington State. King County joined them, and the two posses have been mounted comrades for nearly seven decades.
Since 1943, King County Posse riders have ridden in the Ellensburg Rodeo Parade and Grand Entry, and competed in the rodeo’s mounted racing events and the Sunday Posse Night Show’s drill and riding competitions. In addition, King County Posse families have often been the source of an Ellensburg Rodeo Princess representing King County on the royal court.
One King County Posse family—the Brown family—has for three generations been involved as posse riders and rodeo princesses in the Ellensburg Rodeo.
The King County Posse’s most famous job in the Ellensburg Rodeo is its crucial role in the rodeo’s introductory ritual. Following the Grand Entry, it is King County Posse riders who “post the American colors”—stationing flag-carrying horsemen at posts around the rodeo arena while the Star Spangled Banner is sung. Only then do Yakama Indians ride down Craig’s Hill into the arena to commence each rodeo performance.
The “Silver Saddles and Golden Horses” of flag-carrying King County Posse riders are visually stunning. Two decades ago a King County Posse rider estimated the cost of his saddle and tack at $2,000.00. He described their famous drill:
We gallop the horses and we lope ‘em through the maneuvers and this is where the practice and the timing come in. It’s colorful: Fourteen Palominos with sterling silver saddles and bridles. Guys all dressed in the same uniforms. And each man carries a four-foot-by-six-foot American flag. And when you use flags like these, you’re blind on one side and can’t see what’s coming at you. If you’ve ever seen us do the “thread the needle,” you’ll know it’s quite a challenge.
In addition to their annual trek to Ellensburg, King County riders stage their own horse shows, playdays, and get-togethers. They have served as the “lead unit” in the Portland Rose Parade. They also appear at Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival, the King and Yakima County Fairs, Puyallup Fair, Seattle Seafair’s Grand Parade, and many other local and regional venues.
Over the years, the King County Posse has seen changes. Members deleted the term “Sheriff” from their title even though they remain honorary deputies. Recently, the King County Posse admitted its first female members, a move emulated by other posses and rodeo boards across the country.
But some things stay the same. Flag-carrying King County horsemen will no doubt continue their annual trek to Ellensburg, race the relays, and perform their precision drill. And of course they will continue to “post the colors” in the Ellensburg Rodeo’s Grand Entry for the foreseeable future.
When asked why he was a King County Posseman, Gary Lewis was quick to respond: “I get to ride nice horses. I get my exercise, with lots of nice guys. And there’s something about riding a nice horse and wearing a badge and carrying that American flag. I’m really proud of carrying that American flag when I’m riding a horse.”
Kittitas County Roping Club
It began as a way to have some Sunday fun. Local ranchers built their own arenas so neighbors and area friends would come to rope calves…and a competitive spirit took over. It became a part of life in the Kittitas Valley. Roping calves was not just a Sunday activity ‑ it was a necessary skill frequently used in every day ranch work. Today that spirit still exists and the Kittitas County Calf Roping Club continues to be a growing ground for ropers and horsemen–and women–to improve their abilities as it has for more than 60 years.
For its hand in aiding the Ellensburg Rodeo achieve world fame, the club is among those inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. The ropers incorporated in 1947, but its members’ activities, while loosely organized, began much earlier with the Ferguson, Wyatt, Jenkins, Minor, Morrison, Roberts and Porter ropers helping lead the way. When the Ellensburg Rodeo began it was these same ropers who were johnny‑on‑the‑spot to help make it a success ‑‑ as volunteers working the roping and bulldogging chutes and as competitors, many on a par with the rodeo professionals. That, too, still exists. Dr. Ken MacRae, long the arena director for the rodeo, says, “the members have always been very supportive of the rodeo; members helped when and where needed. And they have provided rodeo board members, too. If you lived here and were interested in riding and rodeo and wanted to improve your roping skills you belonged.”
Since 1945, the roping club members competed to qualify for the county calf roping held during the Ellensburg Rodeo. That began when locals were not permitted to compete at the rodeo if they were not members of the Turtles Association, the forerunner of what is now the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Competing before the hometown fans was important so the rodeo board added the county roping event. (There was for a time an amateur, or county, bronc-riding event which lasted for a few years). The format for qualifying for the Labor Day weekend county roping has changed. Now there are four elimination ropings throughout the summer and the top eight ropers, qualify to rope at the rodeo. Some of the top eight may opt to compete in the PRCA sanctioned calf roping (and are PRCA members), so the next placed roper gets the call to rope in the county roping. While the county championship has been passed around to many members, the Minor family has won more than a dozen titles with more likely to come. Buck and sons Pat and Brent have been tough to beat –Pat having won seven times and Brent six and still active. Solly Houser and Danny Orcutt each won five times. Fans also see the members volunteering to help push cattle out of the arena ‑ for years it was Frank Wallace and Tex Taliaferro ‑ or younger members running out to untie calves during the PRCA events. They have helped sort and earmark calves and steers for the rodeo’s daily draws. (Each pro cowboy entry has his calf or steer drawn by chance). MacRae said, “All you had to do was give a call and they’d be there to help. We’d tie down the calves before they were roped during the rodeo performances and that was a long day of sweaty work.”
Throughout the year, the club promotes roping and horsemanship through playdays and clinics, monthly ropings where points are totaled. At year’s end high‑point winners receive awards and prizes at the annual banquet. In the late 1970’s women were included as members of the club and breakaway roping was added to the other roping events. Membership is open to permanent county residents and today there are 65 active members (15 families). Another notable activity is the sponsorship of the Northwest 5head calf roping, team roping and steer wrestling championship. The three‑day Memorial Day weekend event attracts top contestants from Canada and the western half of the U.S. including such “name” entries as Joe Beaver, Brent Lewis, Jeff Coehlo, Dean Oliver and Brad Goodrich. Goodrich and Allen Bach are former roping club members who have gone on to the highest levels of pro rodeo including the National Finals Rodeo. Bach is a three‑time world champion team roper and Goodrich is a top 15 roper and bulldogger ‑ and 1984 county roping champ. Presently [2001] the club is headed by a seven‑member board.
Harry Knight
“Has rodeo changed much since the 1920s and 30s?” a reporter once asked the great Canadian saddle bronc rider Harry Knight. Knight answered in the frank and down-to-earth manner that characterized his generation of rodeo cowboys: “It sure has,” he said. “Today the emphasis is on the athlete and his scientific sport. Back then, it was just cowboys dolling up their regular chores in the arena.”
Harry Knight, a 2002 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame, certainly did his share of the “regular chores” in cowboy country before achieving glory in the rodeo arena.
Born in Quebec City in 1907, Knight soon moved west with his family to Alberta. Young Harry loved animals, especially dogs and horses, and he worked as a livery stable groom and packhorse wrangler at his father’s resort on Banff’s Lake Louise. At age 14, he became a working cowboy, wrangling and breaking horses on Alberta’s ranchlands. Interestingly, Harry also mushed dog-racing teams in Canadian and international competitions, building the tremendous leg muscles he would soon use as a saddle bronc rider. Harry Knight entered his first rodeo in Sundre, Alberta in 1925, thus beginning a half-century career in professional rodeo.
During the first decade of the Ellensburg Rodeo, Harry Knight was a crowd favorite. Knight won the Ellensburg Rodeo saddle bronc buckles in ’29, ’31, and ’32; in 1931, he won the coveted Ellensburg All-Around title. Harry Knight was a regular on the Pacific Northwest circuit, competing in the “Big Four” rodeos (Ellensburg, Pendleton, Lewiston, and Walla Walla) and also winning the Pendleton Roundup all-around title.
From 1937-1971, Knight pursued a career as a professional rodeo stock contractor, most prominently as Gene Autry’s partner in the Flying A Rodeo Company and, later, as owner of his own Harry Knight and Company stock and rodeo company. Working out of Yuma, Arizona, he furnished stock for premier rodeo venues—Fort Worth, Madison Square Garden, and Boston Garden—and he was stock contractor for the first Houston Astrodome Rodeo.
All who knew Knight described as a soft-spoken cowboy who earned a reputation for honesty and complete professionalism. In the classic Man, Beast, Dust: The Story of Rodeo (1946), Clifford P. Westermeier remembered Knight as a man who enjoyed diverse friendships ranging from New York’s upper crust to “the poorest ranch hands in Arizona and Texas.”
“As most top-drawer bronc men do, “ wrote rodeo historian Willard Porter, “Knight acquired a canny understanding of the chemistry that goes into the makeup of a dead-end bad horse.” With this expertise, he bought and contracted the rankest of bucking broncs; Harry Knight’s Misty Mix, Joker Jake, and Big John all won PRCA Saddle Bronc of the Year titles. Knight retired from stock contracting in 1971 and moved to a ranch near Fowler, Colorado,
Harry Knight not only served the rodeo profession as a competitor and stock contractor—like several of his great contemporaries, he became a leader in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA, the predecessor to PRCA). He was the first stock contractor representative on the RCA’s Board of Directors (1966-76) and also served on the PRCA Administrative Advisory Board. In 1985, Harry Knight was inducted into both the Canadian Cowboy Hall of Fame (Edmonton, Alberta) and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma); he was a Founding Inductee to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame (Colorado Springs, Colorado).
Harry Knight, saddle bronc champion, stock contractor, and founding father of modern professional rodeo, died of a heart attack on April 5, 1989, at his Colorado ranch. He was 82 years-old.
Pete Knight
Pete Knight, one of early professional rodeo’s greatest cowboys, was a mainstay competitor in Ellensburg Rodeos for nearly a decade in the late 1920s and early 1930s. During that time, he earned the Ellensburg Rodeo’s highest awards and abundant credentials for induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Pete Knight was born in 1903 in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but he was destined to live a legendary life, and suffer a tragic death, under Western skies. Knight’s family moved first to Oklahoma before settling in Crossfield, Alberta, Canada in 1914 (Pete was not related to fellow Albertan and ERHOF Inductee Harry Knight, though the two were close friends). At age 12, Pete began to break horses on his family’s ranch; he also learned to train and handle workhorse pulling-teams of up to 16 head. Pete entered the local Crossfield Rodeo in 1918 and won second place in the bronc riding. By 1923, at 20 years of age, he had decided upon a career as a professional rodeo roughstock rider.
In the early years of the Ellensburg Rodeo, Pete Knight proved to be a dominant saddle bronc rider. In 1930 he dazzled the Ellensburg crowd by riding the infamous black gelding Midnight (later an animal inductee to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame). Knight’s ride on Midnight won him the saddle bronc buckle and Ellensburg All-Around title in ’30. In ’33 he again won the saddle broncs. When Pete Knight won the Ellensburg All-Around title for a second time in ’34, locals fully expected to see the four-time World Champion roughstock rider return and stand in the winner’s circle again. But Pete Knight was headed towards a tragic demise.
On Sunday, May 23, 1937, Pete Knight rode Duster out of Chute #3 in Harry Rowell’s annual Hayward (CA) Rodeo. He rode the bronc for seven full seconds when suddenly thrown. Disastrously, Pete was hurled in front of Duster and the horse tripped and fell with his full weight upon Knight’s body. Cowboys immediately rushed into the arena. “Are you hurt?,” Pete’s close friend Harry Knight asked. “You’re goddamned right I’m hurt,” Knight responded. A cracked rib had punctured his spleen. The cowboys carried Knight to an ambulance, which rushed him to the hospital. He was dead upon arrival.
Knight’s fellow cowboys unanimously agree that he was a gentleman as well as a great bronc rider. In rodeo circles, Knight was universally liked and respected. In 1977, on the fortieth anniversary of his death, his fellow townsmen dedicated the Pete Knight Memorial Center in Crossfield, Alberta to “the finest bronc rider of all time and one of nature’s gentleman.”
Dr. Ken MacRae
In a recent interview, Dr. Ken MacRae reflected on his three-decade service to the Ellensburg Rodeo. “Well, the Ellensburg Rodeo was, after my family and veterinary medicine, the most important thing my life,” he recalled. “We directors all took our responsibility very seriously. The all-important goal was to present the very best rodeo in our power.”
“Ken MacRae came on board and he cared about the cowboy’s side and sort of educated us about the cowboy’s needs,” remembered retired Ellensburg Rodeo Board member Allen Faltus in an interview with the late John Ludtka. At its inception in 1923, the Ellensburg Rodeo Board of Directors was a diverse group, with ranchers and farmers serving alongside businessmen and other town-dwelling professionals.
As a ranch-raised Idahoan, college bull-riding champion and roper, and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Ken MacRae brought a varied and unique perspective to long and distinguished service as Arena Director of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Born November 11, 1934, to Bill and Mae MacRae, Ken MacRae was raised on the MacRae Sheep Company’s cattle, sheep, and agricultural ranch in Paul, Idaho. Bill died in 1944, Mae later remarried, and the family moved to another remote locale, the historic Kane Ranch, a range cattle and hay operation near Salmon, Idaho. They later relocated to northeast Washington State, where Ken finished high school. “I had my own horse at an early age about 4, and that interest has continued to the present,” Ken recalls. “I started competing in amateur rodeos while in high school and finally retired from Steer Roping at the end of the season in 2010.”
Entering Washington State College (now WSU) in Pullman as an undergraduate in 1953, Ken joined the rodeo team, winning the 1956 Pacific Coast Region Bull Riding Championship; going on to the College National Finals Rodeo in Colorado Springs, he finished 3rd in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association standings.
Ken’s rodeo career continued as he earned his RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, now PRCA) card and transitioned from roughstock to timed events—steer, team, and tie-down (calf) roping competitions. Over four decades, he won titles and day money at most of the northwest rodeos, including Joseph, Eligin, and Pendleton (OR), Eaton (CO), and Walla Walla. He qualified for the Columbia River Circuit Finals (in Steer Roping) several years, including 2006 when he was 72 years of age. Ken won the year-end Championship in the Northwest Steer Roping Association in 1978 and 1989 and also won go-rounds and titles in Senior competitions. “My best memories,” MacRae says, are friendships with “many of the people that have made up the rodeo world for three generations.”
After earning his B.S. in Animal Science in 1957, Ken married Sandra Selden and entered WSC’s Veterinary College, where he earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1961. Then the MacRae family—including children John, Alan, and Mary—moved to Ellensburg where Ken worked with, and later assumed, the large animal practice of Dr. Leonard Newman. He successfully practiced Veterinary Medicine until his retirement in 1997 and still has hundreds of former clients and friends scattered across Kittitas County.
It did not take the Ellensburg Rodeo Board long to tap the many talents of Dr. Ken MacRae. Ken joined the Board in 1969 and assumed the vital post of Arena Director in 1971, following in the footsteps of the local legends Art Driver and Tex Taliaferro. MacRae served as Arena Director for 29 years, longer than anyone else in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
As Arena Director, MacRae pursued the “cowboy side” and “cowboy needs” Allen Faltus referred to above. Alongside saddle bronc riding, rodeo experts call roping events “ranch related” because they utilize historic skills that were, and still are, necessary for working ranch cowboys. MacRae aimed to increase the Ellensburg Rodeo’s connection to these ranch related events.
He led the 1978 volunteer effort to upgrade and relocate the roping chutes to the center of the west grandstands. Soon thereafter, in 1981, he advocated and won inclusion of Team Roping as part of Ellensburg Rodeo program. Like Team Roping, Steer Roping is a skill built on range cattle droving techniques; in 1988, Steer Roping became a moneyed event at the Ellensburg Rodeo, scheduled annually during morning “slack” roping and attracting steer roper super stars like Guy Allen and Trevor Brazile. Allen is an ERHOF Inductee and Brazile will be inducted into ERHOF alongside MacRae on August 30.
On the roughstock side of the arena, MacRae recalls, “An important breakthrough came when we could afford to hire multiple stock contractors to each bring smaller numbers of their best horses and bulls, stock that the best cowboys would all have a chance to place when they drew them. We were also fortunate to be able to hire the best bullfighters and clowns because they all wanted to work at Ellensburg.”
Dr. Ken MacRae served as President of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1982-83. In 1998, Dr. MacRae was honored by his peers to be chosen the PRCA National Committee Man of the Year.
Throughout this time, Dr. Ken MacRae trained his own roping horses. Indeed, Trevor Brazile won most of the money for his 2006 and 2007 World Steer Roping titles riding “Roan Ranger,” a horse he bought from Ken, who raised and trained him.
Dr. Ken MacRae retired from the Rodeo Board following the 2000 rodeo and, as noted, retired from professional competition in 2011.
Ken MacRae also remains active as a longtime member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Board of Directors. “This is one of the good old rodeos; people think of it as their dad’s rodeo,” Ken told the late John Ludtka in an interview. “The future looks bright.”
Bill McKay
Bill McKay, longtime Ellensburg Rodeo chute boss, was raised on a wheat ranch near Wilbur, Washington. He graduated from Wilbur High School in 1951 and attended Eastern Washington College of Education (now EWU), interrupting his studies to serve with the U. S. Army 38th Infantry in Korea. When Bill returned, he enrolled at Washington State College (now WSU), where he studied Education and competed in intercollegiate rodeo with his friend and fellow student Ken MacRae. Bill McKay was a steer wrestler, wild cow mugger, and roper; he joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association after college and competed for most of his life.
Bill married Janice Echols in 1957, graduated from WSC in 1958, and for the next five years worked as a public school teacher and coach in Creston, Palouse and Moses Lake.
The McKay family—including children Mark, Mike, and Julie—moved to Ellensburg in 1963 and worked their Reecer Creek ranch in the 1960s and 70s. In 1974, Bill was honored as Kittitas County “Cattleman of the Year.”
A good chute boss helps keep a rodeo running in a smooth, professional manner, and McKay was one of the best in the business.
His job was difficult, as he coordinated the placement of dangerous bucking broncs and bulls and made sure the cowboys were safely mounted and ready to ride.
Marie Smith, who served on the committee that selected McKay for the 2003 Maynard Linder ‘Spirit of the Rodeo’ Award, described the Chute boss’s job succinctly: “The Chute boss is the man down in that area of the arena called ‘Purgatory Seating.’ He coordinates which bucking bronc or bull lines up with which chute and which cowboy will be getting on which animal, and in which order left or right of the middle they will come busting out. He coordinates with the announcer, stock contractor, judges, arena director, and the cowboys, and deals with the extensive rituals cowboys go through while mounting those animals down in the Danger Zone.”
Bill McKay knew how to keep the show moving, and in this he was helped by stock contractors like Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductee Harry Vold. Regarding the cowboys’ “extensive rituals,” McKay recalled, “When Harry Vold rode up to the chute and told a cowboy who was fidgeting with his rigging to get on and ride there was no delay—he had everyone’s respect.” The cowboys showed Bill McKay the same respect.
Although the McKay family left their Reecer Creek ranch to live on Janice’s family’s wheat ranch near Hooper, Ken MacRae notes, “Bill still came back every Labor Day weekend to take over the chutes.” Bill was a member of the LaCrosse Grain Growers Association, Whitman County and Washington State Wheat Growers Associations, and the LaCrosse School District Board.
“Some say Bill decided to turn over his job not long after he was ‘freight-trained’ by a big bull,” Marie Smith states. Ken MacRae remembers that day: “Bill was standing right by chutes and saw the bull coming too late to climb up the gate. He was bruised, but not seriously injured, and he continued to work the rest of the rodeo.”
Bill McKay served the Ellensburg Rodeo for 25 years. When he stepped down, Coy Huffman took over the big job of filling Bill McKay’s cowboy boots.
“Bill McKay was a true friend and diligent Ellensburg Rodeo volunteer,” Ken MacRae states. “He took great pride in being an important part of the Ellensburg Rodeo.” Bill McKay died in 2004, one year after he was awarded the Maynard Linder Spirit of the Rodeo Award.
McEwen Family
According to Mack, son of Oscar McEwen, the McEwens came to the Kittitas Valley in 1871. Originally from North Carolina, John McEwen and his wife Jerusah Morrow McEwen crossed from their Fremont, Iowa, home, making that long trek across the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest. They originally settled near Shelton but crossed the Cascades in search of prime cattle grazing country in 1871. They homesteaded up the Naneum, five miles east of Ellensburg. John and Jerusah had five children, Elizabeth, James, Harvey, Laura, and Etta. It is the children of Harvey and Martha Grewell McEwen that historians of the Ellensburg Rodeo know best. Harvey McEwen and his boys ranched in the southeastern Kittitas Valley and soon gained a reputation as top horsemen, both on the ranch and at local rodeos and horse racing tracks.
Ken McLean
In 2002, the world of professional rodeo was shocked to learn that respected saddle bronc rider, calf roper, and bulldogger Kenny McLean had died on horseback at a Taber (Alberta) Rodeo. McLean was waiting his turn at a Senior ProRodeo Association calf roping event when he suffered a massive heart attack. Interestingly, McLean’s mount was standing near the bucking chutes, a spot the sixty-three year-old McLean knew well in the world of 1960s North American Rodeo.
Kenny McLean was born in Okanogan Falls, British Columbia, in 1939; he started riding colts at age twelve and entered his first rodeo at age seventeen. As an RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, predecessor to the PRCA) cowboy he competed across North America in prime Canadian and American venues, including Calgary, Pendleton, Cheyenne, and Ellensburg.
A true all-around cowboy, Kenny McLean worked both ends of the arena, regularly winning buckles and day-money in calf roping and bulldogging (timed events) as well as saddle bronc competitions. He was a Canadian calf roping and bulldogging champion (1972) and placed among the top 15 calf ropers and bulldoggers in the World (1972). This breadth made McLean the first Canadian recipient of the prestigious Bill Linderman Trophy, an award he won twice.
Yet it was primarily as a saddle bronc rider that McLean gained notoriety at the World level. Kenny McLean was named 1961 RCA Rookie of the Year, a distinction he followed by winning the 1962 World Saddle Bronc Championship. McLean is the only rodeo cowboy named an Inductee to the Canadian and British Columbia Sports Halls of Fame; he is also the only rodeo athlete to belong to the prestigious Order of Canada. Kenny McLean is an Inductee to the Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Indian Rodeo Hall of Fame. “Kenny has won just about every honor professional rodeo has to offer and was a true all-around cowboy,” ERHOF Board Member and bronc riding expert Bertha Morrison recently noted.
In the Ellensburg Rodeo, McLean was popular both in the arena and behind the chutes, and Ellensburg became an annual stop for him. He won the Ellensburg saddle broncs in ’61 and ’64, also capturing the Ellensburg All-Around title in 1964. Deb Copenhaver, two-time Saddle Bronc Champion of the World and ERHOF Inductee (’99) is lavish in his praise of McLean, who he considers “one of the best bronc riders I ever saw.” “He was the greatest in the business,” Copenhaver says.
After his bronc riding days ended in the early 1970s, Kenny McLean kept competing for three decades in timed events, eventually following the senior rodeo circuit with his wife Paula Jo. They moved from British Columbia to Hamilton, Montana, raising horses and running Paula’s family’s ranch before Kenny’s untimely death. “Kenny’s last days, especially dying behind the bucking chutes…” said Paula Jo recently, “well, you couldn’t have written a script more befitting his life. He absolutely did it all.”
