CHAPTER SIX

RODEOS

Copyrighr 1.986 by HolJyfo Ann Harer fBeers)Reproduced on ttre City of Ukiah website wlttr

permission from the author.

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THE CA!1AS PRAIRIE COi\rB0Y(:ONVENT I ON

The Camas Prairie CowboyConvent ion held it's first ro-deo July 4, L92I. The Conven-tion was the brainchild of }fr.Albert Peterson, who s€rved asitrs first president and wasactive in that capac ity untilhis death.

Shares were s o1d at $5.00each in the Convention. Thecertificate on the next page isone of the original shares andwas s o1d to Joe Zipperer.

At first the rodeo was heldin an arena s ituated in the o-pen field where the boxcars nowsit. This is on the right asyou go south out of Ukiah onthe new Ukiah-Granite highway.It was quite a large arena andgrandstands were also built bythose involved. The grandstandwas approxinately 250 feet inlength and had around 10 benchtype seats which ran the l.engthof the entire structure. Awooden fence about 4 feet highran in front of the grandstand

COWBOYS AND FREE-FOR-ALLS

A few of the entrants list-ed in the 1929 program were BillMcPherson, John Porter, George W

Caldwell and Arden Gi11i1and inthe free-for-a11 race.

In the 1O Cowboy's Re1ay,each rider had to have 3 horsesin the charge of two holders, oneto hold; one to catch. The riderhad to saddle, unsaddle, nount &dismount unassisted. Those en-tered included Frank Swaggart &Ad Moore, Gerald Swaggart & C 1ayPorter.

There was a1s o a Steer Ilav-erick Fre e -For-A11 which of f ereda purse of $5.00, Twenty tothirty men all tried to rope abig Texas longhorn steer ownedbyAlbert Peterson, ft was reportedn)ore cowboys were roped more of-ten than the steer wasl

No chutes were used in theseearly days rodeos. The buckingstock was just "snubbed up" inthe arena and when the cowboy wasready, or more usua11y, ALMOSTready, they I d turn hin loose.

Foot races were al so a partof the day and a baseball ganewas always held prior to the ro-deo.

Some of the riders recalledfrom these early days & describ-ed as "awfu11y tough" were GeorgeFletcher, Tony Vey, Jack Terry ,Arthur McRoberts, Albert petersonand Kenne th De pew. An f ndi anby the name of John l,orenz wasalso noted and he owned a ranchon owens Creek on the way to 41-bee.

Cowboy Jack Terry once beta bunch of Pendleton cowboys thathe could ride the fanous buckinghorse "No Nar-ne" for $10 per junp,The cowboys bet he couldn,t UutTerry rode 19 junps before beingthrown and ended up kinda richby the tine it was all over. Ittook a Ukiah cowboy to shor^r 'eml

and the officials booth satin front of it on high stilts.

The Camas Prairie CowboyConvent ion was an incorporatedrodeo organization. "The co1-orful nane was apparently hitupon in a desire to have anique narne for the rodeo,

u-in

keeping with the tines." To sonany people the tiny comnunityof Ukiah was the site of a tru-1y we st ern annual rodeo.

OFFICIALS IN THE CPCC

In 7929 the directors in-cluded Peterson as president,George Cal.dwe11 as vice-pres i-d ent, and Arthur McRobert s asthe secretary-treasurer. 0therofficers were W. H. ScrogginrJ.D. Kirk and Walt Blackburn.

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Snubbin em up at the Carnas Prairie Cowboy Convention

The Pack Horse race, CPQC,. L922

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Winners in the "Bucking Contestl

CALDWELL BECOMES PRESIDENT-1932

GeorE€ Ca1dwe11 became thepresident of the Camas PrairieCowboy Convention in 1932, afterAlbert Peterson's death. RuthPeterson was vice-president andMcRoberts rernained secretary,

Sorne of those entered inthe 1932 rodeo were Frank & Ger-a1d Swaggart, Francis and ArdenGi11i1and, J.W. & ceo. Chemaultalong with Ken DePew, Pat Fisk,Lloyd De?ew, Bud Colvin, StubJohnson, Max Gi1liland, Red Lev-erenz, Joe Pedro, Tony Vey, ArtMann and many others.