800 of Kenny McLean’s friends and admirers attended his 2002 Okanogan Falls memorial service in Centennial Park. ProRodeo Sports News reported McLean’s “paint mare…was led into the park…a pair of McLean’s boots set backwards in the stirrups and his 1962 World Champion’s Buckle dangled from the saddle horn.” Across Canada and the United States, thousands mourned the passing of this World Champion cowboy.
Bill McMacken
South Dakotan Bill McMacken dominated bronc riding and bulldogging competitions during the 1935-45 decade of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Born in Pierre and residing in Trail City, South Dakota, Bill grew up on his father’s cattle ranch surrounded by seven older brothers and sisters and a lifestyle that revolved around cowboying and rodeo. Bill was only fourteen years-old when he hit the rodeo road with his older brothers Joe, Fritz, and Bud McMacken. As he matured, dark and handsome McMacken was described by rodeo historian Cliff Westermeier as the “epitome” of a rodeo cowboy, with the “look, personality, and the ability of the ideal Western character.”
McMacken exhibited the skill and versatility of early rodeo men who “worked both sides of the arena”–excelling at both timed and roughstock events.
He briefly held the world’s record in steer wrestling in 1935. His 9.8 second 1941 Pendleton run broke his former arena record (10.3) and stood for a decade. In roughstock events he was the second cowboy (after Pete Knight) to ride the rank, infamous bronc Five Minutes to Midnight. He twice (‘37 and ‘39) won Pendleton’s All-Around title and the prestigious $5000 Sam Jackson Trophy. He was a founding member of the Cowboy Turtles (a predecessor to the RCA and PRCA). In a 1940s interview with Westermeier, McMacken reminisced that one of his career highlights was his membership on the 1939 American Rodeo Team touring Australia.
McMacken’s strong showing in the bronc riding and bulldogging events led to three Ellensburg All-Around championships in ‘36, ‘37, and ‘39. He may have also won the All-Around in ‘38, but all records from that rodeo were destroyed in the Antler’s Hotel fire. He won the saddle bronc buckles in Ellensburg in ‘36 and ‘37. Although World War II caused cancellation of several Ellensburg rodeos, Bill McMacken returned to Ellensburg to once again capture the All-Around title in 1945. McMacken was thus a hard-working, consistent, and highly talented rodeo cowboy. His four Ellensburg All-Around titles constitute an Ellensburg Rodeo arena record bested only by Tom Ferguson’s six All-Arounds three decades later.
McManamy Family
“The Ellensburg Rodeo is a family affair,” writes John Ludtka, author of The Tradition Lives On (1997). “And for over seven decades, the McManamy’s—including the Hands, Seuberts, and Oechsners—have played the role of rodeo volunteer family with aplomb.”
Joe McManamy was born in New York City in 1907, but lost his father at age one. “My mother remarried in 1909 to James Hand who had been a childhood sweetheart in Ireland,” Joe later wrote. The same year, the family moved to the northwestern part of the Kittitas Valley to farm and raise cattle. Upon reaching maturity, Joe and his half-brother James Edward Hand, inherited their parents’ farm. Thus, Kittitas County’s respected “Hand/McManamy Farms” partnership was born.
The McManamy’s have served the Ellensburg Rodeo for over seventy years as volunteers, rodeo queens, board members, and posse riders. This association began in the 1930s with Barney Seubert’s volunteer work and 1940s when Joe McManamy became a founding member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse and Rodeo Board member and President. During his Presidency, Joe McManamy hired legendary announcer George Prescott (ERHOF ’97), and stock contractors Christensen Brothers (ERHOF ’98) and Harry Vold (ERHOF 2000). He led the first-ever Ellensburg Rodeo delegation to the National Finals Rodeo and convention.
Joe was joined in his efforts by his wife Mary Oechsner McManamy. Both Joe and Mary also tirelessly served the community in non-rodeo endeavors that ranged from Rotary to Red Cross to Campfire to 4-H to school and church work in the Saint Andrews Parish. Joe McManamy served on the Board of Directors of Yakima Federal Savings and Loan Association, the largest Mutual Savings Association in the western U.S. and one of the oldest and most successful Savings Associations in the United States. Mary’s brother Frank Oechsner was a longtime Ellensburg Rodeo Posse rider and rodeo volunteer.
Daughter Mary McManamy Seubert was a founding Wranglerette and 1960 Ellensburg Rodeo Queen. She fondly remembers “I was also one of six queens from our state who went to the University of Washington-Minnesota Rose Bowl and rode on the state float in the parade. We were there 10 days.”
Mary’s husband Bill Seubert served on the Rodeo Board for nearly three decades, as President from 1975-77 and “Mr. Public Relations” for twenty-eight years. Daughters Trish Seubert Buswell and Meg Seubert Berger both rode as Wranglerettes, and Trish was 1987 Ellensburg Rodeo Queen. Today, Trish carries on her mother’s four-decade long post as co-announcer of the televised Ellensburg Rodeo Parade.
Mary McManamy Seubert and her late father enjoy a unique distinction—both served multiple terms as Kittitas County Commissioners.
For over seven decades, the extended family of Joe and Mary McManamy have devoted literally tens of thousands of hours performing the myriad volunteer tasks so essential to the success of the Ellensburg Rodeo. They epitomize the significance of family in the traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Larry Mahan
Larry Mahan is a 2001 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. Mahan revolutionized the rodeo world on his way to winning six PRCA World All-Around Championships (’66, ’67, ’68, ’69, ’70, ‘73) and two World Bull Riding Championships (’65, ’67). Larry Mahan combined athleticism, grit, and a keen business sense to move 1960s rodeo cowboys into the world of modern American professional athletes. Larry Mahan was born in 1943 in Brooks, a town adjacent to Salem, Oregon. When he was not at work sacking groceries after school, young Mahan was at the local fairgrounds, earning his spurs in youth calf roping clubs. He entered his first junior rodeo in Canby, Oregon, in 1957. Mahan graduated from high school in Arizona, winning the 1962 state high school rodeo All-Around buckle. Back in Oregon in 1963, he began his professional career tutored by top Oregon hands Sterling Green and Bob Cook.
Mickey – Dean Oliver
Born in Dodge City, Kansas in 1929, young Dean Oliver moved with his parents Vernon and Vesper to Nampa, Idaho in the 1930s. After the untimely death of his father, eleven-year old Dean began roping, first practicing on dairy calves and later entering rodeos and going professional as a calf roper and bulldogger. He joined the RCA is 1953. During a two decade career, from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, Oliver garnered ten world championship buckles, winning the All-Around Championship in 1963, 1964, and 1965. His record of gross earnings stood unbroken for nearly two decades.
The durability of Oliver’s money-winning records is especially surprising because purses were low in the mid-1950s when he first began to win consistently. He possessed an expertise in the sport that still awes professional cowboys. His calf-roping technique resembled what Willard Porter calls a “chocolate-syrup smoothness. His runs on his good horses–Mickey, Vernon, and a few others–were so coordinated that it was impossible to fault him. From chute-box to tie-down, he made it look easy….” This expertise enabled Oliver to win “bunches” of rodeos consecutively, piling up huge winnings and catapulting him to the top of prize-winners.
In Ellensburg, Dean Oliver became a crowd favorite as he won the calf roping competitions in ‘62, ‘63, ‘64, and ‘71.
When he quit calf-roping, Dean Oliver remained active in rodeo on the “administrative” end of the business as the PRCA Calf Roping Director. He moved from Nampa to Boise, where he now resides.
Gene Miles
“I was so proud to be a part of the Ellensburg Rodeo for the twenty years I contested and judged. And now to be inducted into your great Hall of Fame means that me and my horse Shorty get to be a part of the Ellensburg Rodeo forever and ever. I’m mighty proud.”
-Gene Miles,Ellensburg Rodeo Steer Wrestling Arena Record-Holder
“The greatest bulldogger to compete in the Ellensburg Rodeo,” Art Driver once said, “is Gene Miles.” Gene Miles is a 1999 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in the National Competitor Category. A resident of Klammath Falls Oregon, Miles worked the Ellensburg Rodeo for nearly two decades, returning later as a stock contractor and judge. Gene Miles is known for his gentlemanly yet highly competitive demeanor and his fine ‘dogging horse “Shorty,” who he shared with his fellow cowboy competitors.
Gene Miles was born in 1927 in Waterloo, Oregon and raised in Tygh Valley, Oregon, where he learned to break and ride broncs. After service in the U.S. Army, he hit the rodeo road in 1948, competing in steer wrestling and saddle bronc events. He placed second in saddle broncs when he won the 1949 White Salmon All-Around, and he logged in stunning 2.3 and 2.8 ‘dogging runs (no barrier) in Lake Charles (LA) and the Salem (OR) State Fair.
During his twenty-three year rodeo career, Miles won All-Around, Reserve, and Steer Wrestling Championships at seventeen rodeos, including Pendleton, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge (LA), Denver, Scottsdale (AZ), Nampa, Spokane, and San Francisco’s famed Cow Palace Rodeo.
Gene Miles was Ellensburg Reserve Champion in 1967. Among Miles’ greatest claims to fame are his Ellensburg Bulldogging titles–an amazing arena record of five titles (including one tie), in ’53, ’60, ’63, ’66 and ’68.
Gene Miles is also well known for “Shorty,” his registered quarter horse who Gene remembers “did his best every run. Very solid.” During twelve active years, Shorty earned an average $20,000 annually under respected steer wrestlers like Bill and Walt Linderman, Ross Dollarhide, Buzz Peth, Mark Schricker, L. W. DeWitt, and over forty others.
Beginning in the 1970s, Gene Miles’ career took a new course. He phased out of rodeo competition, earned a college Associate Degree, and became a rodeo judge, stock contractor, and cow cutting horse trainer and competitor. “Cow cutting was very good to me and I had many winners,” including three Finals appearances and a top ten finish.
Miles is quick to credit the role of his wife Jeanne and daughters Pam, Susie, and Sharon for their support of his career. “Rodeo was the most important part of my life,” Miles reminisced in a recent interview. “It was to my family also. I feel I have been so blessed to make a living as a cowboy all these years. I thank the Lord for a great and full life.”
Minor Family
Ellensburg Rodeo historian John Ludtka noted in a recent interview, “There is little that the Minor family hasn’t done for the Ellensburg Rodeo. From its early beginnings to the present day, the Minors’ dependability and talent have been ever-present in Ellensburg Rodeo history.”
Ludtka also states that the modest cowboy ways and demeanor of Buck, Peg, and B.J. Minor have, in the past, kept them out of the limelight of Ellensburg Rodeo notoriety and fame.
Floyd P. and Jean Hentz Minor, their three children Floyd A. (“Buck”), Peggy Ellen (“Peg”), and Bette Jean (“B.J”) Minor, and all of their descendants, form a seven-decade Kittitas Valley rodeo dynasty. The Minor family has produced literally dozens of tie-down, team-roping, wild cow milking, breakaway roping, and bronc riding champions, trick ropers and riders, rodeo royalty, fair and rodeo board members, and country musicians to insure the growth and vitality of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
All three of Floyd P. and Jean’s children—Buck, Peg, and B.J. —worked on their parent’s ranch and followed the family’s rodeo traditions. Like her older brother Buck, Peg had spent her early childhood in Montana. “I was born prematurely at seven months (2 ¾ pounds!) in 1927,” she recalled in a recent interview. “Mom and dad kept me in a shoebox on the edge of the oven. I didn’t walk until I was eighteen months, but then they couldn’t slow me down!”
As a young woman, Peg was drawn to the entertainment aspects of the rodeo world. An accomplished accordionist in a country western band called “The Midnight Wranglers,” Peg also wanted to become a professional trick rider and roper. “My dad gave me a little cotton rope when I was ten years-old,” she remembers. “I learned to spin, and I soon started using a trick ropers’ ‘Samson Spot Cord.’ ” Peg complemented her roping with dazzling trick riding stunts aboard her horse “Pepper.” Son Wayne remembers Pepper was “not a particularly fancy saddle horse but he was ‘bullet proof’. He gave her solid quiet dependability when she needed it for rope tricks, or flat out speed on the riding tricks at a gallop that required that odd combination of inertia and centrifugal force with mom’s great athletic skills.”
Peg Minor was selected Ellensburg Rodeo Princess in 1947. In 1950, she married Gerald Hunt, a local farmer who became a longtime Kittitas County Fair Board member. Peg and Gerald spent their honeymoon on the rodeo road, with Peg performing and Gerald competing in bronc and bull riding across western Canada.
Peg Minor Hunt’s four children—Wayne, Ken, Sheri, and Kris—were all ranch-raised, horsemen and women. Wayne carried on the family’s musical heritage, fronting the historic 1970s Ellensburg country rock band the Greasewood City Ramblers. Kris, like her mom, served as Ellensburg Rodeo Princess (1983).
As Peg saw the first of her nine grandchildren grow and mature, her status as a grandmother took on more fame than she could have imagined. “I became an Ellensburg Rodeo Grandma in 1993,” she recalls with a smile. Representing Washington Mutual Bank in a series of television commercials, Peg and the “Ellensburg Rodeo Grandmas” (originally Peg, Lorraine Plass, Janis Anderson, and Judy Golladay) gained national acclaim, appearing on television talk shows, authoring a cookbook, and promoting the Ellensburg Rodeo to this day.
Peg’s sister Bette Jean (“B. J.”) is the youngest of Floyd P. and Jean Minor’s children. “It was in the year 1944,” Jean recalled in the History of Kittitas County, “that we surprised ourselves by having another baby.” Nearly two decades younger than Buck and Peg, B. J. quickly found her place in the ranch and rodeo culture of Wilson Creek Road. “I learned early on that my family was quite Western,” she stated in a recent interview. “I even won a trophy for being the youngest cowgirl in the 1948 Ellensburg Rodeo Parade.”
B.J. Minor competed in junior rodeo barrel racing and other horseback competitions. She rode for the Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes, Flying Hoofs, and, with sister Peg, the Rodeo Valley Riders. She recalls with a grin, “There were a few times when the all-boys’ Kittitas County Junior Sheriff’s Posse would be short a rider, and I would tuck my hair under my hat and put on a red shirt and drill with them!” In 1963, B. J. was chosen Ellensburg Rodeo Princess.
B. J. married Buz Hjelm and raised two daughters, Jeannie and Janet, who “grew up on the Columbia Plateau showing horses and rodeoing.” Today, she is married to Gene Reichert and boasts six grandchildren and seven step-grandchildren. All of them ride and compete in rodeo, and two have added roughstock riding to the growing list of Minor family accomplishments. Jared Rodgers is a junior rodeo bull rider; Montanan Jason Veil is a bareback bronc rider who was a finalist in the 2007 National High School Finals Rodeo in Springfield, Illinois. Jason has recently joined the PRCA and will also compete in college rodeo.
Born in Montana in 1926, Floyd A. “Buck” is the elder of the three Minor children. After service in World War II, Buck married Merna Engel on July 4, 1948. They set to work building their own Wilson Creek Road ranch while Buck simultaneously worked twenty-one years as manager of his neighbor Stu Bledsoe’s Flying B Ranch.
“The Ellensburg Rodeo is part of our life here in the valley and has been for as long as I remember,” Buck reflects. “Our families just grow into it and we look forward to it every fall.” Following in his father Floyd P.’s footseps, Buck volunteered for the rodeo and was invited to join the Ellensburg Rodeo Board, where he served with distinction for three and a half decades.
Buck excelled in ranch-related rodeo events, as would his children and grandchildren. He was two-time Kittitas County calf roping champion and also won the Wild Cow Milking, with Stu Bledsoe as his mugger.
From the 1950s to the present, a third and fourth generation of Minor grandchildren and great-grandchildren have taken their places as heirs to the Minor rodeo traditions. Buck and Merna’s six children, Mike, Pat, Brent, Rosemarie, Troy, and Marla, grew up on horseback on Wilson Creek Road and several of them followed the rodeo road. Troy was a high school rodeo champion, and Pat and Brent have won multiple county roping championships (7 each, to date). Buck, Pat, Brent, and grandson Jason, have today accrued a grand total of 19 Minor family Kittitas County calf roping championships, a record that is unlikely to be surpassed.
To even further bolster the Minor roping dynasty, Floyd P. and Jean’s great-granddaughter, Bailey Minor, became a National High School Rodeo finalist and last year won the new Ellensburg Rodeo girls’ breakaway roping event.
Brent and Mary Minor’s sons, Brady and Riley, have qualified for to National Finals Rodeos in team roping.
Thus, with each new generation, the Minors’ rodeo skill levels reach higher and higher. Although Floyd P. and Jean, and Merna Minor, have passed on, “Grandpa Buck” had the thrill of seeing his grandsons, Brady and Riley, compete as ream-roping finalists in the Las Vegas National Finals Rodeo.
Dr. Ken MacRae, Buck Minor’s rodeo board compatriot, recently reflected on the important connections between Minor family and the Ellensburg Rodeo. “I was fortunate enough to be on the Rodeo Board for over 30 years with Buck Minor,” MacRae stated. “He was my closest friend for all those years. I got to know the whole extended family through Buck. As one who fancies himself to be a sort of cowboy, I can’t give the Minors any higher praise than to say that they are all good cowboys in the finest way one can use the term.”
Montie Montana
Montie Montana, world famous trick roper and rider, first appeared in the Ellensburg Rodeo of 1927 and has been an Ellensburg crowd favorite ever since.
Born on a Montana homestead in 1910, Montie hit the rodeo road with his parents at a young age. During his illustrious career, Montie Montana has performed around the world, and was a perennial favorite in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses New Year’s Day Parade. He appeared in numerous western movies alongside John Wayne, Hopalong Cassidy, Will Rogers, Hoot Gibson, Slim Pickens, Bob Hope, Shirley Temple, Jimmy Stewart, and others. His most famous movie role was in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Montie Montana first appeared in Ellensburg as a 17 year-old trick roper in 1927; his mother and father performed a bullwhip act in the same show. Since then he has appeared eleven times, often with wife Louise and children Montie, Jr., and Linda Marie. One of Montie’s signature pieces was tossing a huge loop around the entire family while they rode towards him mounted. After completing his daily act in the rodeo, Montie would sometimes work in a night performance at the Audion Theater on 3rd Street. Montie’s father, a firm believer in the church, had a favorite pastime while in Ellensburg in the early days–he preached an annual sermon at the Methodist Church on Third Street.
In 1972, Montie Montana returned to Ellensburg for the 50th Anniversary show, and he served as Grand Marshall of the 75th Anniversary Ellensburg Rodeo Parade. He died the following winter.
Morrison Family
Three generations of Morrisons have helped to build the strong ranch/rodeo connection in the history of the Kittitas Valley. William Morrison came to the Kittitas Valley in 1873. He had served in the Civil War at 13 years of age and in the Yakima Indian Uprising as a lieutenant. He married Catherine Wheeler in Yakima in 1876. Their son Thomas (Tom) Jefferson Morrison married Lillie Ferguson (daughter of James and Elizabeth McEwen Ferguson) in 1885, thus combining the lineage of three great ranch/rodeo families into a new line. It was Tom who first made his mark as a top hand, bronc rider, and roper on the range and at the Kittitas Valley’s “Sunday rodeos” during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Tom’s and Lillie’s two children, Chet, born in 1907, and Gladys, born in 1909, would inherit and carry on the horsemanship and rodeo traditions of the Morrisons. In 1922-23, Tom and son Chet furnished three teams of horses with scrapers to help level the grounds for the Ellensburg Rodeo. Gladys Morrison Sisk participated in several riding clubs, competing in the rodeo night shows and organizing the Flying Hoofs Riding Club.
Chet Morrison entered the bronc riding at the first (1923) Ellensburg Rodeo (his father Tom had to sign a waiver to allow the 16 year-old Chet to compete). He went on to win the first-ever Ellensburg Rodeo cow-cutting competition.
Chet was the County bronc riding champion in 1930; he won the County calf roping in 1936, 1944, and 1946; and he won several day monies in World bronc riding. He rodeoed throughout Montana, Idaho, and Washington in the late 1930s. With Bud McNeil, he founded the Kittitas County Roping Club. Chet built several arenas on his ranch and the Morrison ranch became a mecca for young local beginners. Chet continued to rodeo into the 1940s, moving from bronc riding into roping and timed-event competitions. He died in 1980.
In 1938, Chet married Bertha (Zumbrunnen) Morrison, who added her own ranch and rodeo expertise to their many activities. Bertha was a skilled cowgirl and horse racer who worked rodeo relays and flat races for over a decade. She was a founder of the Rodeo Valley Riders, the first women’s riding club to participate in the Ellensburg Rodeo Grand Entries and Night Shows and put on a square dance. Moreover, Bertha’s personal background in rodeo made her one of the most knowledgeable living historians of the Ellensburg Rodeo and, over the past seventy years, she has amassed an archive of photographs, news stories, programs, and other artifacts of local rodeo history. She has served as a consultant to historians like John Ludtka, (The Tradition Lives) and the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association, who have relied on her expertise in writing the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Bertha was also chairman of the Kittitas County History Book project. Bertha’s brother, Fred Zumbrunnen, rode saddle brons at the Ellensburg Rodeo and also bulldogged at some smaller rodeos.
Bertha and Chet’s sons, Chet Jr. (Tuffy, b. 1940) and Tommy (b. 1942) were the third generation of Morrisons to follow the rodeo road. Both boys took up rodeoing early on, working all events except bull riding, and they continue to help out today with the roughstock chutes. Tuffy brought the Morrison skills to the RCA (now PRCA) national circuit from 1964-1980, working both ends of the arena as a bronc rider (saddles and bareback) and in calf roping and steer roping events. He won numerous events and go-rounds, and All-Around Championships at Omak (WA), Libby (MT), Logan (UT), Blackfoot (ID), Polson (MT), Kamloops (BC), and Yakima (WA) for three years, and others. Moreover, he served five years on the Board of Directors and the Executive Board of the PRCA’s Columbia River Circuit. Tuffy is a life member of PRCA.
Tommy Morrison was the WRA All-Around cowboy for the whole year in 1969 and won many other WRA rodeos. He served two years in the Army in Germany. Tommy and Tuffy are now owners of the ranch and old Ferguson rodeo grounds, which has been owned by the family for over 100 years.
Today [1998], Bertha Morrison resides on the same Kittitas Valley ranch where she was born and raised. Her sons Tuffy and Tommy are the co-owners. She continues to research the history and traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo in which her family has played so large a part.
Bud Munroe
Bud Munroe first registered with the PRCA in the Bareback division, but soon found his niche in Saddle Bronc riding. In 1977, he qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in Saddle Broncs, and for twelve consecutive years, he qualified for the National Finals, winning the Gold Buckle in 1986. Eight times in that string of years, he finished among the top five in the world, and he was second in the standings in 1978 and 1980. In 1986, he became the first Saddle Bronc rider to earn over $100,000.
Munroe grew up in Lewistown, Montana, but moved to Billings with his parents and attended Billings Senior High. His father, Dan, was also a saddle bronc rider, and his mother and sister were involved in rodeo as well. Because of its rodeo team, Bud attended Montana State University in Bozeman where he earned a degree in agricultural business and competed in the bareback and saddle bronc riding. For the Bobcats, he won a National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association saddle bronc title in 1975.
According to ProRodeo Hall of Fame bronc rider Kyle Pendergraft, Munroe is a “living legend, respected and revered throughout the rodeo system because of his simple, uncomplicated, but thoughtful, perspective on life and the sport.”
Joe Kusek of the Billings Gazette said that Munroe’s riding had a “metronome quality.” He was more methodical than flashy or charismatic. Ken MacRae, another Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of fame inductee, remembers him as a “rather quiet, business-like person who rode as well or better than anyone in his era.” Munroe himself said “Rodeo is just a natural extension of the Western way of life. It’s a very pure thing, just you and the animal. I think it’s ingrained in you if you come up around it so much that it’s a part of who your are and you never lose the love for it. At least I never have.”
At Ellensburg, he won the saddle bronc competition in 1977, 1978, and tied with John Smith in 1987. Munroe retired in 1989 and moved to Valley Mills, Texas, which is 25 miles from Waco. He never really retired from rodeo because he stayed involved with the PRCA: as its saddle bronc director, member of the Grievance Committee, or Properties Board member for over twenty years. He was also a committee member of the Heart O’ Texas Rodeo in Waco for a number of years. He has been inducted into other halls of fame: Montana State University’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Montana ProRodeo Hall of Fame, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, and in 2007 the National ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, CO. His wife, Jimmie, is a former world champion barrel racer and served as president of the WPRA for thirteen years and was the first chairwoman of Professional Women’s Barrel Racing, a subsidiary of the PRCA. Their daughter, Tassie, competed on the equestrian team for Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, and Bud joked “It’s way more expensive than barrels and you don’t get any money back.”
Nason Aronica Family
The members of the Nason and Aronica families trace their ancestry to Owhi, the great warrior Chief of the Kittitas Band of Northwest Plateau Indians. The family first came to the Kittitas Valley as hunters and gatherers, establishing encampments on the Valley’s western and eastern rims to gather Camas root and berries, fish for trout and salmon, and hunt deer and elk. In the early twentieth century, Owhi’s daughter Sienwat Owhi (known to white settlers as “Old Julie”) encamped on the site of the Ellensburg Rodeo grounds. There are photographs of Sienwat’s teepee at the foot of Craig’s Hill in the northeastern corner of the grounds (east of Wilson Creek, where horse barns stand today).
Raised near Cashmere as a Wenatchee Indian, Ida Joseph (1888-1992), Sienwat’s granddaughter, returned to her ancestral home at age 17 to marry John (“Johnny”) Sohappy Nason (1895-1937). In the early 1900s, they settled on land allotted by the federal government to Johnny’s grandfather Charlie, near the mouth of the Naneum Canyon, where the family ranch stands today. Their children were Helen, Charles, William, Minnie, John, and Joanne.
Because of close ties to the Yakama Indian Nation, the Nasons were on the forefront of Indian involvement in the 1923 creation and subsequent development of the Ellensburg Rodeo. From the beginning, Indians have played a three-fold role. First, the Yakamas always encamp near the rodeo grounds, recreating a tepee village like those of their hunter/gatherer forbearers. Second, Yakama Indian cowboys and cowgirls have competed in the rodeo. Third, and perhaps most important, the Yakamas perform the ritual which commences every Ellensburg Rodeo. The rodeo begins with Indians performing traditional dances in the arena.
Then, as the announcer tells their history to the rodeo crowd, mounted Yakama horsemen ride down Craig’s Hill into and across the rodeo arena. The announcer tells of the Indians’ annual trek to the Kittitas Valley each fall as that trek is acted out by the Indians riding down Craig’s Hill; they enter the rodeo arena and pass before the crowd, riding fully adorned in tribal dress. Only after this ritual does the first bareback bronc burst out of the chute and the Ellensburg Rodeo continue.
Near the Nason ranch and Caribou Creek, Indians from the Wenatchee, Snoqualmie, Wanapum, and Kittitas bands fashioned a flat track to race their ponies, a custom that found its way into the first (1923) Ellensburg Rodeo. The Nasons participated in all of the early rodeos in the Indian encampment, performing native dances, riding in the rodeo parade and opening ritual, and performing in the night pageant, “Spirit of the West” (‘06 ERHOF Inductee).
Ida Nason rode her horse to victory in the first Ellensburg Rodeo “Squaw Race,” while husband John won the “War Bonnet Race” (these two flat track, circular racing events were named by non-Indians). Johnny Jr. (“Junior”), an early member of the Kittitas County Ropers, competed in the County Roping event. In 1929, Ida and Johnny’s daughter, Helen, was crowned Queen of the Ellensburg Rodeo; her sister Minnie served as Princess. The sisters later married the Cleveland brothers, Mose and Sleepy, members of the Colville Tribe who also raced horses.
As the twentieth century progressed, the Nason family and their descendants continued to participate in the Ellensburg Rodeo, dancing in the Indian village and rodeo arena and riding in the parade.
Following John’s death, Ida married Tony Aronica. Ida’s and Tony’s son Allen (1947- ), encamped and danced in the rodeo throughout the 1950s and 60s. In the late 1980s, Allen began work with Rex Buck, a Wanapum Band elder, and others, to coordinate the Indian Village encampment, dancing, and other Indian activities. Now an elder of his people, Allen works with the rodeo board and the Yakama Indian Nation to coordinate Indian participation in the Ellensburg Rodeo. Like his half-brother Charlie, Allen is a decorated U. S. Army combat veteran.
Local historian and ERHOF Board member Bertha Morrison grew up along the Naneum and has many memories of the Nason family. “I went to school at the Upper Naneum School with Minnie and Charlie until 7th Grade,” she recently recalled. “Their father Johnny Sr. served on the Upper Naneum School Board.” Bertha Morrison also recalled how Johnny Sr. loved to raise and train race horses: “My brother and sister rode for Johnny in the rodeo flat races,” she remembers. “The Nasons are a very important family in the history of Kittitas County,” says Morrison, herself a Pioneer Rodeo Family Inductee to ERHOF (1997).
As Ida Nason Aronica grew old, Allen joined local historians to preserve her stories and traditions; a documentary film recorded her memories growing up in the Kittitas Valley. The movie, Everything Change, has aired on PBS television. Ida died in 1992 and is buried in the family graveyard atop a sagebrush covered hill in the northeast corner of the ranch. Today, hundreds of descendants of the Chief Owhi are spread across the Pacific Northwest and American West, all with important ties to the history and traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Harry Vold and Neck Lace
Harry Vold, inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame, is an old hand at receiving accolades for his long service to the sport. His John Wayne-looks and demeanor prompted his colleagues to call him the “Duke of the Chutes.” The legendary Harry Vold of Fowler, Colorado, has been named ProRodeo Stock Contractor of the Year 11 times and was inducted into The PRCA Hall of Fame in 1994. His talent and his great string of broncs and bulls helped Ellensburg’s rodeo become one of the nation’s finest outdoor rodeos. The 79-year-old stockman provided Ellensburg’s performances with saddle broncs, bareback horses and bucking bulls from 1961 through 1989. The late Art Driver, who was Ellensburg’s “Mr. Rodeo” during much of that period, said of Vold, “He was the best at his trade – he knew rodeo, he knew his animals, he knew the cowboys and he knew how to make it all work. When things seemed to get tangled up, he straightened things out right now. Everyone listened and got busy when he rode up to the chutes and it was all business.” Ken MacRae, arena director who followed Driver in that key job–and an Ellensburg Rodeo director named in the recent past as national rodeo committeeman of the year–says, “Harry Vold helped make our rodeo one of the nation’s finest. His stock and his know-how put us among the best.”
The Vold Rodeo Company, the largest in this business, provides livestock for eight of the top rodeos in the U.S. including Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Rodeo de Santa Fe (N. Mex.), National College Finals, Dodge City (Kans.) Rodeo, the all-Indian Finals in Window Rock, Ariz. and Prescott (Ariz.) Frontier Days. Many of his animals are used in the National Finals in Las Vegas. His work in Ellensburg’s arena was shared with the Christensen Bros., Oregon stockmen, who like most in the rodeo business praised Vold’s participation. “He built a reputation that can’t be rivaled,” says Bobby Christensen, who alongside his brother Hank, is also a member of the Ellensburg Hall of Fame.
Vold’s celebrated career began in Alberta, Canada where, after a brief rough-stock riding challenge, he opted to be a stockman. He bought and sold bucking horses to other rodeo contractors before he began to put on his own rodeos as well as provide stock as far west as Washington and British Columbia and as far east as Toronto. He moved his business to the U.S. in 1967 leaving his Canadian operation to his son, Wayne. Vold first partnered with two names well known in rodeo circles, Beutler Brothers and Harry Knight, prior to a move to his Colorado ranch. Red Top Ranch, some 30,000 acres, is located east of Pueblo near the towns of Avondale and Fowler. While he has had bucking bulls of the year, Harry Vold takes the most pride in his bucking horses–those that he bred and raised as part of his “born to buck” program which dates to the early 1970’s. He realized early in his career that the supply of good bucking horse was dwindling and if he hoped to stay in business he’d have to breed his own. He breeds nearly 100 mares a year producing about 80 foals, and of those less than 30 percent go on to become bucking horses. A Western Horseman article quotes the Canadian turned Coloradoan: “People worry about the welfare of these (bucking) horses and bulls, and I’ll tell them at a rodeo like Cheyenne, each animal will buck no more than twice in 10 days; that’s 20 seconds of work in 10 days, not a bad life.” Vold willingly defends rodeo against its Gavin Ehringer, a free-lance writer, writes “Harry Vold is impressive when the spotlights burn. With his slow, clear speaking voice and rolling gait, he does bear a reasonable resemblance to John Wayne who…embodies the virtues of strength, determination, hard work and western individualism…those same virtues (that) have made Harry Vold…one of the greatest stock contractors of this and perhaps any era.” “Neck Lace,” a Harry Vold Rodeo Company bareback bronc, was a roughstock legend of the 1960s rodeo circuit. Neck Lace bucked at, literally, every major rodeo in the world. She made a score of appearances at the Ellensburg Rodeo where fans will long remember her athletic prowess as well as that of the great cowboys who rode, or attempted to ride, her. Neck Lace was named Champion Bareback Horse of the National Finals Rodeo (Oklahoma City, OK) in 1964, 1966, 1968, and 1970. Neck Lace joins the famed cutting horse Bosque Boy, champion barrel-racer Scamper, the fierce Kelsey bull Ought, and bucking broncs War Paint and Grated Coconut as an animal inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Dean Oliver
Born in Dodge City, Kansas in 1929, young Dean Oliver moved with his parents Vernon and Vesper to Nampa, Idaho in the 1930s. After the untimely death of his father, eleven-year old Dean began roping, first practicing on dairy calves and later entering rodeos and going professional as a calf roper and bulldogger. He joined the RCA is 1953. During a two decade career, from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, Oliver garnered ten world championship buckles, winning the All-Around Championship in 1963, 1964, and 1965. His record of gross earnings stood unbroken for nearly two decades.
The durability of Oliver’s money-winning records is especially surprising because purses were low in the mid-1950s when he first began to win consistently. He possessed an expertise in the sport that still awes professional cowboys. His calf-roping technique resembled what Willard Porter calls a “chocolate-syrup smoothness. His runs on his good horses–Mickey, Vernon, and a few others–were so coordinated that it was impossible to fault him. From chute-box to tie-down, he made it look easy….” This expertise enabled Oliver to win “bunches” of rodeos consecutively, piling up huge winnings and catapulting him to the top of prize-winners.
In Ellensburg, Dean Oliver became a crowd favorite as he won the calf roping competitions in ‘62, ‘63, ‘64, and ‘71.
When he quit calf-roping, Dean Oliver remained active in rodeo on the “administrative” end of the business as the PRCA Calf Roping Director. He moved from Nampa to Boise, where he now resides.
Ought Inducted in 1997
Joe Kelsey Stock Company 1949-1991
Including ‘Red One’, ‘Widow Maker’ & ‘Ought’
OUGHT
A December 1966 issue of Rodeo Sports News touted the Joe Kelsey’s Tonasket, Washington rodeo stock company as “one of the oldest and most reliable stock contracting firms in the sport of rodeo.” The Joe Kelsey Company furnished bucking stock for the Ellensburg Rodeo for more than four decades, from 1947 to 1991.
Born in Butte Montana on April 16, 1910, Joe Kelsey (1910-1985) moved with his family to Washington State’s Okanogan Valley as a young boy. Kelsey made his start in rodeo as a saddle bronc rider and founding Cowboy Turtle (predecessor to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association [PRCA]) in the late 1920s and 1930s. Among other honors, he won the Ellensburg saddle bronc riding buckle in 1945; he won the Omak Stampede saddle bronc competition in ’43 and ’44, and was inducted into the Omak Stampede Hall of Fame.
Kelsey entered the stock contracting business as an employee of Moomaw and Bernard (ERHOF Inductees in 2002), and worked alongside Moomaw for over a decade. He bought his first bucking string in 1949. “From the time on,” writes one rodeo historian, “Joe Kelsey provided top-notch bucking and roping stock for rodeos in Washington, Montana, Idaho, and western Canada,” including Pendleton, Calgary, and Ellensburg. Kelsey’s son, Joe Jr. (“Sonny”), worked in the family business from 1945 to 1991.
The Kelsey Company’s tenure at the Ellensburg Rodeo ranks them alongside ERHOF Inductees Christensen Brothers, Harry Vold, and Moomaw-Bernard Stock Contractors. The Joe Kelsey Company worked the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1947 to 1958 and then, sometimes in new partnership arrangements, supplied stock from 1983-84 and, after Joe’s death, from 1985-91.
The Kelsey Stock Company produced many famous bucking horses and bulls. The mere sound of these animals’ names would, according to one rodeo historian, “numb the heart–or the britches–of any cowboy”! Among over two dozen award-winning Kelsey bucking broncs were Widow Maker, Snake, Hell to Set, Slingshot, Set to Velvet, Velvet River, Big Sky’s Velvet, Pee Wee, White Hope, Whiz Bang, John Doe, Try Me, Brown Jug, Little Rubber Doll, Devil’s Dream, Shake ‘em Down, Hot Seat, Smuggler, Pete Taggares, Sky High, Sky Rocket, and Yukon. Kelsey’s most famous bulls were Red One, 0 (“Ought”), Geronimo, Big John, Bull #17, Bull # 53, and Velvet Hour.
Kelsey’s 0 (“Ought”) a 1997 ERHOF Animal Inductee, was named after the numerical score cowboys almost always earned after he threw them! Kelsey’s bulls and broncs earned the Columbia Circuit Horse of the Year, Calgary Stampede Outstanding Horse, and National Finals Rodeo Saddle Bronc and Bull of the Year Awards.
Two legendary Kelsey animals inducted alongside “Ought” and the Kelsey Company are the bronc “Widow Maker” and bull “Red One,” both 1970s-era buckers. Widow Maker worked two decades in the arena and was chosen to be a National Finals Rodeo bronc.
Kelsey originally purchased Red One from an Oregon rodeo school and, although he was “a little scrawny,” several cowboys thought the bull had great potential. He won the 1976 National Final Rodeo’s Top Bucking Bull award, where World Champion Donny Gay became the first cowboy to ever ride him, earning a record-tying 95-point score (this record held until 1996). In a two-year period of 1977 and ‘78, Red One was ridden only twice in 158 appearances. It is a record reflective of Kelsey’s great rodeo stock contracting company.
Fred Palmiero
Life on the farm was never boring. There was much work to be done…We had bees (honey), we hunted, we fished, we bootlegged, we worked, we lived….” Fred Palmiero, History of Kittitas County
Fred “Freddy” Palmiero (1916-2006) exemplified the volunteer spirit that fuels the Ellensburg Rodeo. In 1910 Fred’s parents, Italian immigrants John and Maria Gracia Fiorella Palmiero, settled an eighty-acre farm in the Woldale District of the Kittitas Valley. Fred was born December 6, 1916, and, alongside five siblings, spent the first seven years of his life on their Woldale farm. In 1923, the Palmieros moved to higher and better ground in the Manashtash District. There, Fred attended the two-room Cove Schoolhouse, where he mastered the English language while his parents spoke Italian at home. The family attended Ellensburg’s Saint Andrews Catholic Church at the corner of Pine and Eighth Street.
Fred worked hard on his parents’ farm, and he remembered doing everything by hand: “Cows milked, milk separated, wood sawed and chopped, garden hoed, water pumped and hauled….the only running water we had was Keach Ditch.” Like many Kittitas Valley farmers, Fred also learned the skills of a ranch cowboy and worked as a “cow herder” during summers.
Following his graduation from Ellensburg High School, Freddy recalled that he did “some rodeoing. Brahma bulls and bareback horses, then we used a loose rope for horses, as well as bulls. YaaHoo!” Ellensburg Rodeo day sheets show Palmiero competed in the wild horse race from 1935-39; in 1936 he competed in all three (Saturday, Sunday, Labor Day) wild horse races. Freddy always downplayed his rodeo skills, joking that he “never finished a bronc ride” in the Ellensburg arena. He rode bareback broncs in the 1945 Ellensburg Rodeo but was soon thrown from a bronc at Walla Walla Frontier Days. A September 5, 1945 Spokesman Review article reported Fred was “recovering from a brain concussion.”
It was apparently time for Fred Palmiero to quit rodeoing and settle down, for on October 1, 1945, he married Francis Joy Urquhart, a Burien girl he met at the Lazy F Dude Ranch. They moved to Kittitas and started a family. Fred and Joy had two sons, Francis (Frank) Ralph and Fred (Freddy) Joseph. Both attended Lourdes Academy, Kittitas High School, and Washington State University; both served in the U.S. Army. Joy worked at Mills Saddle and Togs for twenty-two years. An avid horsewoman, she raised, trained, and showed her prize-winning Palo Tequila and belonged to several riding clubs she helped to form. Fred went to work for the City of Ellensburg’s utilities division in 1951.
Palmiero’s most important contributions to the Ellensburg Rodeo came as a volunteer. The late Lee Scott, a tireless rodeo supporter and ERHOF Honoree, once described the crucial importance of rodeo volunteers: “Somebody has to chop the wood and carry the water.” Palmiero was such a man.
Beginning in 1954, Fred assisted in various capacities, most notably as an usher, or “ticket taker.” “I enjoy the opportunity to assist and working with others in the community,” he said in a 1984 Daily Record interview celebrating his thirtieth year as a volunteer usher. Fred worked under Rodeo Board Directors Jimmie Smith, Bob Neeley, and Chuck Scott. Some of his fellow volunteers were Orrie Pratt, Kurt Linder, Ernie Hadley, Jean Kuhn, Wendell Saville, Chris and Loretta Marshall, Bob and Andy Cooper, and Dee Waters. Together, Fred estimated, volunteer ushers seated “24,000 fans” per rodeo weekend. To this day, many Ellensburg Rodeo fans remember Fred working near the bucking chutes where he had once competed.
Always a talkative jokester, Freddy Palmiero was a popular volunteer known to all. His love of western apparel—“duds”—and trademark handlebar moustache brought him instant recognition. Freddie even enjoyed a very brief brush with fame, acting out a “bit part” in a Dick VanDyke movie filmed in upper Kittitas County, The Runner Stumbles.
Fred retired from the City of Ellensburg water department in 1981, after thirty years of service. But even in retirement, “I never forsook the sod,” Fred recalled. “I am a volunteer with the rodeo and other community organizations.” Fred Palmiero lived out his days with Joy on their acreage on No. 81 Road, near Kittitas. “Palmiero Park,” Fred and Joy’s gift to the city of Kittitas, stands at the corner of No. 81 Road and the Kittitas Highway. Fred died August 3, 2006, a few months shy of his 90th birthday and only a few weeks away from the annual rodeo that he loved so well.
John Payne, ‘The One Arm Bandit’
John Payne, the “One Arm Bandit,” has had one of the most entertaining and sought-after acts in pro rodeo. He has been chosen as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s (PRCA) “Specialty Act of the Year” twelve times. The voting for this award is done by professional rodeo cowboys, announcers, stockmen, and the specialty performers themselves, so it’s quite an honor to be recognized so many times in this way by his associates and peers.
Payne is called the “One Arm Bandit” because in 1973 he lost his right arm while working at a construction site when 7200 volts of electricity went through his body for ten seconds, and he was dead for five minutes. He was told that he should have his right leg amputated as well, but knowing he couldn’t ride a horse with one leg, he refused. Doctors told him the infection might kill him, but he took that chance to be able to ride.
As soon as he could walk again, he was training animals. He has trained a lot of animals in his life—including horses, mules, zedonks, zorses, Corrientes, Watusi longhorns, mustangs—but he has called buffalo “the meanest critter in North America.” He said the “buffalo tried to kill me almost every day for two years, and they’ve hooked me off the top of the trailer, twice, horse and all.”
He brings to the rodeo and Ellensburg a touch of the Wild West Shows that characterized our earliest rodeos. His act requires extraordinary training, horsemanship, and an appetite for daredevil danger.
He also has a healthy respect for his mule, Moe. In an interview for a video called “Horse Country USA,” Payne talked about Moe: he’s a “dirty, rotten sonofagun. He’ll run off with ya, buck ya off, he’s bucked me off three times during a performance, one time he kicked me and knocked my arm off.” He said when he got Moe he had six problems: “you couldn’t catch him, you couldn’t bridle him, you couldn’t saddle him, you couldn’t get on him, and you couldn’t ride him. And he’d run off with you if you tried.” But they have reached a mutually suspicious compromise. Payne said that “I used a horse for twenty years. I was the cowboy who said, when all the horses die, and I get tired of walking, I’ll get a mule.” But since Moe has been in the show, Payne likes how he works: “he’s surefooted on the ramp. If it rains and it’s muddy and that ol’ ramp is wet and slick, he’s really good at keeping his feet under him…I do parades and when I jump off the trailer onto asphalt, he slides on all fours. A horse would be straddle-legged. He’ll outwork two horses, but he’ll outwork two horses trying to get out of work and being a little pillbox. . . I’ve been offered $20,000 for him, but nobody could handle him but me.”

It’s this understanding of and respect for the animals he trains that makes his show so appealing. He and Moe round up buffaloes or Watusi longhorns in the arena, make them climb a steep ramp and stand on top of an eighteen-foot trailer while Payne cracks a whip with his left hand. Then the animals go quietly back down and out of the arena. Usually. Boyd Polhamus, a four-time Rodeo Announcer of the Year, said Payne “is by himself an 8 minute Wild West Show. . . If his act goes according to plan, it’s going to be awesome. If it doesn’t go as planned, it’s going to be awesome.”
And the plan has failed. He’s been knocked off his trailer during a show several times, horse and all, yet he got back up and finished his act. In fact, Ken MacRae, a roper and veterinarian who helped with the Ellensburg Rodeo for years, and is a member of the Hall of Fame board, said “I was Arena Director the first year John Payne came to Ellensburg.
In those early years, the act included Catahoula Leopard Dogs that helped get the giant horned Watusi bulls onto the trailer. The dogs were pretty tough. I believe it was also that first year that John’s horse made a misstep and fell off the trailer backwards. Horse and John both survived, and he resumed the act. John is obviously a great animal trainer and showman. We have developed a friendship over the years, and I’m proud and happy that he is going into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.”