There were nany races backin the early days including onefree-for-a11, the s add 1e horserace, a pony express, a Shetlandpony race, a slow race for drafthorses, the boy's pony race, acowboyrs re1ay, the once aroundthe track race and the Ukiah 4Mil e Derby I

The only two events whichwere not races riere the "buckincontest" and calf rop ing.

The CPCC program of 1933listed 3 women and L nan as con-testants in the Slow Race---for

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A.J. Vey, Ed Hughes, Bud Waltonand Bob Fletcher. Also listedwere Bud Colvin, Braden Gerkingand B. W. Baker along with JoePedro.

fn the Bucking Contest BuckColvin, Eldon Michae], Floyd Ar-bogast, and Enory Moore vied 9others for the noney.

JOANNE PEDRO IS QUEEN- 1935

The L4th annual Ukiah Rodeowas a two day event held on July3rd and 4th. Joanne Pedro wasQueen of the event and her at-tendants included Dorene Peter-son, Barbara Beck, Bi11y Jean !lud-dleston, A11an Johnson & A11anPorter.

The events included manyofthe usual races plus 2 new onesca11ed the "Musical Rope Race &the Quarter Mlle Dash. A Head& Heel event was also held andI assurne that would be known asteam roping today.

Many of the entTants werethe sane as those listed in theprevious years. A few new namesappear such as V. C. Moore, MickHelmick, Bertha ci-11iLand, VierHaLe, Dillard French and RobertStiLlnan.

draft horses on1y. They wereE1La Pedro, Theres a Nelson, andRuth Peterson.

Twenty-one men entered thecal"f-roping conpet it ion includ-

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FLETCHER I S TAKE OVER CPCC

In 1934 Mr.& Mrs. R.A. BobFLetcher bought out the CamasPrairie Cowboy's Convention andorganized shows for 6 nore Jrears.

FL etcher was also noted forhis cowboy orchestra which play-ed for many of the dances heLdin Ukiah after the rodeos.

1939 or L940 marked theend of the annual rodeors in U-kiah, at least for a time. TheCowboy Convention had lastedal-most 20 years and saw a lot oflocaL cowboys try to win on thebucking bronco's. Of course, Ihave heard te1l that the broncswere "much tougher and ornerierin those days", and you surehad to know how to ride (espec-ial1y with no chutes !)

Hinton on',Crook" Uk i ah, Oregon r922

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Mary Bott of Pendleton

THE EVERGREEN RIDING CLUB-Rodeo' s of A New Era

After a lapse of alnost 10years a rodeo association viasonce again started in Ukiah. TheEvergreen Riding C 1ub held it'sfirst annual rodeo in 1950.

The 1956 rodeo court con-sisted of Queen Connie Gi11i1.and ,and Princesses Nan Walton andSusan Rhinehart.

fn the 1961 prograrn the clubsoficials are listed as presidentLss Iiynan, V. P, John Jordan andMrs. Cl ifford Clark-secretary.

Directors included CliffordClaTk, Cleve Hinton, Wayne Corleyand Dick Brehn. A1so, Jack Ram-os and Mrs. Les l{ynan.

The Queen that year wasBarbara Moore f rol-n I{ern j ston ,Sandra Tol1e s on of Ukiah and

Duane Beers of Pendl eton rodePunpkin Ridge in bareback andalso tried the Brahma cor^rs.

Ron Colcord, also of Pend-leton rode the Brahna cows.

In al l, there were about52 cowboys vying for the purseoffered in 1961.

The Evergreen Riding C 1ubrodeo Inras an annual event forseveral years and was approvedby the National Rodeo Associa-tion. lt featured f:ve nainevents and races were also heldand were open to all riding clubnernbers, The rodeo was a nrajorhappening in Ukiah and cowboyscane fron all over the north-west to conpete.

The rodeo grounds for theEverBreen R id ing Club were notthe sane as th€ arena used forthe Canas Prairie Cowboy Con-vention. It was held out nearowens Creek north of Ukiah andthen nore northest of Ukiah,on the lqay to the Brehm thick-et.

POSTSCRIPTS

1, 1952 was the Lst year theEvergreen Rid ing C 1ub held therodeo out by the Johnson placeon the road to the Dixie Ranchand the rodeo court that yearincluded Lorel ie H int on, ElnorRice and Shirley Mil.1er.

2. A rider naned Shor:ty Wag-ener r4'as injured during one ofthe rodeos held out by owens Crkand was taken to the hospital.