John Payne has a gritty, homespun outlook on life that is about as tough as the buffaloes and the mule he admires. He said “I’m a cowboy, a hardcore, redneck, Okie cowboy, through and through. . .I’m happy being that. I want to earn everything I get. . .I don’t want nothin’ easy. . . Never give up, never give up, there’s a way of doin’ everything, and when they cut my arm off, I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I can do anything I wanted to do with this hand and this arm, if I can’t do it with this hand and this arm, it don’t need done.”
The One Arm Bandit lives in Shidler, Oklahoma where he was born and raised with four brothers which he said taught him to “get out of the way or get run over.” His son and daughter now participate in some of his performances.
Buz Peth
“Buz Peth was the youngest of a family of athletically talented rodeo cowboys,” recalled Kittitas County cattleman and roper Sam Kayser in a recent interview, “but Buz took that natural athletic ability to the next level. He worked hard to master the techniques of roping and bulldogging, and he ranks among the greatest competitors in the history of Northwest rodeo.”
Dale “Buz” Peth was born into a ranch and rodeo family near Bow, Washington, in 1937. His father John was a rodeo stock contractor, brother Wick became an acclaimed bullfighting clown, and brother Jerry won the 1959 Ellensburg Steer Wrestling title.
Buz recalls, “I used to fool around after school, having little rodeos at the ranch and just fell into riding and roping.” At 5’ 7” and 145-pounds, the Burlington High School State Wrestling Champion possessed the coordination and upper body strength for professional rodeo steer wrestling and calf roping, his signature events. Peth joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association (today’s PRCA) in the mid-1960s and began winning at rodeos throughout the region.
Kayser, a former timed-event champion himself, stresses Peth’s importance in Northwest rodeo: “In the 1960s and 70s, Buz won calf roping, bulldogging, and All-Around titles at virtually every PRCA rodeo in Oregon and Washington—including Walla Walla, Kennewick, Lewiston, St. Paul (OR), Joseph (OR), and Omak, where he won the Leo Moomaw All-Around Trophy twice.” Peth did the same across British Columbia, winning calf roping and bulldogging championships in Kamloops, Williams Lake, Cloverdale, Falkland, Ashcroft, and many more. “Buz was hardnosed,” said Kayser of the cowboy’s reputation for toughness. “Pain was not an option for Buz.”
Buz Peth’s peak year, 1969, brought him $16,000 in winnings and a calf roping berth at the 1969 National Finals Rodeos in Oklahoma City. In 1977, well into the second decade of his professional career, Peth won the first Columbia River Circuit Finals All-Around Championship.
The Ellensburg Rodeo was a memorable place in Buz Peth’s career. He mugged for Ellensburg All-Around Champion Smoky Kayser (Sam’s father and a 1997 ERHOF Inductee), winning the Wild Cow Milking in 1966. In 1969 and 1972, Peth won the Calf Roping and Wild Cow Milking contests, claiming two coveted Ellensburg Rodeo All-Around Cowboy titles and joining an elite group of cowboy competitors.
During the mid-1980s, Buz Peth began to cut back on his rodeos. “I decided I’d keep doing it, but mostly for fun,” he recalled, as he devoted most of his time to working his family’s 600-acre lower Skagit River Valley ranch. The Peths raised peas, cattle, and horses, and Buz competed in about 25 rodeos a year. He later joined the Senior ProRodeo Circuit and remained a regular at Northwest ropings, including Ellensburg’s WestStar Ranch.
Buz and Gail Peth now live in Odessa, Washington.
Wick Peth
The Ellensburg rodeo’s roster of bullfighter/clowns includes the best in the business. Names like Slim Pickens, Elmer and Homer Holcomb, Jasbo Fulkerson, Wilbur Plaugher, Chuck Henson, Gene and Bobby Clark, Bob Romer, Rob Smets, Miles Hare, Loyd Ketchum, Butch Lehmkuhler. The list goes on. But the man honored by the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame is the man with the grey wig, denim shorts, striped shirt and cleated shoes, Wick Peth. His peers voted him the premier bullfighter throughout his long career. He’s known as the “father of the modern, cleated bullfighter,” He appeared at Ellensburg seven years, his first in 1955 and his last in 1982. He was inducted into the Professional Rodeo Cowboys’ Association Hall of Fame in 1979. Soon after he began his work in the arena he noted he’d be better prepared as a bullfighter if he didn’t have to “clown” earlier in the show. That only enhanced his abilities as did his use of cleated shoes, but didn’t lessen his desire to be in the best possible physical condition.
He worked at his dexterity and that helped him weather hits by the bulls he fought. He didn’t tell jokes, pull stunts. He didn’t wear makeup – he says at one performance he forgot to put it on and decided it wasn’t necessary to distract bulls from fallen riders. He just became the very best at his trade – fighting bulls. Wick Peth’s career in the arena extended from 1949 until 1984, his first rodeo near home in Sedro Woolley. He worked eight National Finals Rodeos and all the big shows, including Cheyenne’s Frontier Days, the Cow Palace in San Francisco and the Big Four: Ellensburg, Pendleton, Walla Walla and Lewiston. Once asked why he didn’t just work the pea farm in Bow, WA., he said rodeo enriched his life. “I like fighting bulls. I like the applause, I like the glory, I like the hours, and I like the money. As for his longevity in this dangerous work, he was quoted, “you have to believe you’re different, that you are not going to get freight-trained, caught between the bull’s head and a wall or trapped in a corner,” according to an article by Bill Crawford for Prorodeo Sports News. Peth added, “you’ll find out different if you stay in the business very long, but, hopefully, you will have experience and the kind of confidence in yourself and your ability that can come only from experience…not from some blind faith in being immune to injury.” The Peth family is well known in rodeo circles – but the best known is the man in the baggy denim shorts and grey wig…the premier bullfighter in rodeo’s colorful past.
H.E. ‘DOC’ Pfenning
Dr. H. E. Pfenning helped conceive, organize, and produce the first Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923. Although many community members share responsibility for the first Ellensburg Rodeo, Pfenning’s vision, organizational skills, and hard work looms large in its history.
Trained in large-animal veterinary medicine, H. E. “Doc” Pfenning was an integral member of the 1920s Ellensburg ranching and cowboy community. Pfenning visited the roundups and “Sunday rodeos” held in the Kittitas Valley, and he dreamed of one day staging a large-scale “Wild West Show” in the town of Ellensburg. When other community members expressed an interest in this plan, Pfenning led the organizing committee. He traveled to Pendleton, Oregon to observe the staging of their famed Roundup. This background, combined with Pfenning’s wide exposure to cattle roundups and rodeos and Wild West Shows, took form in his program for the 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo.
The September 13-15, 1923, Ellensburg Rodeo featured 18 major events advertised as the “greatest Wildwest Roundup in the State.” Valley residents remembered its myriad components. Chalmer Cobain described the gala grand entry parade, bucking broncs, calf roping, relays, bulldogging, and special Indian horse racing. Cobain said the 1923 contestants were “real cowboys” not “these drugstore cowboys”! They competed in “wild horse races, stagecoach races [and] chariot races.” Howard Thomas remembered the first rodeo was “a good one” and Mrs. Lillian Pope agreed, noting, “You knew pretty much everybody that was riding in it…it really made a difference because it was more of a local show.” The Ellensburg Record was equally complimentary, reporting that the rodeo’s “Riders are Skillful and the Horses and Steers are Wild.”
By all accounts, Doc Pfenning and his committee had done a superb job.
In addition to organizing and producing the rodeo, Doc Pfenning also organized the selection and coronation of the rodeo royalty and negotiated the historic annual participation of the Yakima Indian Nation in the Ellensburg Rodeo. After doing all of this, Doc Pfenning then proceeded to announce the show. Microphones and public address systems were unheard of in 1920s Ellensburg. Using only a megaphone in Ellensburg’s large new arena, Pfenning’s voice boomed out and over the crowd of approximately 2500.
Moreover, Pfenning organized and produced the first Ellensburg Rodeo parade. Locals remember him as a leader of that parade, decked out in western duds astride his black horse Midnight. The next year Pfenning pressed local business people and townsmen to “dress western” for the rodeo, sporting hats, boots, ‘kerchiefs, and snap-button western shirts. He believed this “costuming” would please the tourists from Seattle and make the Ellensburg Rodeo even more popular.
After more than two years of immense labor, Dr. H. E. Pfenning stepped down as producer of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1925. He left a legacy that has endured these 75 years. He is survived by his daughter Barbara Pfenning Wright, a former Ellensburg Rodeo Queen.
Slim Pickens
In the summer of 1934, teenaged California rodeo cowboy Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. had a big problem. “My father was against rodeoing and told me he didn’t want to see my name on the entry lists ever again” Lindley later recounted. Burt’s desire to be a cowboy was so strong, however, that he disobeyed his father. Traveling to a nearby rodeo, he asked the arena director if he could use an alias to enter the competition. Sizing up the young upstart’s chances in that day’s competitions, the director answered, “Son, no matter what name you use, it’ll be slim ‘pickins out there today.” Louis Burton Lindley, Jr., immediately signed up for the rodeo as “Slim Pickens,” a name he used for the next 49 years as a famed rodeo clown and Hollywood movie star.
Slim Pickens (1919-1983) was born to dairy farming parents in Kingsburg, California (near Fresno) on June 29, 1919. Although a native Californian, Slim always spoke with the strong southwestern drawl of his Texas-born father, Burton Sr., and Missouri mother, Sally Mosher Lindley. By age 4, Slim was riding his own horse. At Hanford High School, the witty teenager was active in Future Farmers of America, 4-H horse shows, and what we today call junior rodeo.
Slim started entering professional rodeos at age fifteen and, after graduating high school in 1938, joined the Cowboy Turtles Association (later called the Rodeo Cowboys Association and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association). The 6’ 3” cowboy rode broncs and bulls and roped steers with mixed success until one night when a clown failed to show up to work a rodeo where he was competing. Pickens, whose athleticism was complemented by showmanship and a flair for humor, took the clown’s job for $5.00 and never looked back.
During the years before and after World War II, Slim Pickens became the most famous clown in North American rodeo. Bull riding was emerging as a staple rodeo event, and one of Slim’s jobs was to protect thrown cowboys from the fierce animals. Using techniques that he learned during two winters spent in Mexico, Pickens introduced a comic version of Spanish Toreador (also known as Torero) bullfighting style to North American rodeo performances. Dressed in full Spanish matador attire and wielding a red cape, he pioneered the transition of rodeo clowns to the status of professional bullfighters. Today’s rodeo bullfighters do not use the Spanish style, and Pickens remains its most accomplished practitioner in rodeo history.
The advent of World War II temporarily ended rodeo performances and many cowboys joined the Armed Services. When Slim wrote “rodeo” as his civilian occupation on his U.S. Army enlistment form, it was mistaken for “radio” and the talkative cowboy was posted at an Armed Forces Network radio station in the Midwest! At war’s end, professional rodeos resumed and Slim Pickens picked up right where he had left off.
Although he played an untitled role in the 1946 Hollywood Western Smoky, Slim continued to make his living on the rodeo road, working his way up to jobs at the San Francisco Cow Palace, Calgary Stampede, Cheyenne Frontier Days, and other premier North American rodeo venues, including Ellensburg. The Ellensburg Rodeo was the first Pacific Northwest rodeo to recognize Pickens’ talent and hire him to clown and fight bulls.
Slim Pickens worked the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1947, ’48, ’49, and ’50, and he returned in 1955. Fans cheered his Toreador bullfighting and his many arena antics. Slim, who was an animal trainer, brought his mule “Judy” to amuse the crowd. Judy would sit down on her haunches, refusing to move until Slim gave the command. “I remember how funny he looked riding that mule in the rodeo parade,” recently recalled Janet Haworth Bates, who saw Pickens in Ellensburg in 1947. “He was so tall and lanky that his boots nearly touched the ground!”
Pickens made many friends in Ellensburg and developed a devoted following among Northwest rodeo fans. But his 1955 appearance coincided with his transitioning from life on the rodeo road to an acting career. Slim had married Margaret Harmon in 1950 and they had a growing family at home—daughter Margaret, son Thomas, and step-daughter Daryle. Moreover, Slim’s bullfighting was taking a physical toll. During his two-decade rodeo career, he suffered a skull fracture, two broken legs, five broken feet, a broken collarbone, wrist, and hand, and he was gored several times. His final 1955 Ellensburg appearance included an unplanned ambulance ride to the old Ellensburg Hospital on 4t street.
Of course, Slim Pickens went on to Hollywood movie and television stardom. He joined the “Hollywood Posse”–a small, select group of rodeo cowboys and cowgirls who used their rodeo skills to work in Western-genre movies as stuntmen, actors, and actresses. Slim’s big break had been a role alongside Errol Flynn in Rocky Mountain (1950), and in 1954 he played the Sundance Kid in television’s Stories of the Century. By the late 1950s, Slim Pickens was earning a good living playing rural characters in scores of mid-twentieth century television shows and feature movies.
On TV, he appeared on The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Daniel Boone, The Virginian, Kung Fu, and many other shows. Slim’s movie credits include Major Dundee (1965, with Charlton Heston) The Cowboys (1972, with John Wayne), and Blazing Saddles (1974). Perhaps his most famous role came when he played U. S. Air Force Major T. J. “King” Kong in Dr. Strangelove (1964). In an outrageous and unforgettable scene, Pickens’ Major Kong mounted a hydrogen bomb and rode it like a bucking bronco to its target (and movie history)!
“I plan to retire from the picture business only when they shovel dirt in my face,” Slim once stated. “There’s no use retiring if you like what you’re doing and you’re making money.” Louis Burton Lindley, Jr.—Slim Pickens—died of a brain tumor, on Dec. 8, 1983. In addition to ERHOF, Pickens is an inductee to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City, OK), the ProRodeo Hall of Fame (Colorado Springs, CO), and the Pendleton Roundup and Hall of Fame (OR).
George Prescott
For four full decades, George Prescott, the “Voice of the Ellensburg Rodeo,” was one of the most talented and respected announcers on the Northwest and national rodeo circuit. His voice and performance demeanor exemplified the classic era of the “gentleman announcer” during the golden age of Northwest Rodeo.
George Prescott was born August 19, 1921, in Tacoma, to W. F. and Gladys (Bowen) Prescott. He was educated in Tacoma schools (graduating from Stadium High) yet spent considerable time on the nearby farms of his uncles and other family members and friends. It was there Prescott learned about horses, cattle, and calf and team roping competitions. He entered the Navy in 1938 but lost a leg in the line of duty on board the USS Hull; he was discharged from Navy in 1941 and returned home. Soon, while working as a newsman in Tacoma, he renewed his interest in roping and, subsequently, rodeo and rodeo announcing.
At the same time Prescott was honing his announcing skills, he became a successful competitor in timed rodeo event competitions. Although hindered by loss of his leg, he competed and won in calf roping, wild cow milking, and team roping contests across the Northwest. Prescott twice won buckles in Moses Lake, and in the Woodinville Rodeo. Ultimately focusing on team-roping, Prescott worked the circuit and on several occasions roped alongside the legendary Ike Rude. His announcing career began at a July 4 horse show in Sedrow Wooley when, he remembers, simply, that “Don Wood left the announcer’s box and handed me the microphone!”
He turned professional and, by the time he accepted a job with the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce and Ellensburg Rodeo in 1949, he was already a seasoned and successful rodeo announcer.
During the next two and a half decades Prescott combined a career in public relations with an active road schedule of rodeo announcing. He worked rodeos from southern California into British Columbia. In addition to Ellensburg and Pendleton, Prescott announced rodeos in Puyallup, Toppenish, Kennewick, Lebanon (OR), Omak, Cloverdale (BC), Spokane’s Diamond Spur Rodeo and dozens more venues. Prescott’s forte was a lively speaking style combined with audience education and the demeanor of the “gentleman announcer.” This was an age of rodeo announcer greats, such as Pete Logan, Mel Lambert, and Cy Taillon (who worked Ellensburg in ’49 and who Prescott especially admired). Prescott carried his weight among these legendary characters. He used his words judiciously, adding color and an educational component to his exacting descriptions of the events taking place in the rodeo arena. “As a roper myself, I could tell the audience about the loops, saddles, riggin’, competitor techniques, and the general rules of the game,” he remembers. Prescott also improved the show by introducing ‘animal ambulances’ (horse-drawn sleds) and educating the audiences about the humane treatment of rodeo animals. George Prescott’s stately Western voice evinced the dignity and traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
While he worked for the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce from 1950-56, Prescott announced the rodeo as a “volunteer”; when he took a new job in Seattle, he returned for sixteen consecutive seasons as a contracted announcer. His twenty-one year tenure has yet to be surpassed. Prescott’s memories of the 50s and 60s rodeos are fascinating and, often, amazing. Asked for one of his most vivid memories, Prescott answered “that would have to be Larry Mahan’s 1971 wreck on Paper Doll.” As Mahan was dragged around the arena (for what “seemed like ten minutes” according to one local), Prescott kept the shocked audience accurately apprised of the situation. He talked them back to a calmer state as Mahan was loaded into an ambulance and whisked out of the arena (and out of reach of a consecutive string of All-around titles); later he informed the audience of Mahan’s medical status. Somehow, he kept the show moving. “It was an unforgettable day,” Prescott remembers.
After leaving Ellensburg in 1956, Prescott served in many important city and state governmental posts while continuing his rodeo announcing career. His helped the city of Seattle promote the 1962 World’s Fair, and he served in state government positions and as chief administrative aide to Governor Albert Rosellini. In 1967, he opened his own advertising and public relations firm in Olympia. Meanwhile he continued to announce the Ellensburg (until ’72) and Puyallup rodeos; he later announced all the Main Grandstand nighttime venues at the Puyallup Fair. He retired completely in 1990 and alternated between his Arizona and his Olympic Peninsula homes.
On the wall of his Shelton home, George Prescott displayed the numerous prize buckles and symbols of a fifty-year career in rodeo. Alongside his team-roping buckles stand the Puyallup Fair’s award to its “Voice of the Grand Old Fair.” There are also records of his PRCA Gold Card Membership and his status as a Charter Member of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Posse. There is a commemorative rifle engraved to “Puyallup’s Champion Announcer.” The Ellensburg Rodeo Board conferred its highest accolade by dedicating a 1992 performance of the Ellensburg Rodeo to George Prescott. He was inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1998.
Flint Rasmussen
Reflecting on his 30-year career as a professional rodeo clown, Flint Rasmussen stated, “I can tell you that to be a rodeo clown takes a lot of… patience, knowledge, and timing.” Rasmussen emphasizes that his famed arena style is not drawn from other rodeo clowns. “The greatest influences for my comedy come from…real-life experiences, stand-up comedians, and stage performers.”
Montanan Flint Rasmussen ranks alongside the most accomplished clowns and barrelmen in the history of professional rodeo. He earned the title of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association “Clown of the Year” eight consecutive times and Coors “Man in the Can” honors seven times. At present, he clowns and serves as barrelman (named for the large barrel clowns use to defend themselves from bucking bulls) for Professional Bullriders Association (PBR) events across North America.
Flint was born in 1968 to Stan and Tootsie Rasmussen in Havre, Montana, and raised in nearby Chouteau. The son of a rodeo announcer, he recalls that “growing up in a cowboy household and community made me… creative, active, and appreciative of the amazing childhood I experienced.”
Flint was an All-State Football and Track star at Choteau High, and went on to compete in, and announce, sporting events and earn academic honors at the University of Montana Western in Dillon. Before graduating in history, math, and secondary Education, he worked his first rodeo as a professional barrelman in Superior, Montana, in 1987. Although he taught math and history and coached track and football at Havre High School, Flint yearned to follow the rodeo road. He became a fulltime Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) clown in 1998, working alongside fellow Montanan Loyd Ketchum (a 2004 ERHOF inductee).
There are two types of rodeo clowns. “Bullfighters” wear clown paint and costume, but their job is the dangerous business of protecting dismounted bullriders from bulls following each ride. Clowns like Rasmussen, however, work for the entire rodeo performance. They entertain the crowd with banter and specialty acts, and then serve as barrelmen, assisting the bullfighters and cowboys during the rodeo’s bullriding finale.
MacRae, retired Ellensburg Rodeo arena director, recalls, “Frank Beard introduced me to Flint (and) we ended up hiring him to clown the Ellensburg Rodeo in 2000.” Regarding his replacing the retiring Butch Lehmkuhler (2009 ERHOF Inductee), Flint recalled, “I knew the first year that Butch’s shoes were big ones to fill!”
Rasmussen immediately became an Ellensburg crowd favorite, ranking alongside the legendary Slim Pickens. Flint combined athleticism and comedy into a unique style that brought him both awe and laughter from Labor Day weekend audiences.
All rodeo aficionados agree Rasmussen revolutionized the clown’s role in the sport. One Montana newspaperman observed: “For audience members, whether they are familiar or not with Western culture….Rasmussen’s performance is surprising because it pushes the cultural boundaries of the macho cowboy world. One minute he will get the crowd singing Bon Jovi, then he might act effeminate” or perform a dance-crawl across the arena or PBR stage.
Rasmussen’s unique style is anchored by both his athleticism and his dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Ellensburg Rodeo fans had never seen anything like the Montana All-State quarterback’s ‘dance moves’ (emulating both Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley), or his ability to exactly replicate female high school cheerleader routines (without the pom poms). And Flint’s humorous banter poking fun at announcer Justin McKee and the arena cowboys also delighted the crowds.
Reflecting on his clowning style, Rasmussen notes, “I just thought it needed a new energy, a young guy who could relate and get young people to get back to rodeo.”
In 2005, Flint signed an exclusive contract with the Professional Bullriders Association, increasing his fame while simultaneously insuring an easier commute home to Montana and his young family. Rodeo fans who missed seeing Flint in traditional PRCA venues now turned to the PBR, where their favorite clown was up to many of his old tricks. “The one thing I know for certain about bulls,” Flint states drolly, “is that they all have different personalities, and some like to party a little.”
Flint and his ex-wife, PRCA barrel racer Katie Grasky, have two daughters, Shelby and Paige. Both young Montana cowgirls are talented riders and barrel racing competitors, cheered on by their proud parents.
Although a 2009 heart attack briefly sidelined Flint, he returned to the PBR and worked another decade outfitted with a heart rate monitor. Now, he is ready to pursue a less taxing and dangerous vocation in professional rodeo. He has produced and hosted pilot episodes of a live talk show called “Outside the Barrel,” and “after 30 years as a rodeo clown I’m ready to try… being more involved in production, and a little more talk-show hosting on TV.”
The loss for live rodeo fans is the rodeo television audience’s gain. But like countless North American rodeo admirers, Ellensburgers already miss Flint Rasmussen. Ken MacRae summed up their feelings: “Flint parlayed a natural good sense of humor and wit to become probably the most famous rodeo clown in the history of rodeo.”
Gary Rempel
“Cowboying was all I ever wanted to do, and all I ever did,” recalls Calgary Stampede Pickup Man Gary Rempel. Rempel jokes that he was so focused on the cowboy life, “they had a hard time keeping me in school to learn to read and write.”
Gary Rempel is lead pickup man for the Calgary Stampede stock operation, one of North America’s leading rodeo stock contracting firms. Calgary Stampede Ranch will also be inducted into ERHOF August 29, as will their prize-winning bucking bronc “Grated Coconut.”
A mounted Pickup Man’s job is to assist bronc riders in safely dismounting their bucking horses and exiting the rodeo arena following the conclusion of their rides; furthermore, Pickup Men rope and herd broncs and bulls out of the arena into chutes and holding pens so the rodeo events can flow safely and without pause.
Gary Rempel is one of the most acclaimed pickup men in the history of rodeo. Born September 5, 1951 in Elrose, Saskatchewan, Rempel grew up on the expansive Matador Ranch where, he recalls, “I was raised on horseback.” Although he became an accomplished calf and steer roper, it was the pickup man’s game that drew the young Canadian cowboy to the professional rodeo road. He first learned the trade from his father John and Alberta rodeo stock contractor Wayne Vold. In 1985, he joined the team of the legendary Calgary Stampede rodeo.
In his demanding work, Rempel personally trains and travels with six horses. Some of them have been special, like the dapple dark palomino “Cowboy” and his red roan “Rainbow.” Pickup work around broncs and bulls is demanding and dangerous, and his horses must be fast. “Speed covers up so many mistakes,” he says modestly.
“Oh, there have been a lot of wrecks,” Rempel continues. “You just hope you can get ‘em handled. In a hang-up, the quicker you can do it the better.” Rempel’s stellar reputation is built on his skill in preventing or “handling wrecks.” In 2010, he prevented a disaster by roping a 1300 pound bull just as it jumped a fence and plunged into the grandstands at the Canadian Finals in Edmonton, Alberta. Four spectators were injured, but if the bull had gone on unrestrained into the audience the results would have been disastrous.
Rempel has worked all of the major North American rodeos, including San Antonio, Houston, Denver, Nampa, Omak, Pendleton, Calgary, and Ellensburg. His skills garner him regular invitations to work the prestigious Canadian Finals, Montana and Columbia River Circuit Finals, and National Finals Rodeos. The Ellensburg Rodeo is an annual stop on Rempel’s rodeo road, and Ellensburg fans, cowboys, rodeo organizers, and volunteers admire and praise his skills and sociable ways.
Gary’s wife, Jody, a former Miss Rodeo Washington, works as a Great Falls television marketer. The two live on a 140 acre ranch near Fort Shaw, Montana.
Scott Repp
Explaining the many dimensions of her husband Scott, Jo Repp sometimes refers to his unique college degree. “When Scott graduated from Central Washington State College in 1970, he majored in Physical Education with an Art minor,” Jo notes. “That’s an unusual combination that helps us understand Scott. The PE major explains his love of sports and the need to make everything a game. The Art minor explains why he is known as the idea guy and the creative one.”
Repp was born and raised near Endicott, amid the rolling hills of the Palouse, where his father farmed wheat and bred and raced thoroughbred horses.
Scott grew up in the saddle and loved competing in school sports. He came to Ellensburg in 1966 to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and Art Education at Central Washington State College. He married Jo Emerson and has resided here ever since, first teaching PE and Art at Easton High School and then launching a business career.
Scott’s first business venture was the ‘In Seam’—a clothing shop. Scott then began investing in residential and commercial properties. A love of history combined with his art background led to historic architectural restoration projects. Scott Repp was an important player in the historic downtown Ellensburg revival of the 1970s and 80s, and he won awards for his Davidson, 1888, and Kelleher Building projects. Scott founded and co-owned Jennison Repp Real Estate (now Windemere) and did volunteer work in myriad community projects. He and Jo raised their two daughters Rusti and Kaley, and Jo, also a CWSC graduate, taught Business Education and served as Career and Tech Ed Director at her alma mater, Ellensburg High School.
Scott’s rural Palouse childhood and love of competitive sports naturally led to involvement in the Ellensburg Rodeo. Repp joined the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in 1985 and served as President during the 1999 and 2000 rodeos. “Scott was never one to ramble on at Rodeo Board meetings,” fellow board member Joel Smith recalls. “But when he started explaining one of his well-prepared proposals, the rest of us sat quietly and listened.” During his 20-year tenure, Repp was instrumental in creation of the Gold Buckle Club, and he helped plan and execute new arena seating, roping chutes, the Western Village, and the east arena Gold Buckle Club Building projects.
The Western Village—a collection of western-themed storefronts on a replica Old West street—now serves as the formal entry point to the new northern Ellensburg Rodeo complex. The move north created ample parking and cleared up the old bottlenecks on 5th and 6th streets. The Western Village was the frosting on the cake, adding a historic touch to one of most important infrastructure projects in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Smith adds, “Scott not only came up with ideas and plans for major improvements to the facility and event, he showed us how to pay for his creativity.”
Repp stepped down from the rodeo board in 2005. He received the Driver Award for significant contributions to the rodeo, and he was a finalist for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Committeeman of the Year.
During his professional and service career, Scott Repp has won the Washington State Historic Preservation Award and Ellensburg Community Service Award, and he has been named Best Realtor in Kittitas County; in 2002 Scott won induction into the CWU Athletic Hall of Fame.
The Repp family—Scott, Jo, and daughters Rusti (Jadon McClure) and Kaley—are all active in rodeo activities. Kaley was a high school breakaway and team roper and Rusti was Ellensburg Rodeo Queen and is herself an inductee to the Hall of Fame as Past Rodeo Royalty. Scott, Kaley, Rusti, and Jadon are all team ropers. Meanwhile, grandsons Waylon and Clayton McClure are growing up in a world of horses akin to that of grandfather Scott’s Palouse childhood.
Together, the Repp family hosts the annual WestStar Best of the Best Open Tie-Down and Open Team Roping. They donate the proceeds to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. Known for their generous hospitality to PRCA cowboys, the cowboys reciprocated with a popular YouTube video produced by Drew Horner and other PRCA ropers.
The Scott Repp family was chosen Top Hands Kittitas Valley Family of the Year in 2010. In retirement, the Repps cherish their family activities, produce local roping jackpots during the summer months, and enjoy spending winter months in Arizona, where roping and horses are never far away.
HONOREES 1923-1945
Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards and Lee Scott
Inducted in 2003
When asked why he became involved in so many Ellensburg Rodeo volunteer activities, Ellensburg businessman Lee Scott used to say, “Well, someone has to chop the wood.” Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards, and Lee Scott were all “wood choppers” and they have earned recognition as ERHOF “Honorees.”
Schaller Bennett was a respected Kittitas Valley “oldtime cowboy,” rodeo competitor, and rodeo volunteer. Born into a Issaquah logging family, Bennett came to love horses while driving logging teams above Lake Sammamish. Schaller craved the “cowboy life,” and in 1925 he and wife Lula moved to the Kittitas Valley to live out that dream. They ranched on the Umptanum and Parke Creeks, building a small herd of their own. Every summer Schaller ran his cattle alongside other herds on federal land near Lion’s Rock, and the Bennetts made a tradition of summering at their Lion’s Rock cow camp.
Schaller Bennett’s rodeo career began in Issaquah bronc riding competitions. He captured the Kittitas County Bronc Riding Championship an unmatched two times, in 1927 and 1931. Schaller rodeoed throughout the Northwest in the 1920s and 1930s but was seriously injured while bulldogging in the 1938 Ellensburg Rodeo. Although retired from rodeo, Schaller kept ranching through the death of Lula in 1948 and his second wife Mary in 1974. By the time of his death in 1983, Schaller Bennett had befriended and tutored scores of young Kittitas Valley cowboys who looked to him as a role model. Schaller Bennett was one of “last of the old-time cowboys.”
Frank Bryant pioneered the crucial alliance between the Yakima Indians and the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1923 through 1940s. Bryant was a local game warden, credited with introducing Chinese “ringneck” pheasant and Yellowstone elk to the valley. Bryant lived near Liberty and spoke “Chinook Jargon” a language invented by 19th century white and Indian Northwesterners to facilitate communication. In 1923, the founding rodeo board asked Bryant to coordinate Yakima Indian participation in the first Ellensburg Rodeo. 150 Indians attended, and by 1937 Frank Bryant could report over 100 teepees in the encampment and Indians representing over 20 tribes. “It is by far the largest gathering since the rodeo’s start,” he noted. Bryant was still on board when the rodeo resumed after a two-year World War II hiatus in 1945. He met with Yakima leaders in White Swan, securing promises of 100 mounted Indian participants in full regalia for the ’45 rodeo.
Today, the Ellensburg Rodeo is well known in part for its Indian participants. The Indians’ encampment, open to visitors, and their participation in the opening ceremony, traditional dancing, parade, and rodeo flat races and other competitive events, are essential to the Ellensburg Rodeo tradition. Frank Bryant, working in conjunction with the Yakima Indian people, shares much of the credit for the establishment and nurturing of those traditions.
Lou Richards was one of the “founding fathers” of the 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo. He worked as a Rodeo Board Director and Arena Director for over two decades during the rodeo’s formative years. Richards, a local cattleman, was there in the beginning when community members began to plan the first Ellensburg Rodeo. Under County Extension Agent Leonard Davis, Richards served as “straw boss” of hundreds of volunteers who formed the work crews that built the Kittitas County Fair and Rodeo grounds in the summer of 1923. Richards and his men built an exhibit hall and a grandstand with seating for 5000, plus fences, corrals, and a race track.
Elected to the first 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo Board, Richards in 1930 took the all-important post of Arena Director coordinating the arena action and keeping the show moving. He served until 1946. It was Richards who helped to plan and coordinate the array of fast-moving and entertaining rodeo events, races, and contract acts that characterize the Ellensburg Rodeo to this day. In 1937, Richards led the Ellensburg Rodeo across the “picket line” of the Cowboy Turtles’ (precursor to today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association), when the professional cowboys went out on strike. In ’38, he agreed to some of the Turtles’ demands and welcomed them, noting “It’s like a homecoming to see all the boys back.” Lou Richards served as Arena Director until 1946, leaving one of the longest and most distinguished service records in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Lee Scott (1891-1983) was an energetic and respected local businessman who became a tireless worker for the Ellensburg Rodeo. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1891, Lee and wife Anne moved to Ellensburg in 1912 to buy and operate what would become Model Laundry and Cleaners. A tireless promoter and booster, Lee Scott joined the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in 1927 and served through 1935; he remained active in the rodeo the rest of his life.
Among Lee Scott’s many rodeo chores was the coordination of downtown businessmen and service organizations in support and marketing of the rodeo. For example, Scott helped begin the practice of businessmen dressing in western clothes and selling and wearing “rodeo pins” each rodeo season; to “enforce” this practice, Lee formed a “Sheriff’s Posse” akin to the “Kangaroo Court” and “Chamber Cowboys” of the modern era. Lee Scott also organized the annual rodeo dance. Lee Scott’s son Chuck served on the Rodeo Board from 1968-1982 (President ’72-’73) and granddaughter Kelly Scott Mills was 1969 Ellensburg Rodeo Queen.
Lee Scott “chopped a lot of wood” in support of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Indeed, Scott and his contemporaries Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, and Lou Richards helped build the volunteer tradition upon which the rodeo was, and still is, solidly based.
HONOREES 1923-1945
Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards and Lee Scott
Inducted in 2003
When asked why he became involved in so many Ellensburg Rodeo volunteer activities, Ellensburg businessman Lee Scott used to say, “Well, someone has to chop the wood.” Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, Lou Richards, and Lee Scott were all “wood choppers” and they have earned recognition as ERHOF “Honorees.”
Schaller Bennett was a respected Kittitas Valley “oldtime cowboy,” rodeo competitor, and rodeo volunteer. Born into a Issaquah logging family, Bennett came to love horses while driving logging teams above Lake Sammamish. Schaller craved the “cowboy life,” and in 1925 he and wife Lula moved to the Kittitas Valley to live out that dream. They ranched on the Umptanum and Parke Creeks, building a small herd of their own. Every summer Schaller ran his cattle alongside other herds on federal land near Lion’s Rock, and the Bennetts made a tradition of summering at their Lion’s Rock cow camp.
Schaller Bennett’s rodeo career began in Issaquah bronc riding competitions. He captured the Kittitas County Bronc Riding Championship an unmatched two times, in 1927 and 1931. Schaller rodeoed throughout the Northwest in the 1920s and 1930s but was seriously injured while bulldogging in the 1938 Ellensburg Rodeo. Although retired from rodeo, Schaller kept ranching through the death of Lula in 1948 and his second wife Mary in 1974. By the time of his death in 1983, Schaller Bennett had befriended and tutored scores of young Kittitas Valley cowboys who looked to him as a role model. Schaller Bennett was one of “last of the old-time cowboys.”
Frank Bryant pioneered the crucial alliance between the Yakima Indians and the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1923 through 1940s. Bryant was a local game warden, credited with introducing Chinese “ringneck” pheasant and Yellowstone elk to the valley. Bryant lived near Liberty and spoke “Chinook Jargon” a language invented by 19th century white and Indian Northwesterners to facilitate communication. In 1923, the founding rodeo board asked Bryant to coordinate Yakima Indian participation in the first Ellensburg Rodeo. 150 Indians attended, and by 1937 Frank Bryant could report over 100 teepees in the encampment and Indians representing over 20 tribes. “It is by far the largest gathering since the rodeo’s start,” he noted. Bryant was still on board when the rodeo resumed after a two-year World War II hiatus in 1945. He met with Yakima leaders in White Swan, securing promises of 100 mounted Indian participants in full regalia for the ’45 rodeo.
Today, the Ellensburg Rodeo is well known in part for its Indian participants. The Indians’ encampment, open to visitors, and their participation in the opening ceremony, traditional dancing, parade, and rodeo flat races and other competitive events, are essential to the Ellensburg Rodeo tradition. Frank Bryant, working in conjunction with the Yakima Indian people, shares much of the credit for the establishment and nurturing of those traditions.
Lou Richards was one of the “founding fathers” of the 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo. He worked as a Rodeo Board Director and Arena Director for over two decades during the rodeo’s formative years. Richards, a local cattleman, was there in the beginning when community members began to plan the first Ellensburg Rodeo. Under County Extension Agent Leonard Davis, Richards served as “straw boss” of hundreds of volunteers who formed the work crews that built the Kittitas County Fair and Rodeo grounds in the summer of 1923. Richards and his men built an exhibit hall and a grandstand with seating for 5000, plus fences, corrals, and a race track.
Elected to the first 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo Board, Richards in 1930 took the all-important post of Arena Director coordinating the arena action and keeping the show moving. He served until 1946. It was Richards who helped to plan and coordinate the array of fast-moving and entertaining rodeo events, races, and contract acts that characterize the Ellensburg Rodeo to this day. In 1937, Richards led the Ellensburg Rodeo across the “picket line” of the Cowboy Turtles’ (precursor to today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association), when the professional cowboys went out on strike. In ’38, he agreed to some of the Turtles’ demands and welcomed them, noting “It’s like a homecoming to see all the boys back.” Lou Richards served as Arena Director until 1946, leaving one of the longest and most distinguished service records in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Lee Scott (1891-1983) was an energetic and respected local businessman who became a tireless worker for the Ellensburg Rodeo. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1891, Lee and wife Anne moved to Ellensburg in 1912 to buy and operate what would become Model Laundry and Cleaners. A tireless promoter and booster, Lee Scott joined the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in 1927 and served through 1935; he remained active in the rodeo the rest of his life.
Among Lee Scott’s many rodeo chores was the coordination of downtown businessmen and service organizations in support and marketing of the rodeo. For example, Scott helped begin the practice of businessmen dressing in western clothes and selling and wearing “rodeo pins” each rodeo season; to “enforce” this practice, Lee formed a “Sheriff’s Posse” akin to the “Kangaroo Court” and “Chamber Cowboys” of the modern era. Lee Scott also organized the annual rodeo dance. Lee Scott’s son Chuck served on the Rodeo Board from 1968-1982 (President ’72-’73) and granddaughter Kelly Scott Mills was 1969 Ellensburg Rodeo Queen.
Lee Scott “chopped a lot of wood” in support of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Indeed, Scott and his contemporaries Schaller Bennett, Frank Bryant, and Lou Richards helped build the volunteer tradition upon which the rodeo was, and still is, solidly based.
Rodeo Grandmas
The Rodeo Grandmas of Ellensburg, Washington–Janis Anderson, Judy Golladay, Peggy Minor Hunt, Lorraine Plass, and Chloe Weidenbach–were all Kittitas Valley ranch women when they filmed a series of 1990s television commercials for Washington Mutual Bank of Seattle. The bank was launching a new advertising campaign called “That’s Different” aiming to use regional human interest stories to attract attention. When the idea of an “off-beat” commercial about grandmas and their activities arose, Jim Walker, of the McCann Erickson/Seattle Ad Agency who produced the commercials for Washington Mutual, mentioned it to his friend Arley Harrel, a Seattle attorney who grew up in the Kittitas Valley.
Harrel suggested the bank use Kittitas Valley ranch women for the commercial, and his sister Jan assisted the McCann Erickson Advertising Agency when they arrived in Ellensburg in 1993 to interview twenty grandmothers. After much deliberation, and two separate casting calls, they chose Anderson, Golladay, Hunt, and Plass. Weidenbach, Plass’s daughter, who traveled with ladies from the beginning, became a Rodeo Grandma five years later after Golladay’s passing.
At the heart of the filmed Washington Mutual commercial was the fun-loving notion of older women (the four were aged from 52 to 82) riding the range and “Keeping the Northwest safe for truth, justice, and FREE CHECKING”! The bank dubbed the Ellensburg quartet the “Rodeo Grandmas.” Astride their horses and decked out in full western attire, the Rodeo Grandmas defended the traditions of the Old West, keeping “bad bankers” on the run and making sure the “good guys and gals” won the day. The commercial first aired on January 17, 1994, and Northwesterners immediately liked it and talked about it. The commercial caught fire.
In later years, the “Rodeo Grandmas” filmed two follow-up commercials for Washington Mutual. The second was filmed in Kittitas County in Caribou Canyon near the Colockum and the other in Los Angelos, CA. Meanwhile, after the first commercial and with an Associated Press story written by Aviva L. Brant in the Yakima Bureau and a photo by Molly Morrow that went out on the wire on April 17, 1994, the Grandmas’ phones were ringing, and they were invited to make what turned out to be scores of personal appearances. Accompanied by their friend, manager and photographer Molly Morrow, they became celebrities, known for their western lifestyle and skills at riding horses, performing roping tricks, yodeling, storytelling, and working with and roping cattle.
Much of the success of Washington Mutual’s campaign was due to choosing four women who were authentic cowgirls. Janis Capezzoli Anderson was born and grew up in a ranching family in Standish, California. She and sister Joanne helped their parents with ranch chores–working and branding cattle and also herding sheep and doing agricultural work. “My dad didn’t have any sons and so my sister and I became the boys of the family,” Janis told journalist Hanoch McCarty. “My dad called me ‘Toughie’ and he taught me how to ride. Horses have always been in my blood.”
Janis Capezzoli married Jerry Anderson (also a roper and ERHOF inductee) and her daughters Mary Minor and Lori Fishburn attended school here and married local men. Janis has three grandsons, one granddaughter and one great grandson. In years past, Janis and Jerry assisted her daughter and son-in-law Mary and Brent Minor in working their ranch, and her grandchildren include NFR multi-finalist team ropers Brady and Riley Minor. A team roper herself, Anderson has competed and won prize money at roping jackpots, including a second place at Cave Creek, Arizona. “Rodeo is very dear to me and I have wonderful memories of riding in the Grand Entry with the Rodeo Grandmas,” she recalls. “I rode with a great sense of honor and pride.”
Peggy Minor Hunt came to Ellensburg from the small town of Thoeny, Montana with her family at the age of four, and grew up on her parents’ ranch on Wilson Creek, ranching, riding horses, and roping. Peggy (previously inducted to ERHOF as a member of the Minor Family) was a 1947 Ellensburg Rodeo Princess. She married Gerald Hunt, and together they worked rodeos in the US and Canada when they were not ranching. Peggy and Gerald Hunt raised four children: Wayne Hunt, Kenneth Hunt, Sheri Hunt Wippel, and Kristine Hunt Olson, whose children made Peg a “Rodeo Grandma.”
When she was a young woman, Peg bought a trick riding saddle from famed trick roper Monte Montana (also an ERHOF inductee), and with her horse, Pepper, was in business as a professional trick rider and roper. Peg Hunt’s trick riding included the Hippodrome Stand and the dangerous Cossack Drag (also called the “Death Drag”) which involves hooking one’s right foot in the stirrup and laying out over the left side of the horse with one’s head almost to the ground. To trick riding, she also added trick roping and would perform the “flat loop, Wedding Ring, Texas Skip and jump through” which involved standing on a horse, twirling a rope, and jumping through the loop. There is a picture in the Ellensburg Public Library’s archives showing her spinning four loops at once: one with each arm, one from her raised right foot, and one from her teeth. It was Peg’s ranch and rodeo background and her rope skills that lassoed her position as a Rodeo Grandma in 1993.
“The sky is my ceiling and the ground is my carpet,” cowgirl Judy Golladay once reflected. She was born Judy Hastings in Everett, Wa and grew up on her grandparents’ western Washington farm. Judy first learned to ride as a child on a borrowed donkey, and she bought her first horse with money she earned picking strawberries. Soon she was racing barrels and pole-bending with western Washington riding clubs and in playdays.
In 1968, Judy moved east to Colockum Springs Ranch, in the northeast corner of the Kittitas Valley. She bred and raised horses and trained cattle dogs (later a crowd favorite at the Grandmas’ appearances). In 1979, she married Max Golladay, a former Kittitas County Commissioner. Judy and Max had a foster daughter, Peggy Mead of Lake Stevens and two grandchildren.
Judy had been hiring out as a cowhand, riding for the famed Schnebly Bar Balloon Ranch (also ERHOF inductees) and other area ranchers. She could be seen moving cattle with her three well trained cow dogs, Tar, Quil and Jude. She formed the Sage Scrappers, her crew of veteran lady cowhands who worked and rounded up cattle Peg Hunt said Judy “just loved to ride up there on the high range. She said she was near God up there.” And former Ellensburg Rodeo Board
member Brad Fitterer noted Judy was “a really talented horsewoman who understood cattle and always had a smile for people.”
Judy Golladay died of breast cancer on August 16, 1998 at age 57. She fought the disease to end, evoking the spirit of a saying she loved—“Get western and don’t weaken.” Her wish was to beat the disease and then help and give inspiration to others who were suffering from the same affliction. The 1998 Labor Day performance of the Ellensburg Rodeo was dedicated to the Rodeo Grandmas.
At 82 in 1994, Lorraine Plass was the oldest of Rodeo Grandmas and became their story teller. A native Nebraskan and Coloradan, Plass had a long history of riding, roping, and chasing down cows. She met her husband George at the Denver National Western Stock Show in 1928, and they had two daughters, Betty Swisher and Chloe Weidenbach. Daughter Chloe became a talented roper and Queen of the Adams County, Colorado Rodeo. Chloe married rancher Eldon Weidenbach and settled in the Kittitas Valley in 1972. Chloe and Eldon had four children, Gwen Green, Wade Weidenbach, Barbara Sheldon and Chris Weidenbach along with 11 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. Lorraine and George joined them in the Kittitas Valley in 1975 and helped out on their 800 acre ranch. At the time the Rodeo Grandmas gained popularity, Lorraine had nine grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren.