Thinking Shorty was allright he was re leas ed from thedoctor's care. I{ithin a dayor sorhowever, he was dead frona broken neck.

wereprtncesses.

Local entrants in the ro-deo in 1961 were Pilot Rock cow-boys Fred I{yatt, who roped hiscalf in 42 seconds. Mike Hat-1ey, who rnissed his ca1f, & ArtScott. Leland cibbs tied hiscalf in 27 seconds and Big JinItichael rnissed. Leonard Hals-ey was thrown off the barebackhorse named "Rowdy. "

Conpet i tors fron the Ukiaharea included brothers Me1 andCl iff Picard. Mel was thrownoff Little Anerica & Cliff a1-so bit the dust, of Red Dust,that is. Eddie Brehm had nobet t er luck in the Brahna Cowriding, Forest Rhinehart, Jr.was thrown frorn the back of ahorse ea11ed Rubberneck in thebare back conrpetition but rodehis Brahna c ow,

Ron Currin, Heppner, hada 27.5 second tirne in calf rop-ing and Fred Livingston of LongCreek roped a calf in 45.8 sec-onds.

Bill Colvin of Long Creekwas thrown in the saddle broncsection fron o1d Snorty Buck.

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L952

1. to r.: ELnor Rice Beers,

Rodeo

I-orelie

Court

Hinton Rice, ShirLey Mi L 1er

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The Fletcher pl-ace s outh of Ukiah

R. A. "Bob" Fletcher andRuth Peterson were narried in1-935. They operated the U. S.Bar Ranch in Ukiah. The rnainoperation of the ranch $as cat-tle but the ranch housenras madewith tinber taken fron the prop-erty in L913.

Mrs. Fletcher deve loped atechnique for using pine need-Les to make unusual baskets. Shewas also an ardent collector ofantiques and Indian artifacts,such as clocks, old telephonesand Indian p araphernal ia.

The Fletcher's had 2 sonsand MTs. FLetcher had a daugh-ter fron a previous narriage,Mrs. Dorene AyaT s of Ukiah.Thesons nanes are Bob, Jr. & BillFletcher.

Fletcher was involved inHappy Canyon for about 40 yearsbefore being e1-ected pre s identof the show in 1963. He hadpreviously appeared in the showat a young age, then taking o-ver as sheriff in L946. He wasthe show's director for 7 yearsbefore taking over the job aspresident. Bob has now beenactive in the Round-Up for a-bout 60 years.

Mrs. Fletcher was in chargeof the nake-up room for the

cast for many years.Their two sons carried on

the trad it ion of their fatherand grandfather as they becamemore involved in Happy Canyonand the Round-Up in Pendle'ton.

Fletcher was aLso a pastpresident of the Unatill-a Coun-ty Fair and the famiiy was in-volved heavil,y in 4-H.

' fn 1935 the Camas PraitieCowboy Convention lists an ad-vertisenent for a "Vacation atthe U.S. Bar Ranch, Ukiahr0r."

"Here you can find the restand relaxation you have alwayswanted, and sti11 keep activetso that time never hangs heav-i1y. " "...reaL Western people,on a real Western cattle ranch

-...with "riding, hunt ing r swirn-rning, fishing, dancing.... andin winter, skating, skiing, to-bogganning & o1d fashioned sleighrides. "

Bob, Sr., was also notedfor his rnusical ability & hisorchestra. In an East oregon-ian arti cle dated May 21, 1935TT-says that "Bob Fletcherrthemanager of Fletcher's Round-Up0rchestra, has secuted a power-fuL pubLic address amplifyingsound equipnent systern whi^chwill be used in connection rn'ith

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his orchestra and band engage-ments, al so for announcingretcat rodeos and other outdoor e-vents. "

"Upcoming e nga g ernent s in-cluded the Stanfield Rodeo, theEastern oregon Stock Show atUnion, the UmatiLLa County Pi-oneer Picnic at Weston" Forseveral years Fletcher's b andalso played at the dances heldafter the Ukiah Rodeo's, "JazzGu1ch."

Ruth Fletcher passed awayin recent years but Bob sti11Tesides at the U.S. Bar Ranch,due south of Ukiah by the banksof ?ine Creek.

Ruth & Bob Fl-etcher

Ruth Peterson Fletcher

Fl etcher & Sons