The Grandmas’ manager and photographer Molly Morrow said that Plass was “funnier than Heck,” and Lorraine herself said that at the Grandmas’ performances, “Judy takes her cow dogs, Peggy puts on her rope tricks, Janis ropes, and I just open by big mouth.” This was her way of saying that one of her skills was yodeling. In her green fringed-leather jacket, plaid shirt and red neckerchief, faded jeans, and a felt “flat top” weathered cowboy hat, she looked like the grandma lovers of the West wish they had.
As noted, the Rodeo Grandmas of Ellensburg, Washington, enjoyed popularity that spanned far beyond their Washington Mutual Bank commercials. For nearly a decade, they traveled across the Pacific Northwest and United States. They were special guests at the grand opening of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. The Rodeo Grandmas appeared at conferences on aging with Senator Orrin Hatch and his wife Elaine, fundraisers, fairs, rodeos, festivals, parades, schools, commercial promotions, retirement homes, and hospitals on behalf of the bank as well as their individual group. They appeared in the Ellensburg Rodeo. Accompanied by Molly Morrow, the Grandmas were also featured on radio broadcasts and regional and national television programs, including the “CBS News This Morning,” “Entertainment Tonight,” the “Rosie O‘Donnell Show” and NBC’s “Today” show. They produced a line of “Rodeo Grandma” merchandise and even wrote a cookbook.
A funny thing happened to the Rodeo Grandmas of Ellensburg, Washington, on Interstate 90 in the mid-1990s. Journalist Hanoch McCarty recounts the story of how the Grandmas, who had become media personalities after filming a series of popular Washington Mutual Bank commercials, were driving home from SeaTac Airport after a bank appearance in Salt Lake City, Utah. The ladies, with their manager Molly Morrow driving the van, encountered a huge traffic jam that formed a bumper-to-bumper standstill near Snoqualmie Pass.
The Grandmas were sitting patiently in the van when they heard a tap at the window. “Are you the Rodeo Grandmas?,” a driver who had gotten out of an adjacent car asked them. They answered yes. “IT’S THE RODEO GRANDMAS!,” the woman then yelled out to the surrounding cars. “IT’S REALLY THEM!” Instantly, folks left their vehicles and gathered around the Grandmas’ van, chatting and wishing them well. The traffic jam had turned into a freeway autograph party.
As noted, the great popularity of their 1994 Washington Mutual commercial set the Rodeo Grandmas’ phones ringing with dozens of requests for personal appearances. Inexperienced in their new role as media stars, the Grandmas–Lorraine Plass, Peggy Minor Hunt, Janis Anderson, Judy Golladay, and Chloe Weidenbach, asked their friend Molly Morrow, a local business woman and award-winning rodeo photographer, to act as their manager.
The ladies formed an LLC, filed their own Washington State brand (Rocking RG), and secured their Rodeo Grandma Trademark. Tacoma-based attorney (and Kittitas Valley rancher) Bill Viert’s guidance and counsel was invaluable to the troupe. Tracy O’Day from the O’Day Group in Seattle was their first publicist, and in later years Lois Rogers from Washington Mutual Bank arranged bank appearances, media interviews, commercials and travel. Dorothy Wilhelm, a Northwest celebrity speaker and television and radio host, became a great friend, interviewer, and on-stage working partner.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Rodeo Grandmas became national celebrities. They appeared at regional festivals, parades, schools, commercial promotions, hospitals, and in the Ellensburg Rodeo, and were known for their western lifestyle and skills at riding horses, performing roping tricks, yodeling, storytelling, and working with and roping cattle. “We’re having a ball. We’re having a blast with this,” Judy Golladay told one writer. “When (folks) recognize us, they start grinning and grinning and grinning (and) pretty soon they’re chuckling. They really enjoyed watching us on that commercial.”
The Grandmas appeared on regional and national radio broadcasts and television programs, including the “CBS News This Morning,” “Entertainment Tonight,” the “Rosie O‘Donnell Show” and NBC’s “Today” show. One of their most widely-read interviews was with journalist Hanoch McCarty, author of Chicken Soup for Grandparent’s Soul. And the Rodeo Grandmas developed a line of merchandise–neckerchiefs, lariats, t-shirts, and tote bags–that they sold at their appearances. They even wrote a cookbook titled Good Lookin’ Cookin With the Rodeo Grandmas.
The Rodeo Grandmas’ performances varied in length and components, depending on the audience and the venue. Indoors, Molly Morrow would begin by showing short film clips of the bank commercials and television interviews, and then introduce the Grandmas. The women talked with the audience about their cowgirl lives and answered questions. Each possessed skills that became part of the performance. Peg was a trick roper, while Janis and Judy expertly lassoed a “roping dummy” astride “Handsome Jack”, a life-sized paint horse with a calf on a track they brought with them. Lorraine turned out to be a real entertainer, regaling the audiences with western tales and teaching them how to yodel.
Appearing in an arena, the women demonstrated their horsemanship, while Peg performed her rope trick repertoire and the Grandmas roped real cattle. In one performance of the Ellensburg Rodeo, Janis’ team-roping “rodeo grandsons”–pre-teens Brady and Riley Minor–became part of the show. Judy’s crowd-pleasers were her cow dogs Tar, Quill, and Jude. Judy would show the audience how the dogs would work off hand and voice signals to simulate hunting up cattle.
Judy Golladay’s 1998 death (at age 57) from cancer was met with extreme sadness and she was mourned throughout cattle country. At the time, local businessman and rodeo board member Brad Fitterer noted that Galloway and the Grandmas “have come to represent not only Washington Mutual but also the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County.” Judy’s empty saddle was eventually filled by Lorraine’s daughter Chloe Weidenbach. A seasoned cowgirl in her own right, Chloe was already a member of the grandma entourage, accompanying her mother and wrangling the Rodeo Grandmas’ horses and stock. Chloe’s role in the performances featured her horsemanship and roping skills. “I’ve learned to put my heart into what I’m doing,” she later reflected.
Molly Morrow has many wonderful memories of the Grandmas’ road trips and television appearances. They were good improvisers, and on the Rosie O’Donnell Show Grandma Judy coaxed the host into trying her hand at lassoing the mechanical calf on a track while seated on their life-size stationary horse “Handsome Jack.” “And when she (O’Donnell) actually roped the thing,” Morrow laughs, “the live television audience went absolutely crazy with cheers and applause!”
Morrow says that, around 2004, the Grandmas began to reduce the number of their appearances and return to their daily lives. Lorraine Plass passed away at 94 on October 20, 2006, and Peggy Minor Hunt passed away at 86 on May 25, 2014, leaving Janis Anderson and Chloe Weidenbach as the remaining Rodeo Grandmas of Ellensburg, Washington. Both will be present at the induction banquet with their families and those of Judy, Peg, and Lorraine.
Looking back on the decade when they were in the public eye, we can ask what it was about the Rodeo Grandmas that so captured the public’s imagination? Peg Minor Hunt probably hit the nail on the head when she said in 1998, “Something about being a grandma and being up on a horse seems to be the attraction.” Hall of Fame board member Joe Powell agrees: “Although in Ellensburg it’s pretty common to see grandmas riding and roping, that image of active grandmas on the ranch struck a chord with viewers, and the grandmas were instantly famous.”
And while fusing mythic “wild west” images with those of venerable elders, the Rodeo Grandmas also became role models and spokespersons for their generation of senior citizens. Janis Anderson and Chloe Weidenbach spoke often of the extra energy and feeling that horses added to their lives, and Lorraine said that the Grandmas’ horseback riding “builds your muscles, expands your chest, makes you breathe more deeply…it’s a good clean life.” Peg Minor Hunt told a reporter, “You have to have something to get up for in the morning. When you sit in the rocking chair, you don’t get anywhere.”
“I think I was born to be a Rodeo Grandma,” Peg continued. “Everything in my life seemed to be aimed in this direction. I knew that something special was going to happen in my life, and look, here it is!”
Charles Sampson
Charles Sampson’s bullriding career earned him one million dollars, a world championship, and a score of circuit and local championship buckles; it also brought him two broken legs wired together by screws, pins, and metal plates, a lacerated ear and cracked skull, and a broken wrist, ankle, and sternum. Reflecting on those injuries, Sampson stated, “People ask me how I survived those wrecks, and I tell them I don’t have a clue. They ask me why I keep riding after I get hurt. I was on my deathbed, and I walked away. I guess God didn’t want me to quit.”
Charles Sampson ranks among the top bull riders in the long history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Sampson won Ellensburg bullriding championship buckles in 1981 and 1984, and he appears on the cover of John Ludtka’s The Tradition Lives On: A Seventy-five Year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
There, local black cowboys dubbed Charlie “Pee Wee,” took him under their wings and taught him to rope and ride roughstock. He rode his first bull at 12. He met, and was mentored by, Hall of Fame bull rider Myrtis Dightman, who told him “You look pretty good, but I would stay in school and get an education.”
Sampson stayed in school and aimed for a career in rodeo. He won his first championship buckle at age 17, attended Central Arizona College on a rodeo scholarship, and joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1977.
During a sixteen-year career, the 5’ 3”, 134-pound cowboy won bullriding championships at some of America’s most storied rodeos—Salinas, Calgary, Pendleton, Del Rio, the Cow Palace (San Francisco), and Ellensburg. Sampson won four circuit finals championships and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo ten times. In 1983, he edged out the legendary Donny Gay to become the World Champion Bull Rider.
One of the most accomplished and famous professional bull riders of the late 20th century, Charles Sampson was also the first African American to win a PRCA world championship. “Some people don’t realize that something like a quarter of all cowboys back in the Old West were black,” Sampson states. Forty years before Jackie Robinson desegregated professional baseball, African American cowboys competed in the rodeo arena alongside white, Hispanic, Indian, and female competitors. Yet, in 1977, he was one of six black cowboys in the PRCA.
As his fame spread, many news reporters asked Sampson to discuss his struggles as a black athlete, but Sampson resisted: “Hell, I’m no Ghetto child, I’m a cowboy.” Los Angeles Times reporter Ronald B. Taylor concurred, stating, “It is obvious Sampson no longer thinks of himself as a black trying to enter an all-white world, but as a cowboy among cowboys.”
In the early 1990s, as his career began to slow, Charlie Sampson helped form the televised, independent bull riding circuit that became the Professional Bull Riders Association (PBR). He also continued his community service, using his rodeo stardom as means to reach out to disadvantaged youth. He worked with the YMCA and did motivational speaking. In 2005, he joined the staff at Berkshire Farm. Located in rural Canaan, New York, the farm is devoted to assisting troubled youth and their families.
Sampson has strong Ellensburg connections. Dr. Dan Hiersche, an Ellensburg orthopedic surgeon and friend, mended several of Charles’ fractures and broken bones. Another longtime Ellensburg Rodeo Board Member Joel Smith recalls, “Charles Sampson became a huge fan favorite with the Ellensburg rodeo crowd, winning the bullriding outright in ’82 and a tie in ’81. In 1994, the rodeo board honored Charles and his family as Parade Grand Marshal and dedicated the Sunday performance to him. He has been back to Ellensburg several times since retiring from competition as a motivational speaker. Charles is one of the great guys, and has given back much to the sport of rodeo and his fans.”
Schnebly Family
The descendants of pioneer Ellensburg newspaperman David J. Schnebly constitute a literal “Who’s Who” of the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair history. This respected Kittitas Valley family boasts among its ranks five rodeo and fair board members and ten rodeo queens and princesses. Since the Ellensburg Rodeo’s 1923 beginning, the Schneblys have served the Ellensburg Rodeo in jobs ranging from chute boss to pickup man, Arena Director, Rodeo Board members, PRCA competitors, and rodeo court royalty. David J. Schnebly (b. 1818) was a Marylander whose ancestors had migrated to America from Zurich, Switzerland in 1750.
The Maryland Schnebly’s were successful businessmen, physicians, journalists, and tobacco planters, several of whom held college degrees. Upon graduation from Franklin and Marshall College (PA) in 1854, David J. Schnebly worked his way out West as a newspaperman, landing in Oregon City, Oregon in 1850. In 1851, David Schnebly married Margaretta Painter of Linn City, Oregon.
Charles Sampson ranks among the top bull riders in the long history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Sampson won Ellensburg bullriding championship buckles in 1981 and 1984, and he appears on the cover of John Ludtka’s The Tradition Lives On: A Seventy-five Year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Jim Shoulders
Five-time All-Around Champion cowboy Jim Shoulders was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he graduated from East Central High School in 1946. Shoulders remembers childhood visits to his grandparents’ farm, where he gained the expertise working cattle and riding horses that would soon take him down the rodeo road. He began rodeoing in 1943 in Oiltown, OK, and, during a career that spanned three decades won seven world titles in bullriding and four in bareback. These, combined with his five All-Arounds, earned Jim Shoulders an amazing record of sixteen all-around titles.
Shoulders’ Ellensburg career began when he won the bull riding in 1950. He won the bulls again in 1957 and in the same rodeo secured the Ellensburg All-Around title.
At the national level, Shoulders brought a new degree of notoriety to rodeo when Sports Illustrated featured him in late 50s photographic essay (this was the first-ever feature on a rodeo rider in that magazine). He also set a trend for the rodeo man-turned businessman pattern that was to follow him. From his ranch in Henryetta, Oklahoma, he diversified by giving up roughstock riding for rodeo production and stock contracting (the infamous Tornado was Shoulders’ bull). In addition, he worked at advertising and promotion, documentary film-making, and opened one of the world’s first “rodeo schools” to train a new generation of cowboys.
The Ellensburg Rodeo is fortunate to have hosted a cowboy who, in the words of late National Cowboy Hall of Fame historian Willard Porter, was a “top rough-string rider” as well as a “thoughtful professional and serious businessman who took the rodeo game a step further than the majority of contestants.”
Jan Smith
The rodeo timer’s job is to accurately provide times for events, even those timed electronically, in case of a breakdown. As John Guddat wrote in a 2002 Daily Record article about Jan Smith and Nell Henderson, “In this day and age of electronics, glitches and malfunctions happen, but at the Ellensburg Rodeo, if a backup is needed, they have two.”
A fraction of a second can mean thousands of dollars and a national ranking to a professional rodeo cowboy or cowgirl. “While thousands of [Ellensburg Rodeo] fans in the stands look to the scoreboard at the east end of the arena for the official time,” Guddat writes, “Henderson and Smith are in the announcer’s booth with stopwatches” in hand.
Jan Smith first came to the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1986 and served until 2012. An Okanogan and Brewster, Washington, native now residing in Omak, Jan recalls her husband Dave Smith as her “cowboy sweetheart.”
Turning professional, Smith quickly rose to Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) status, timing rodeos throughout the PRCA Columbia River Circuit and beyond. She and Nell Ferguson often worked as a team, as per PRCA regulations.
Jan and Dave Smith’s children—Julie (Kurt), Dale (Renee), and grandchildren Davey, Cade, Chandler, and Jade are involved in rodeo as competitors and fans. The Smiths have also made a mark in high school and college non-rodeo sports, especially basketball. Son Dave P. Smith (Teresa), a nationally ranked PRCA calf roper, was killed alongside three fellow competitors in a July 4, 1990, airplane crash.
In addition to scores of Northwest rodeos and the Columbia River Circuit Finals, Jan Smith has timed the National Circuit Finals and National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada. “I enjoyed working with many fine people at the Ellensburg Rodeo for 29 years and catching up on visits with rodeo and ranching friends” Smith recently noted, reminiscing, “I can close my eyes and see the opening ceremony and Grand Entry, which I felt was most spectacular.”
The Smilth Family
“Give back to the Ellensburg community,” Jimmie Smith urged his son Joel nearly fifty years ago. “Find something you are passionate about, volunteer to promote it, and give it all of your very best efforts.”
Throughout his life, Jimmie Smith volunteered to help the Ellensburg Rodeo, an interest he inherited from his father Laurel Burchard Smith, and passed down to his own children and grandchildren. For nearly 100 years, the Smith family has served the Ellensburg Rodeo in an impressive number of posts.
During the 1920s and ‘30s, during the early years of Ellensburg Rodeo, Laurel Burchard Smith served as an usher and ticket taker, attired in the western-style silk shirts and neckties he always wore at rodeo time. Laurel also played clarinet in the Ellensburg “Cowboy Band,” a group of marching musicians who entertained rodeo fans back in the days before public address systems and the use of records
Laurel Burchard Smith thus began a volunteer tradition carried on by his son James Robert “Jimmie” Smith. A graduate of EHS, Central, and the University of Idaho in music education, Jimmie led a college jazz combo called the Blues Chasers and taught music in the Ellensburg public schools (1939-43). Earlier, at age 17, he had become conductor of the Cowboy Band, leading the popular local musicians in the parade and at each rodeo performance from 1934-43.
Jimmie Smith’s 1939 marriage to Jean Johnson brought a strong cowboy component to the Smith family tree. Jean’s mother was descended from the Burroughs, late nineteenth century cattle ranchers who settled and worked the northeast corner of the Kittitas Valley. After service as an Army Captain in the Pacific Theater of World War II, Jimmie Smith returned home to found “NorKem” (renamed “SmithKem”) and entered the growing fertilizer and pesticide application business. He continued his involvement in the Ellensburg Rodeo, volunteering as an official event timer. He treated the stock barns’ hornet and fly infestations, cleaned the grandstands, and worked the rodeo track and arena using SmithKem trucks, tractors, sprayers, and pressure hose equipment. Jimmie also served as an Ellensburg Rodeo Board member (1957).
Jimmie and Jean’s son Joel and his wife Marie continued the Smith family’s involvement in the rodeo; so too did Jimmie and Jean’s daughter Laurel Jean (Laurie). Jimmie’s advice to Joel to find a cause he had a passion to serve came to fruition as teen-aged Joel accompanied his dad when he timed events alongside the legendary announcer George Prescott (1998 ERHOF Inductee). “It was pretty special for a kid to be that close to Prescott and all those rodeo cowboys and volunteers,” Joel recalls. He was the announcer booth “go-fer,” running for pop and helping with grounds-keeping duties.
After military service in Vietnam, Joel returned home to join the family business and was elected to the Rodeo Board of Directors in 1981, serving until 2007. Joel coordinated contestant services and relations, grounds maintenance, the parade, sound systems, and more. Like his grandfather and dad, Joel was a musician. He took his experience fronting an early 1960s EHS rock and roll band (“The Invaders”) and working as a concert technician in Europe and Africa into the Ellensburg Rodeo Arena when he produced a series of country music concerts between 1987 and 2001. The concert series brought world-famous artists–Tanya Tucker, Tim McGraw, Glen Campbell, Oak Ridge Boys, Rodney Crowell, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, and many others–to the Ellensburg Rodeo Arena. In 2002, Joel produced the first Saturday night “Xtreme Bulls” event, and Ellensburg joined the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) bullriding tour in 2003. Saturday night bullriding has been a sellout ever since, becoming a popular Ellensburg Rodeo spectacle and a major source of revenue.
Scott Repp, a 2007 ERHOF inductee, served on the Rodeo Board of Directors with Joel for 20 years and is a close friend. He recalls Joel was an extremely “hard-working, detailed, organized, and prepared” Director who “showed a real passion” for the Ellensburg Rodeo. “His commitment was year-round, and he never missed a work party.” Repp stresses Smith’s pioneering role in making “Xtreme bullriding” a major component of the Ellensburg Rodeo and a national brand of the PRCA. “Joel brought PRCA bullriding to a new level.”
Joel received the Driver Family Award for Ellensburg Rodeo service in 2002, and in 2007 the PRCA honored him with their most prestigious award for local rodeo board volunteers, naming him “Committeeman of the Year.” One of the founders of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association, Joel now serves as ERHOF President.
Marie Rogers Smith has worked alongside Joel since he joined the rodeo board, and has not missed a rodeo in 30 years. She was his partner in managing the concert series, and her other jobs have included pressure washing the grandstands, cooking for and co-hosting the post-rodeo “Appreciation Dinners,” handling the rodeo President’ s wife’s many duties, building and maintaining the Western Village barn-wood flower boxes, and chairing the Maynard Linder Award committee. Marie is also a member of the ERHOF board and spearheads the annual arts fundraiser; she coordinates dozens of local artists in creating rodeo-themed boot, hat, skull, guitar, and, this year, “Hides of Fame” art objects earning over $150,000.00 for the ERHOF permanent museum fund.
Laurie Smith Erickson has many memories growing up in a home buzzing with rodeo activities all summer long. “We were in the middle of the rodeo action, and before there was a Friday night rodeo performance, my mom and dad always hosted a big Friday rodeo get-together,” she remembers (noting she and husband Andy Erickson inherited the party). As a youngster, Laurie rode in the parade and Grand Entry with neighbor and rodeo board member Tex Taliaferro. She and Andy are longtime Gold Buckle Club members and Laurie has been active in the PRCA’s and Ellensburg Rodeo’s campaign to highlight awareness of and support for cancer research. Soon after Sonja Mitchell, Kathy Harris, Rachel Case, and other local women organized the Ellensburg Rodeo’s “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” event, Laurie joined the committee and served from 2007-12. A highlight was the first “balloon launch” of scores of pink balloons during a Sunday performance of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Joel and Marie’s and Laurie and Andy’s children Austin (Aubrey), Damian (Jamie), Ryan, Brady (Leah), Kari and grandchildren Kaelynn, Halle, Judah, Micha, Ashley, Ellie, Tate, Crue, and Mallory constitute the seventh and eighth generations of this Kittitas Valley Pioneer Rodeo Family.
“When you’re a volunteer,” Joel reflects, “your kids become volunteers too.” Austin and Damian Smith started their rodeo chores as youngsters helping Joel and Marie painting, picking up trash, and pressure washing the grandstands every rodeo weekend. Austin was a founding consultant to the ERHOF art fund auction, while Damian was official photographer; both created and won awards for art objects they created for the annual fundraiser, from “Boots of Fame” to the present.
As they approach the 100-year anniversary of their involvement in the Ellensburg Rodeo, Smith family members continue their volunteerism and hard work. Jimmie Smith’s advice to his children to “give back to the community” has proven as fruitful as he envisioned.
Inducted in 2006
Spirit of the Trail Night Pageant
“Night Shows” have always been an important part of the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair weekend. At present, locals and visitors can choose from three night shows, including a Friday evening performance of the Rodeo, Saturday night’s “Extreme Bulls,” competition, and Sunday’s Ellensburg Rodeo Posse Night Show.
Eighty years ago, rodeo and fair attendees were offered an equally exciting night show featuring scores of Kittitas County residents and Yakama Indians. This theatrical production was called the “Spirit of the Trail Night Pageant.”
The “Spirit of the Trail” Pageant was a mounted theatrical production staged in the rodeo arena as a night show from 1926-1939. The pageant script was written by Central Professor H. C. Fish and first directed by Nellie Burke. Mirroring similar pageants across the American West, “The Spirit of the Trail” acted out the early history of the Kittitas Valley. “The Spirit of the Trail” featured members of the Kittitas Band and Yakama Indian tribes alongside other local riders and amateur actors and volunteers. They acted out early Indian scenes, U.S. Army exploration, “Manifest Destiny” and the coming of the pioneers, the Yakama Indian War, and the ultimate civilizing of Ellensburg and Kittitas County.
Professor Herbert Clay Fish, the creator of “Spirit of the West,” was born in Moline, Illinois in 1875. After earning his college degree and teaching high school in the Midwest, he became the first Curator of the State Historical Society of North Dakota from 1907-15. An interest in early exploration of the trans-Mississippi West took him to the University of Washington, where he earned an MA in 1920, writing a thesis on Lewis and Clark and other early explorers.
During his North Dakota days, Fish developed an expertise in Indian history and material culture that he honed at University of Washington and Ellensburg’s Washington State Normal School (now CWU). “We often had Indians as guests in our home,” remembers daughter Virginia Fish Tozer, adding that her father maintained “continual contact with Indians” to better learn their history and culture.
“Throughout his career,” Tozer has written of her father, “his aim was…making history come alive for his students.” Soon after coming to the State Normal School, Professor Fish pursued this end by co-writing (with Floy Rossman) a play for elementary school students to aid their learning Washington State history. “The Trail Makers” was an early version of “The Spirit of the Trail” performed in McConnell Auditorium in 1921, Fish also authored “The Spirit of the Snohomish,” a 1920s historical play performed in western Washington State.
Shortly after the 1923 birth of the Ellensburg Rodeo, Professor Fish decided to adapt his work for performance as a night show. His grand vision included scores of mounted Valley actors and actresses alongside members of the Kittitas Band and Yakama tribes. He revised his original script and recruited Nellie Burke to produce the show. The Ellensburg Daily Record described Burke as a “daughter of pioneers.” with “boundless energy and executive ability.” She wrote the program notes introducing each of the three acts of “Spirit of the Trail.”
A subsequent Daily Record September 9, 1926 headline shouted “Spirit of the Trail Night Pageant Will Be an Important Feature of the Rodeo…Faithfully Depicts Coming of the Whites into the West [and features a] Spectacular Battle Scene.”
By the time of the 1926 rodeo weekend, all of the actors, stock, costuming, music, and sound effects were ready. The show proved to be a great success and was renewed intermittently, with changes in cast and producers and script, until 1940. In 1932, prior to his untimely 1934 death, Fish copyrighted “The Spirit of the Trail.”
The basic script for “Spirit of the Trail” followed the first three acts of the five-act “Trail Makers” play. The audience first saw an Indian encampment, burning campfires (which lit the arena) and the sights and sounds of the early Kittitas Band Indians. Soon, however, explorers Lewis and Clark appeared on the scene, followed by other European-Americans—explorers, hunters, trappers, ranchers, farmers, and townspeople—some of whom entered on horseback, pulling wagons down the Craig’s Hill trail into the rodeo grounds. Strife resulted, and the audience witnessed a staged battle scene between Indians and whites, complete with gunshots and cannons, a kidnapping, and ultimate rescue by the “United States Cavalry.”
The script bent history a bit: Lewis and Clark never visited the Kittitas Valley (though subsequent US Army explorers did); nor was the Yakama Indian War fought here (though battles were fought close by).
A Yakama Indian Chief’s elegiac speech ended “Spirit of the Trail” in a somber manner significantly reflecting the attitudes of author Fish and others:
I am an old man…Once I killed many…[But then] an evil day came upon us…wars came. Thousands fell [and now] our days are numbered…I can see the glory of the white man rising…I go now to my teepee. I have spoken.
The cast and crew of Spirit of the Trail” reads today like a “Who’s Who” of early 20th century Kittitas County history. Actors included local farmers, ranchers, townspeople, and members of the Kittitas Band of Indians, most notably John and Ida Nason.
At the same time, the play and its cast tell us much about the attitudes of early 20th century Kittitas Valley residents. Although many of the actors in the play were descendants of early pioneers or Indian people, theirs was a world of electricity, automobiles, radio, airplanes, world war, and the blessings (and drawbacks) of modern civilization. It was obviously important to them to take time to reflect on the “old days” and the march of progress.
It is also significant that both whites and Indians worked together to make the pageant a success. Although the pageant script often reflected a non-Indian perspective of past events, Professor Fish’s knowledge of Indian history and culture was evident. Moreover, both groups deemed it important to participate in “The Spirit of the Trail.”
With Professor Fish’s passing and the advent of World War II, interest in the “Spirit of the Trail” waned. An April 6, 1939 Record article announced “Rodeo to Revive…Spirit of the Trail” but with “elimination of all speaking parts” substituting a rodeo announcer’s amplified narration for the actors’ voices. World War II soon ended the Ellensburg Rodeo for three years. When the rodeo returned, the “Spirit of the Trail” did not.
In closing this look into a forgotten part of Ellensburg Rodeo history, it is fascinating to return to Professor Fish’s first 1921 script, “The Trail Makers” which continued for two acts past the battle scene into the modern era. At play’s end an “Old Pioneer” spoke to a sprightly modern character named “Miss Today.” The Pioneer reflected on the “old days” and stated, “Yes, the Indian troubles are past and we have grown mightily. See what a wonderful State we have.” In response, Miss Today concluded: “Yes Pioneer, we do thank you for your good work…And Mr. Pioneer, we have something more wonderful in this state than anything you have seen. We have a great power we call Hydro Electric!”
Indeed, much had changed in the Kittitas Valley in the five decades since the original settlement. The “Spirit of the Trail” portrayed and reflected upon that momentous change.
Kenny Stanton
Kenny Stanton was one of the world’s finest rough stock (bareback and saddle bronc and bullriding) riders. Fifty-nine year old Stanton, of Battle Mountain, Nevada, was honored by the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame at its 2000 induction banquet. “He was selected by our committee not only for his outstanding success at Ellensburg’s Rodeo, but because of his tremendous riding record while facing major physical challenges,” Mike Allen, Hall of Fame board president and founder, said. Stanton won the all-around buckle in Ellensburg in both 1963 and l965, and went away with a bareback title in ’63 and bull riding championship in 1976. He recently recalled his winning bull ride in the Ellensburg area in 1976. “It was a two head contest and in the second (go-round) I drew a (Harry) Vold bull. It was small, yellow but I don’t remember its number. It (the win) was especially important for me because I had had injuries a while back.” Actually, his career had ended at age 28 due to injury. He only ventured back in ’76 to some area rodeos. He also won Pendleton’s bull riding that year. Ken Stanton’s career was cut short due to the problems with his feet which resulted in amputation procedures.
Mabel Strickland
Reminiscing about the early days of the Ellensburg Rodeo, the late rancher and bronc rider Ben Ferguson vividly remembered a trick riding performance by cowgirl Mabel Strickland. In a 1970s tape-recorded interview for the Ellensburg Public Library oral history project, Ferguson recalled that during the 1926 Ellensburg Rodeo Strickland actually jumped her horse over an automobile that had been driven with passengers into the arena for that purpose. There were “three or four men in the back seat” of the car, the old cowboy recalled. “Mabel backed off and went and jumped that car on that horse.” Fifty years later, Ferguson was still awed by Mabel Strickland’s equestrian skills.
Using skills they honed on the Western cattle ranches during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an elite group of cowgirls played an important role in the early history of North American rodeo.
Like all cowgirls of her era, Strickland competed in the three major women’s events–flat racing, saddle bronc riding, and trick riding. To these, Mabel added bulldogging (steer wrestling), steer riding, and steer roping. Buster, her Arabian mare, served her in trick riding, roping, and bulldogging competitions, and also worked as Hugh’s roping horse.
In the 1920s and 30s, cowgirls competed against one another, not against the cowboys, and sometimes the women’s events were called “exhibitions.” While men in those days rode broncs for ten seconds with one rein and no stirrups, women rode for eight seconds (today’s norm) with two reins and stirrups.
The seeming difficulty for a 98-pound woman like Mabel to rope, throw, and tie large steers makes sense only if one knows that, unlike calf ropers, steer ropers upend their cattle with their ropes while still in the saddle (before dismounting to tie the steer). Mabel’s ability to wrestle steers, verified in period photography, was due to her canny use of balance and brains instead of brawn. Most rodeo historians agree that the stock used in women’s events was smaller and less “rank” than the men’s stock, though that point was debated heatedly then, as now.
Because of her Walla Walla home base, Strickland was immediately drawn to the new Ellensburg Rodeo (founded in 1923), where she competed and performed in 1926, 1928, 1929, and 1930. Ben Ferguson’s remarks above verify she was a standout, and the late Ellensburg Rodeo newspaperman John Ludtka wrote in his 1997 history of the Ellensburg Rodeo that the “famous cowgirl Mabel Strickland…performed to enthusiastic applause” and “tied her steer in 18 seconds” in the 1926 rodeo. Ludtka adds that in 1928 “Strickland, a glamorous addition to rodeo from the Palouse, trick rode and bulldogged a steer.” Records show Mabel also competed in Ellensburg’s bronc riding and track racing events. In 1930, she won the Ellensburg Rodeo’s women’s relay race.
Interestingly, Strickland went on to a brief 1930s Hollywood movie career. Mabel used her skills on horseback to work as a stunt woman and appear in several 1930s Westerns, including Bing Crosby’s Rhythm on the Range (1936). While in Hollywood she co-founded the Association of Film Equestriennes.
The advent of World War II proved to be a turning point for rodeo cowgirls in general and Mabel Strickland in particular. World War II marked the end of the “golden age” of rodeo cowgirls. The 1929 Pendleton Roundup arena death of bronc rider Bonnie McCarroll had combined with four other women’s bronc-riding deaths to raise questions about women’s rodeo competitions (that men had also died in the arena was apparently not as great a concern). When wartime fuel shortages led to the cancellation and reduction of many rodeo performances, women’s events were the first to go. Professional rodeo resumed after the war, but the women’s events were gone, leaving only rodeo royalty and female posse and grand entry riders in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA) sanctioned events.
Cowgirls reacted in 1948 by forming the Girls Rodeo Association (today’s Women’s Professional Rodeo Association–the WPRA), staging “All-Girl” rodeos where the cowgirls continued to ride broncs (and bulls), rope calves and steers and compete in a new event called barrel racing. Gradually, Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) rodeos began to add WPRA barrel-racing events to their programs (Pendleton was the last to do so in 1999) and cowgirls returned to PRCA rodeos as competitors. More recently, women’s break-away calf roping competitions have found their way into some PRCA rodeo programs (including Ellensburg), moving women back towards the status they enjoyed during the “golden age” of Mabel Strickland and her cowgirl cohorts.
During the 1940s, Mabel Strickland also experienced many changes. She separated from Hugh, who died in 1941 from a heart attack. Retired from rodeo, Mabel married Spokane cattleman Sam Woodward. In 1948, the family (including Mabel and Hugh’s daughter April) moved to Arizona to raise horses and cattle. Mabel became active in Appaloosa Quarter Horse Association of Arizona and the National Appaloosa Horse Club.
ERHOF’s induction of Mabel Strickland is the most recent in a long line of honors for the Walla Walla cowgirl. In 1972, she was inducted into the Pendleton Roundup Hall of Fame. Induction into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Hall of Fame, National Cowboy Hall of Fame, ProRodeo Hall of Fame, and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame followed, but those (and ERHOF’s) honors are posthumous: On January 3, 1976, champion cowgirl Mabel Delong Strickland Woodward died in Maryvale Hospital in Buckeye, Arizona. She was 79 years old.
Inducted in 2004

Bob Swaim
A good “Secretary” is essential to a first-class rodeo, and Bob Swaim cemented the Ellensburg Rodeo’s reputation on a basis of efficiency, honesty, and hospitality.
Born in southwestern Minnesota in 1930, Bob Swaim moved West during the Depression, first to Los Angeles, and then to Oregon in 1938. Swaim matured in the rodeo country of northeastern Oregon and the Palouse—Madras, John Day, Pendleton, and Lewiston, Idaho. He went to work as a cowboy at age 13 and joined the RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, predecessor to today’s PRCA) in 1949. His first professional rodeo competition was in Warm Springs, Oregon.
In the meantime, Bob Swaim had begun work in the field of record-keeping, earning the job of “Rodeo Secretary” in several venues. Swaim was the Ellensburg Rodeo’s Secretary for a record twenty-three years, from 1958-1980. As Secretary, he orchestrated the many complicated transactions taking place “behind the chutes” that rodeo fans never see. The Secretary is in charge of the registration and processing of all cowboy contestants, insuring they know when and where they will compete and what animals they draw.
Swaim welcomed and recorded all entrants, collected their fees, and administered the stock drawing, placements, day money, and final “payouts” to the cowboys and cowgirls. “Everything was done in a spiral notebook back in those days” and “most of the activity was cash,” Swaim remembers. “Nowadays it’s all done with computers and faxes, mostly in Colorado Springs (headquarters of the PRCA).”
Throughout his career, Bob Swaim worked at trucking and ranching in addition to his rodeoing. Shirley Swaim worked rodeos with her husband for over two decades, and Bob credits her “tremendous help” in his career.
Swaim has many good memories of Ellensburg, and once told the Daily Record “We love to come here and see all our friends.” As a contestant in 1950s, he remembers sharing expenses and rooms in the Old Antlers Hotel on Sixth and Pine. “That was quite a place,” he recalls. “The Ellensburg Rodeo,” he stressed, “is every bit as good as other rodeos, including Pendleton.” Swaim worked as Secretary for several other shows, including Omak, Spokane, Grangeville, Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Pendleton Roundup, from 1963-1980.
Bob Swaim retired as Ellensburg Rodeo Secretary in 1980; the Saturday show that year was dedicated to him. Today, he still attends many Northwest rodeos when he can spare time from raising cattle and quarter horses on his and Shirley’s White Swan ranch.
Over the years, professional cowboys have consistently ranked Ellensburg among the nation’s best rodeos for its professionalism and treatment of cowboys, and no small share of the credit for that goes to Bob Swaim. Typically, Swaim gives credit to others: “The Ellensburg Rodeo’s (volunteer) organizers,” Swaim noted, “always drew the best competitors and still do.”
Thomas Family
The children of William “Sagebrush Bill” and Lusetta (Cleveland) “Bessie” Thomas were working cowboys and cowgirls who bridged the gap between the “Sunday Rodeos” of the early twentieth century Kittitas Valley and the world of the modern professional rodeo cowboy. The “Thomas Boys” and their descendants loom large in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
William Thomas was born in 1860 in North Carolina and raised and educated (at Roan College) in Tennessee. He followed the carpenter’s trade through Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio to Washington State, where he went to work for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He arrived in the Kittitas Valley in 1886 and, by 1893, had purchased the Naneum district ranch which he would turn into a substantial holding (3100 acres and 500 head) called Sunnybrook Farm. In 1895 “Sagebrush Bill” Thomas married Lesetta “Bessie” Cleveland. They produced eight children: Lillian, Wilburn (Bud), Emma (Babe), Harry (Hap), James (Jim), Veta, William (Howard), and Margie Mae.
The “Thomas Boys”—Bud, Hap, Jim, and Howard—grew up in the saddle, busting broncs and running steers in northeast Kittitas County. Family member Sandy Thomas writes, “the boys got busy learning to ride the ‘rough’ off their horse herd; often they rode with only a ‘mane and tail hold,’ a precarious riding experience.”
Meanwhile, Hap helped cull the rodeo’s roughstock, rounding up “every Columbia River Cayuse we could find” and “trying them out for the best buckers. The horses that “bucked us off we kept for bucking horses” in the ’23 rodeo. Howard remembered that first 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo “was a good one.” The Thomas Boys would see many more rodeos in the years to come. Hap, Jim, and Howard Thomas all followed the rodeo road intermittently over the next two decades. Hap’s daughter, Judi Thomas Oehlerich, notes that Hap rode broncs throughout the first decade of the Ellensburg Rodeo. He competed until the early 1930s, when a broken leg and a metal pin sent him to back to a career in ranching and irrigation work. Jim Thomas hit the road as a bronc rider, traveling across the United States and Canada. Later, he gave up rodeo and married Edith Ferguson; they ranched while Jim became a noted local horseshoer. Every fall in the 50s and 60s Jim worked the ketch pen gate at the Ellensburg Rodeo. Like his brother Jim, Howard Thomas traveled around the United States and Canada as a rodeo cowboy, returning home in the late 1920s to marry Edith Christiansen and pursue a career in ranching and, later, the real estate business. Howard rode in the Ellensburg night show, performing a square dancing act on horseback with other local riders. He later rode with the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse and served on the Ellensburg Rodeo Board. Today, Thomas children and grandchildren carry on the rodeo traditions of their forbearers. John Ludtka aptly entitled his 75-year history of the Ellensburg Rodeo, ‘The Tradition Lives’ and the Thomas family is proof of the role of rodeo in the history and traditions of the Kittitas Valley.
Casey Tibbs
Casey Tibbs is a 2001 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. A giant name in the history of 1940s and 1950s North American rodeo, Tibbs was a featured competitor in Ellensburg during that “golden age.” Casey Tibbs was born March 5, 1929, in a log cabin on his parents’ homestead, near the confluence of the Cheyenne and Missouri Rivers at Pierre, South Dakota. The day he was born his parents told his brothers and sisters the “coyotes” had brought him! The youngest boy in a family of ten children, Casey rode horseback daily, twenty miles to school and back. In 1943, the curly-headed 14 year-old Tibbs entered his first bronc riding competition. He was so poor that he hitchhiked from show to show: “He would lie across the highway to attract the attention of motorists passing by in order to get a ride,” it is told.
Red and Rose Wall | Tornado
When famed rodeo trick rider and stock contractor “Strawberry Red” Wall unexpectedly died in 1932, the news spread quickly throughout the world of North American rodeo organizers, competitors, and fans. One cowboy bard even composed a poem in his honor, “Adios to Strawberry Red Wall”:
A cowboy of the Western ranges,
A cowboy of picturesque design
That the West had used for a pattern
To set forth the man true and fine.
He came up the ranks to leader—
As a showman he topped them all;
Much was the applause that was rendered
At the shows of “Strawberry Red” Wall.
Einar L. Wall was born to immigrant parents in Seattle, Washington, and soon dubbed “Strawberry Red” because of his flaming hair color. Of Norwegian ancestry, the “Wohl” family had changed the spelling of their name to “Wall.” As a child, Red carried on his parents’ old-country traditions by wearing wooden shoes.
Red Wall learned cowboying skills by breaking horses at Seattle’s Star Stables, owned by Ray Pratt, father of Red’s wife-to-be, Rose. Red soon became an accomplished horseman and trick rider, known for “Roman Riding”—riding two horses at a full gallop, standing with one foot on each mount.
In May of 1925, however, Red Wall made a career change, and wrote his mother “to let you know I’ve left the Circus to manage the Edmonton Stampede Rodeo. Rose…will come later.” Strawberry Red had returned to rodeo as a producer and partner of Canadian stock contractor Peter Welsh. Together, Wall and Welsh put together what one rodeo historian has described as “the greatest string of bucking horses the country has ever seen.” Their most famous bucking horse—“Midnight”—became an inductee to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, alongside his heir “Five Minutes to Midnight.”Wall and Welsh split up in 1926, and Red and Rose formed the Strawberry Red Wall Rodeo Association, furnishing stock and production expertise to rodeos across America, including Madison Square Garden. In 1931, he purchased Ben Jory’s top bucking stock. Walls’ advertisements touted “the finest bucking horses and rodeo equipment in the entire Northwest,” featuring “Roman standing races…clowns…trick & fancy riding” and the expertise to produce the full range of rodeo events. Although the Walls boasted a “Bucking Buffalo,” their most important legacy was their introduction of “India Sacred Cattle.” The Walls were among the first North American rodeo stock contractors to produce what is known today as the “Brahma Bull” riding event.
Red Wall died prematurely (at 40 years of age) in 1932 from injuries related to his rough trick and bronc riding and work regimen. Rose inherited sole ownership of the Wall Rodeo Association, which she managed for nine years. One contemporary newspaperman wrote, “Mrs. Rose Wall, a smiling little lady just five feet tall, is ‘boss’ of 150 bucking horses, 20 long-horned steers from Old Mexico, and a score of ‘sacred cows’ from India.”
Rose furthered the Wall Association’s important Ellensburg connections. Rodeo President Harry Anderson had hired the Walls in 1931 and the Wall Rodeo Association served as the Ellensburg Rodeo’s roughstock contractors through 1938. In 1935, Rose married Ellensburger Buff Brady Sr., father of famed trick rider and movie star Buff Brady, Jr. (EHS graduate and 2001 ERHOF Inductee). The Wall Rodeo Association found the Kittitas Valley a prime winter headquarters. According to John Ludtka in The Tradition Lives On, the Walls’ famed roughstock herd grazed the Kittitas grasses “under the watchful eye of Ernie McEwen,” Chet Morrison, and other local cowboys.
Wall Rodeo Association broncs that oldtimers remember to this day are Miss Hush, Crawling Valley, Starlight, Chestamere Lady, Diamond Maggie, Hundred Grand, and So Happy, a horse named in honor of a respected Kittitas Valley Indian family. Wall broncs “Midnight,” “Five Minutes to Midnight,” and “Milky Way” won national fame and induction into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
“Tornado” also won fame throughout the nation, and many an Ellensburg Rodeo cowboy “ate dust” beneath the hoofs of the strong and crafty Tornado. The late Chet Morrison (ERHOF Inductee 1998) won day money on Tornado in 1935, and Chet’s widow, ERHOF Board member Bertha Morrison, remembers the bronc well: “Tornado was a ‘brown’ horse, and a real hard bucking horse to ride. He was ranked among the top bucking horses in the world.”
With the advent of World War II and wartime fuel rationing, the Ellensburg Rodeo took a two-year hiatus in 1941 and 1942. Although the Ellensburg Rodeo returned as a wartime “horse show” in 1943, the Red Wall Rodeo Association did not. Rose Pratt Wall retired from rodeo in 1941 and eventually moved to Bothell. Red and Rose Wall, and Tornado, were gone, but not forgotten:
The shows you promoted were honest,
To that end you gave of your best,
And you laid before the vast public
The true spirit you knew as the West.
You have gone now to ride the sky ranges,
At the ranch that’s open and free.
At the Master’s roundup you’re riding—
At last, “Home on the Range” you shall be.
Frederic Gregg “Fritz” Truran
In 1941, a young California bronc rider named Fritz Truran swept the Ellensburg Rodeo, winning both the Saddle Bronc and All-Around championship buckles. Writing about Truran’s triumph nearly fifty years later, the late Ellensburg Rodeo historian John Ludtka noted that in 1941, “war clouds darkened America’s skies” and the 26 year-old Truran “was soon to volunteer for the U.S. Marines Corps as World War II loomed.” In 1945, Truran died in the battle of Iwo Jima, adding a heroic war record to his achievements as a world champion rodeo cowboy.
Frederic Gregg “Fritz” Truran (1916-45) was born and grew up in Seeley, California. Although he was not a ranch-raised cowboy, young Truran found work breaking and training horses across southern California. To supplement his income, he competed in local rodeos as a saddle bronc rider and bulldogger and enjoyed immediate success.
Like his rodeo contemporaries Yakima Canutt, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Mabel Strickland, and others, Fritz Truran found work in Hollywood. He doubled for Gene Autry in movie horse-riding scenes and was a stunt double for Bing Crosby in the 1936 movie Rhythm on the Range. He was friends with John Wayne, who later starred in the movie Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). The handsome Truran even boasted his own syndicated comic strip, Fritz Truan, Champion Cowboy.
As a top-tier rodeo cowboy, Truran naturally came to the Pacific Northwest to compete in Ellensburg, Pendleton, Lewiston, and Walla Walla. In 1941, Ellensburg crowds cheered him on as he won both the Saddle Broncs and the All-Around Championship. As John Ludtka wrote in The Tradition Lives: A 75-year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo (1997), Truran was an Ellensburg crowd favorite whose future looked bright. But World War II soon intervened. Like many cowboys of his generation, Truran volunteered to serve, joining the Marine Corps in 1942.
A Marine rifleman, Truran fought bravely in the Pacific Theater of World War II and survived the bloody Marine Corps invasions of Midway Island and Tarawa. He was wounded and attained the rank of sergeant. Truran always wore his Cowboy Turtles pin on his uniform; his fellow Marines enjoyed his rodeo stories and dubbed him the “Fighting Cowboy.” One Marine fondly remembered Truran as “a real, fine, fun-loving guy.”
Granted a leave after Midway and Tarawa, Fritz Truran won the 1944 Oahu Hawaiian Bronc Riding Championship and helped produce a Honolulu rodeo for the benefit of his injured comrades. He even returned stateside briefly to ride in the Cheyenne Frontier Days and a few other rodeos. Cliff Westermeier spoke with him in Boulder, Colorado, in the summer of 1944, and recalled, we sat under the end-gate of a truck to escape the hot sun pouring down on the rodeo grounds. Fritz was quiet and reticent, and seemed greatly changed. From his conversation, one knew he had seen plenty of action and was anxious for the war to be over…These few weeks of rodeo had given him a great deal of pleasure and happiness. Fritz is one of the boys who did not come back.
Sergeant Fritz Truran redeployed in the Marine Corps’ brutal island-hopping campaign. National Cowboy Museum historian Trent Riley writes that Truran was assigned to the 4th Marine Division to fight on Iwo Jima, the barren Pacific island manned by Japanese soldiers who chose death over surrender. Landing on February 19 1945, Truran led his men through 10 days of fierce hand-to-hand combat. On Feb 28, Marines assaulted the heavily fortified Hill 382, also known as “Radar Hill”. Repulsed five times, they at last secured the Hill, but not before an enemy bullet struck Fritz Truran in the neck, killing him instantly.
Riley writes that when Truran’s men removed his body from the battlefield they “found in his pocket a magazine from the Rodeo Association of America featuring photos of world champions, including his own alongside contemporary greats.” The 29 year-old Marine left behind his wife Norma, a champion rodeo trick rider.
The rodeo arena at the Marine Air Station at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, is named in honor of Sergeant Fritz Truran. Truran, the “Fighting Cowboy,” is an inductee to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Pendleton Roundup and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame and, now, the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Like his rodeo contemporaries Yakima Canutt, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Mabel Strickland, and others, Fritz Truran found work in Hollywood. He doubled for Gene Autry in movie horse-riding scenes and was a stunt double for Bing Crosby in the 1936 movie Rhythm on the Range. He was friends with John Wayne, who later starred in the movie Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). The handsome Truran even boasted his own syndicated comic strip, Fritz Truan, Champion Cowboy.
As a top-tier rodeo cowboy, Truran naturally came to the Pacific Northwest to compete in Ellensburg, Pendleton, Lewiston, and Walla Walla. In 1941, Ellensburg crowds cheered him on as he won both the Saddle Broncs and the All-Around Championship. As John Ludtka wrote in The Tradition Lives: A 75-year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo (1997), Truran was an Ellensburg crowd favorite whose future looked bright. But World War II soon intervened. Like many cowboys of his generation, Truran volunteered to serve, joining the Marine Corps in 1942.
A Marine rifleman, Truran fought bravely in the Pacific Theater of World War II and survived the bloody Marine Corps invasions of Midway Island and Tarawa. He was wounded and attained the rank of sergeant. Truran always wore his Cowboy Turtles pin on his uniform; his fellow Marines enjoyed his rodeo stories and dubbed him the “Fighting Cowboy.” One Marine fondly remembered Truran as “a real, fine, fun-loving guy.”
Granted a leave after Midway and Tarawa, Fritz Truran won the 1944 Oahu Hawaiian Bronc Riding Championship and helped produce a Honolulu rodeo for the benefit of his injured comrades. He even returned stateside briefly to ride in the Cheyenne Frontier Days and a few other rodeos. Cliff Westermeier spoke with him in Boulder, Colorado, in the summer of 1944, and recalled, we sat under the end-gate of a truck to escape the hot sun pouring down on the rodeo grounds. Fritz was quiet and reticent, and seemed greatly changed. From his conversation, one knew he had seen plenty of action and was anxious for the war to be over…These few weeks of rodeo had given him a great deal of pleasure and happiness. Fritz is one of the boys who did not come back.
Sergeant Fritz Truran redeployed in the Marine Corps’ brutal island-hopping campaign. National Cowboy Museum historian Trent Riley writes that Truran was assigned to the 4th Marine Division to fight on Iwo Jima, the barren Pacific island manned by Japanese soldiers who chose death over surrender. Landing on February 19 1945, Truran led his men through 10 days of fierce hand-to-hand combat. On Feb 28, Marines assaulted the heavily fortified Hill 382, also known as “Radar Hill”. Repulsed five times, they at last secured the Hill, but not before an enemy bullet struck Fritz Truran in the neck, killing him instantly.
Riley writes that when Truran’s men removed his body from the battlefield they “found in his pocket a magazine from the Rodeo Association of America featuring photos of world champions, including his own alongside contemporary greats.” The 29 year-old Marine left behind his wife Norma, a champion rodeo trick rider.
The rodeo arena at the Marine Air Station at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, is named in honor of Sergeant Fritz Truran. Truran, the “Fighting Cowboy,” is an inductee to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Pendleton Roundup and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame and, now, the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Frank Wallace Family
Sitting at a big dinner table in a home near the 800-acre cattle ranch where they spent their formative years, Jack and Steve Wallace recently pored over hundreds of rodeo photographs taken over the past six decades. The Wallace brothers have many memories of their mom and dad volunteering for the Ellensburg Rodeo. Looking through the old photos, the brothers recall past rodeos, their own days as roping competitors, and the rodeo connections of their children and grandchildren those of their late sister Betty. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, the Wallace family history has been tightly woven into the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
The Frank Wallace family members are four-generation Kittitas Valley ranchers, horsemen, rodeo royalty, volunteers, and timed-event contestants who have contributed countless hours to furthering the traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
The Wallaces are descended from Scottish, English, and Swedish immigrants. When he was a small child, Frank Wallace (1914-1995) moved with his family from Roseburg, Oregon to the Yakima Valley to farm. Kathryn Glenn Wallace’s (1919-2009) parents had come to Washington state from Iowa and were bakers in Selah. Kathryn and Frank married in 1938 and moved to the northeastern corner of the Kittitas Valley from the Ahtaneum area of Yakima County in 1949. They farmed and ranched and raised their three children—Jack, Betty, and Steve—on a large cow-calf and hay ranch on the Vantage Highway. The Wallaces eventually bought a ranch on Lyons Road.
Frank Wallace’s first involvement with the Ellensburg Rodeo came as a young man, when he competed in the Stagecoach Races, a colorful and dangerous track event from the early days of the rodeo. An early 1950s member of the Kittitas County Roping Club (ERHOF inductees), Frank met rodeo board members Art Driver and Tex Taliaferro and soon became a rodeo volunteer himself. He worked in and around the arena from approximately 1953 to the mid-1980s, giving three and a half decades of service.
Mounted on his horse, Frank Wallace assisted stock contractors (including Harry Vold and Christensen Brothers, both ERHOF inductees) in the difficult business moving broncs and bulls into their pens and chutes and leading them out of the arena after each ride. In timed events, Frank supervised and conducted the important, time-consuming sorting of calves and steers prior to the rodeo and moving them into their event chutes and out of the arena. Jack and Steve Wallace recall their mom and dad literally “lived at the rodeo grounds” from the week before Labor Day Weekend until the following Tuesday.
Frank and Kathryn Wallace spent rodeo in their motor home, parked along the northeast track fence. Kathryn was a great cook and the Wallace RV kitchen was fully stocked. Longtime Ellensburg Rodeo Arena Director Dr. Ken Macrae (also an ERHOF Inductee) recalled, “Long before there was any thought of a hospitality room for the rodeo workers, Kathryn Wallace fed the entire arena crew lunch from her motor home before every rodeo performance.” There were also liquid refreshments.
Jack, Betty, and Steve Wallace carried on their parents’ volunteer spirit and love of the Ellensburg Rodeo. All three competed in junior rodeo. Jack enjoyed success as a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) calf roper. During the 1960s and 70s, Jack won many calf roping championships, including Omak, Billings, and Williams Lake (BC), and Coulee City, where he won in the team roping three times. Jack rode the rodeo circuit from Alberta to Houston with his mentor Jerry Anderson and won go-rounds (“day money”) in Calgary, Denver, and Fort Worth on his horse Skillet.
A farrier (horse-shoer) by trade, Jack volunteers at the Ellensburg Rodeo’s timed-event stock and the roping chutes and served for a decade on the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Board.
Jack’s younger brother Steve has owned and operated a family ranch on Fairview Road for 40 years and was a co-partner in the Ellensburg Livestock Exchange. Steve won the prestigious Kittitas County Calf Roping championship in ’69, ’70, and ’71 astride his horse Jake, and he successfully competed as a roper in both amateur rodeos and the PRCA, winning the calf roping championship buckles at Othello, Coulee City, Sand Point, Union, and other rodeos. In Joseph, Oregon, he and Ken Macrae won the team roping.
MacRae recalls that in the 1990s, “Steve Wallace and his sister Betty’s husband Dan Hull were all helping in the arena,” carrying on the Wallace volunteer tradition.
When Jack and Monica Wallace, Betty and Dan Hull, and Steve and Debbie Wallace began to raise their own families, a new generation of Wallaces entered the rodeo arena. Collectively, Julie (Jon) Blackmore, Ehrin Wallace, Jackie (Brian) Fenz, Shane and Shannon Hull, Michele Wallace Femrite, Lindsey (Ryan) Clark, and Ty Wallace boast records as past rodeo royalty (Julie was 1992 Ellensburg Rodeo Princess), junior rodeo competitors, PRCA ropers, and Kittitas County Roping Club and Kittitas County Barrel Racing Club members, and Ellensburg Rodeo volunteers.
And now a fourth generation of Wallaces–Beau, Ben, JT, Emmett, Gunner, Penny, Kayliana, Jalina, Cade, Cort, Coy, and Blayce–are, literally, “learning the ropes” from their parents and grandparents.
Back at that dining room table reminiscing about their decades-long involvement in rodeo, Jack and Steve Wallace happily recall their days as competitors. They laugh about the times they arrived to compete at a rodeo only to realize they had forgotten to enter, and the time Jack even forgot to enter them in Ellensburg. They recall their mad dashes traveling hundreds of miles to get from one rodeo to another in time for their events. And they remember the time Steve and Sam Kayser were escorted into Ty Valley, Oregon by a police car, lights flashing and siren blaring, driven by a policeman who had decided to help the cowboys out rather than write them a speeding ticket!
“The Wallace family members have been closely associated with the Ellensburg Rodeo since father Frank Wallace volunteered in the mid-1950s,” Dr. MacRae noted. “This family has been and still is extremely dedicated to the Ellensburg Rodeo. They are great people and great friends.”
Inducted in 1997

Wood’s greatest triumph was his ride on Midnight, one of the rankest broncs in the history of North American rodeo. Wood rode Midnight in Vancouver BC in 1927 (Midnight’s body is now buried on the grounds of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City). Wood later broke his leg riding broncs and turned exclusively to calf roping in the 1930s.
In Ellensburg, Frank Wood won the saddle broncs in ‘23 and ‘25, and the calf roping in ‘37. But, as noted, his main claim to fame is his All-Around title in the first-ever 1923 Ellensburg Rodeo. After that, locals always regarded him as a “Champion Buckaroo” and Wood briefly took advantage of his fame by opening a “riding academy” on the corner of 3rd and Main. Reportedly, numerous Normal School girls took riding lessons from Frank Wood in what they called his “Fashion Barn.” When he was not competing, Frank Wood served the rodeo as a volunteer pickup man.
Frank Wood
Frank Wood was the first All-Around Champion of the Ellensburg Rodeo. A native of Idaho, Wood moved to the Kittitas Valley in 1922 and worked as a ranch hand. He worked on the Phil Adams ranch (Adams later briefly served as arena director for the Ellensburg Rodeo) and worked for the Coffin brothers running sheep and cattle in the Wenas. Wood immediately gained a reputation around Ellensburg and the Pacific Northwest as a top hand and genuine buckaroo.
When he wasn’t running cattle and sheep, Frank Wood was rodeoing. Wood worked “both sides of the arena,” competing roping calves as well as riding saddle broncs. He was one of the finest bronc riders on the 1920s circuit, winning buckles in Pendleton, Calgary, Vancouver, BC, and other smaller rodeos.
Inducted in 1997

Larry Wyatt
Larry Wyatt was born a cowboy. Born and raised in the Kittitas Valley, he never much cared for school, instead preferring the pace and quiet of the semiarid hills surrounding Ellensburg or the tranquility of the Whiskey Dick. That’s where you would find hm, alone or in the cow camps, when he wanted time to think or whenever, as a youth there was trouble, at school or at home.
Larry started traveling the rodeo circuit a the age of thirteen with Ott McEwen and a few other local cowboys in th e1940s. That was back when there were still many competing Cowboy Turtles, the storied founders of today’s PRCA.
In the 1950s and 1960s (after a stint in the Army cavalry as a mule trainer) Larry’s passion took him all over the country, from rodeo to rodeo, traveling with famed cowboys like Gene Pruett, Bill Linderman, and other national champions. Larry was “goin’ down that road hard,” as he liked to say, working both ends of the arena. He successfully rode bulls, bareback broncs, and saddle broncs in addition to his renowned time-events, calf roping and steer wrestling. Larry’s real passion was steer wrestling atop his great horse Banjo; he also loved bareback riding. In all of the pictures you see of Larry he always had a big grin on his face–he loved his rodeos.
Larry Wyatt won many go-rounds, event titles, and All-Around Championships across the U.S and Canada, including Walla Walla and Stetler. He tied for the ‘66 Ellensburg bulldogging championship and, at the Omak Stampede, he won the steer wrestling buckle an amazing nine years in a row. Larry’s last rodeo was at Omak in 1983 where, on a bet from an old hand, he rode and was thrown from a bucking bronc. He got up with that characteristic grin on his face but his wife Donna remembers that night he could climb out of their car only with great difficulty.
In the meantime Larry and Donna became stock contractors, traveling the rodeo road and ultimately becoming pivotal players in the Canadian Pro Rodeo Circuit. They supplied horses for one Oklahoma City National Finals Rodeo and several of its Canadian equivalents in Calgary. They bought a ranch on Saddle Mountain, in the semiarid foothills Larry loved so well, and raised cattle, quarter horses, and rodeo stock (most notably the champion bronc Lady Lucky.) Larry also ran a taxi business, and he drove stagecoach in the Ellensburg Rodeo during his final years.
Larry’s beloved horse Banjo was buried near Old Highway 10 on the Wyatt ranch, where Larry was himself laid to rest in April of 1997.
War Paint
War Paint, the famed Christensen Brothers pinto bucking bronc, is a 2001 Inductee to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. War Paint was born in the late 1940s (no one is sure of the exact date) on Oregon’s Klammath Indian Reservation. Orie Summers sold him to Hank and Bob Christensen, Sr. (ERHOF ’99) at approximately three years of age.
They started the 1400 lb. gelding out as a bareback horse but moved him to saddles where, in the 1950s, he achieved world renown for his bucking prowess. In the year 1958, for example, War Paint appeared twenty-eight times, bucking off twenty-five of the riders. One rodeo historian wrote that many a bronc rider’s comment after “seeing the paint go was–‘That spotted horse is the one I want’–but generally, after a seat on him, they’d be out there checking their eyesight the next time they got a chance to see him go”!
War Paint was always a crowd pleaser in the Ellensburg Rodeo arena, where champion Deb Copenhaver (ERHOF ’99) noted “That pinto is a sure day-money horse. He just bucks hard and keeps trying.” Bobby and Hank Christensen retired War Paint at the 1964 Emerald Empire Roundup in their hometown of Eugene, Oregon. Today, War Paint’s body is displayed in the Pendleton Roundup Hall of Fame, where he is an honored animal Inductee.
Marty Wood
Although he gained fame as a saddle bronc rider, Marty Wood’s original burning ambition was to play professional baseball. When a shoulder injury diverted his attention from the baseball diamond, the youngster turned next on bareback bronc and bull riding. Indeed, it was not until he had rodeoed a year or two that Marty Wood focused exclusively on becoming one of professional rodeo’s all-time great saddle bronc riders.
Martin “Marty” Roy Wood was born May 4, 1933, in tiny Bowness, Alberta, Canada. His family ranched, and raised and trained jumping horses. Thus Marty developed much of his horse savvy, balance, and technique riding his dad’s jumping horses. His first professional rodeo competition came when he crossed the international border and entered the 1953 Malta (MT) Rodeo. Later that same year, he won the Saddle Bronc Championship in Omaha. Marty Wood was on his way to a twenty-one year career in professional rodeo.
Rodeo historian Fred Schnell stated in his book, The Suicide Circuit (1971) that Marty Wood’s “friends are many, but they admit he is a tough man to know.” Marty’s friend Arland Calvert, a ProRodeo Sports News writer, concurred, describing Wood the “dark, handsome Canadian” as a “dedicated loner” who “picks his own company.”
Marty Wood qualified for the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) fourteen times and won three World Saddle Bronc Championships (’58, ’64, ’66). He was Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Saddle Bronc runner-up four times and won the Canadian Saddle Bronc championship three times. Among his many event and all-around championships were multiple victories at the Calgary, Cheyenne, Madison Square Garden, San Francisco Cow Palace, Fort Worth, Houston, Salinas, Boston Garden, and Oklahoma City rodeos.
In Ellensburg, Marty Wood was a dominant force for a decade. Following the heyday of ERHOF bronc riding Inductees Casey Tibbs and Deb Copenhaver, Wood won a great deal of day money and averages in Ellensburg. He won ‘the Saddles’ outright three times (’57, ’58, and ’67), placing him among the Ellensburg Rodeo’s greatest bronc riding competitors.
At the peak of his career, Marty Wood began to diversify his professional endeavors, exhibiting a business sense that equaled his bronc riding skills. He trained horses and became a pioneer in organizing, marketing, and teaching “bronc riding school.” Wood ran his school in partnership with ERHOF Inductee stock contractor Harry Vold on Vold’s famed Fowler, Colorado ranch. According to a 1971 Western Horseman article, Marty’s teaching style included everything “but riding side saddle” with his students!
Marty Wood competed and won consistently for two decades, evincing impressive longevity in the brutal roughstock game. It was only because of severe injuries that Wood retired in 1974. Throughout the 1953-1973 period he suffered through seven broken legs, three fractures of each of his feet and ankles, plus broken ribs and a broken collarbone. A multiple break in 1974 proved to be the last straw.
In the three decades since his retirement Wood has divided his time between the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, training quarter and thoroughbred horses for jumping and racing. He loves carpentry and fishing for trout in his old Alberta and British Columbia haunts.
Marty Wood now adds membership in the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame to an impressive resume, which includes induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame (‘92), Canadian Hall of Fame for Rodeo (’93), and Alberta Hall of Fame for Sports (’94).
Yakima Indian Nation
The people of the Yakama Indian Nation have lived for centuries on the Columbia Plateau of what is now central and southeastern Washington State. The Yakama were hunting and gathering people, traversing the Columbia Plateau in search of the venison, salmon, berries, and roots that were their mainstay. They developed a council form of leadership and elaborate rituals that evinced their spirituality and intimate connection with the natural world.
In the late eighteenth century, the Yakama Indians adapted horses from the Plains Indians, who had adapted them from the Spaniards.
The Yakamas soon became expert horsemen, a skill that brought them great success in hunting and in warfare. After the Indian Wars of the mid-nineteenth century, many Yakama Indians made a difficult transition to reservation life. Some of them took up cattle ranching, replacing their mounted hunting and gathering lifestyle with that of the mounted cowboy culture. Horsemanship is a trait that influences Yakama culture to this day.
The Yakama Nation in general, and the Wanapum and Kittitas bands in particular, were crucial shapers of the nineteenth century history of Kittitas Valley frontier. To the Yakamas the word “Kittitas” meant a “land where there was plenty of food.” They annually trekked on horseback to the Kittitas Valley in early Fall–the season non-Indians call “Indian Summer”–to gather food and stage tribal gatherings. As late as the early 20th century, Yakama Indians continued the September horseback trek to Ellensburg, living in temporary tepee encampments around the valley, hunting and gathering food, and gathering together for rituals and ceremonies. In the 1920s, when Kittitas Valley residents began to plan the first Ellensburg Rodeo, many believed the Yakamas should be invited to play an important role in that event. Thus in 1923, Dr. H.E. Pfenning negotiated the historic role that the Yakama people have played in the Ellensburg Rodeo to this day.
Over the past 75 years, thousands of Yakamas have taken part in the Ellensburg Rodeo. These include Chiefs Jobe Charley, George Weanito, Bert and Celia Totus, and Johnson and Alvina Menenick. Other important family names are Heemsah, Eagle Salatsee, SoHappy, Benson, Onepenny, Sampson, and Wackwack and many, many more. In 1982 the Rodeo Board honored the Onepenny, Watson, Totus, and George families for their quarter-century of annual encampments at the Indian village. Today, Rex Buck, Jr., one of the last members of the Wanapum band, organizes and conducts the activities of the Yakama Indian village. He is aided by Allen Aronica, whose family, the Nasons, are legendary Kittitas Valley Indian residents and rodeo participants.
The Yakama Indian Nation’s role in the Ellensburg Rodeo is three-fold. First, the Yakamas always encamp near the rodeo grounds, recreating a tepee village like those of their hunter/gatherer forbearers. Second, Yakama Indian cowboys compete in the rodeo itself; for seven and half decades Yakamas have demonstrated impressive horsemanship and cowboy skills in both timed and roughstock competitions. One prime example is the wild horse race, an event which always attracts top Yakama Indian bronc busting teams.
Third, and perhaps most important, the Yakamas perform the ritual which commences every Ellensburg Rodeo. The rodeo begins with Indians performing traditional dances in the arena. Then, as the announcer tells their history to the rodeo crowd, mounted Yakama horsemen ride down Craig’s Hill into and across the rodeo arena. The announcer tells of the Indians’ annual trek to the Kittitas Valley each fall as that trek is acted out by the Indians riding down Craig’s Hill. The Yakamas enter the rodeo arena and pass before the crowd, riding fully adorned in tribal dress. As they exit the arena near the calf roping chutes, the crowd breaks into applause. Only after this ritual does the first bronc burst out of the chute and the Ellensburg Rodeo continue. In the early days only male Indian elders–some of whom had been alive before the reservation system and during the Indian Wars–made the horseback trek down Craig’s Hill. These men were highly honored by their tribesmen and their annual ride into the Ellensburg Rodeo arena became an important ritual to them. The flame of this tradition is alive today.