SPECIAL SECTION

The stockyards, seen here in 1976, were the destination for adventurous young men who traveled to the National Western in rail cars with their livestock. FROM GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY TO : The National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and Horse Show – 1956 to 1981

Keith and Cheryl Chamberlain up as she remembers. “We visited all the turned itself over to the Stock Show. animal exhibits including the rabbits. I Everybody talked about it at school; NOTE: This is the third in a series of four bought one and the person gave me a everybody wore western clothes for a articles recounting the colorful history of the shoe box and we poked holes in it and I week. It was just really a big deal.” National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and carried the little baby bunny rabbit home Summing it up for many, Denver Post Horse Show, which celebrates its 100th on the city bus.” It was the start of a four- columnist Red Fenwick wrote in 1958, anniversary in 2006. year rabbit raising venture and a life long “Don’t you just love Stock Show time? Old affection for the Stock Show. Denver’s always all a ‘twinkle and Gussied ots of folks have a special Renee, whose business these days up like a schoolmarm at the Saturday childhood memory from the includes running horse shows at the night shindig. It’s wonderful. It’s Western.” National Western. For Renee National Western, isn’t alone in her One way the city gussied up was by L Elkins it’s a bunny in a shoebox. “I fondness for the show. Recalling Denver’s keeping the Christmas lights burning at was 12 years old and had gone down to reaction to the January extravaganza in the Civic Center, a tradition begun in 1945 the National Western with my 1950s, Sandy Dennehey, a longtime horse that continues today. The Denver grandfather,” she says, her eyes lighting exhibitor here, says, “The city sort of Chamber of Commerce ran special Stock 2005 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW • 1 Show trains from Colorado from his family ranch in Springs and Cheyenne and Manning, Iowa, recounts the businesses welcomed out-of- time his crew got caught in a town guests with special sales. snowstorm in McCook, According to a fanciful news Nebraska. “It held the train up report of the era, local eateries for a day and that was a cold welcomed stockmen by putting ride. My brother and I learned more hat racks in the lobby, an awful lot on that trip. Thanks more shot glasses on the bar and to a few other people who were more ketchup on the tables. freighting out by rail we were Chefs cut down on the salads able to get some warm coffee and whomped up more French and into a warm place once in a fries. It was said that the high- while.” Stanley Stout’s crew booted guests didn’t care about brought “plenty of blankets, a price, they wanted their meat in very, very heavy coat and a lot of chunks right off the critter and longhandles.” served thick and rare. For the Some fortified themselves in Stockmen’s Ball, Denverites other ways. “We always donned their fanciest western brought a half-gallon of wine get-ups to mingle with their ‘cause water could freeze if you rural cousins. Inaugurated in got in one of them storms,” 1957 with Montie Montana and says Seibert. “You didn’t want Rex Allen entertaining, the ball to be without something to was a highlight of Stock Show drink.” Arrival in the yards was season for 15 years. exciting. Rex laughs and tells of a friend whooping it up. “He Ridin’ the Rails was up in the engine with the Sitting on a bale of straw in a engineer, driving that thing stockyards pen and soaking up and pulling levers and making the brilliant January sun, they it whistle and really making smile when they recall riding the rails Yearling Hereford bulls from the powerhouse our arrival noticeable.” Outfits that sold with their cattle in days gone by. Kenneth C-K Ranch parade before watchful eyes in all their cattle at the Stock Show could Eppers, who began traveling with the the yards in this 1959 scene. “ride the cushions” going home. Paul Northern Pump Company’s show string Peterson of La Jara, Colorado, recalls in the late 1950s, recalls, “We would load an old time icebox that you’d put a his first caboose ride. “I was just a little on Saturday noon and the railroad would chunk of ice in and it would be good for boy and it was all night. Oh, I was switch us around until sometime during two or three days until we needed tired! Those old guys smoking cigars Saturday night. We were always in the another chunk. We even had a gas and drinking a little and it was all the Denver stockyards ready to unload on generator and an electric skillet. We were old ranchers from down there [at the Monday morning.” Stanley Stout, a top kind of the envy of the guys on the Stock Show].” SPECIAL SECTION auctioneer at the National Western these railroad,” he says with a smile. Seibert’s In spite of the rigors, Gene Wiese days, had a two-day trip from Brookville, crew used a car battery to power lights says, “it was still a lot of fun and I’ve Kansas, with C-K Ranch bulls. during the long evenings. “We also had loved the railroads ever since.” Stout Another C-K hand, Rex Seibert, our water barrel up there with a faucet so sums it up for many of those young explains the particulars of traveling with we could water the cattle. We always men when he says, “These guys on the livestock. “We always tied the cattle to carried our own sleeping bag and that’s roads today never got to do that and I’m the right-hand side of the boxcar. That where we slept. You know, you’d be very fortunate that I did. It was a free way we could keep the left-hand doors surprised, you’d ride on them rails and spirit way to travel.” wide open [to keep the cattle from bouncing and everything, it just put you getting too hot]. We just put some boards to sleep.” Busy Times in the Yards across there in case the cattle got loose. “Most of the time it was very, very cold About the first thing long time They couldn’t get out and we couldn’t fall going across Iowa and Kansas,” exhibitors will tell you is how big and out. We fed in the boxcar, we carried remembers Eppers. Merle Mills, recalls, busy the stockyards were half a century most all of our own grain and some hay.” “Oh, it was just cold in there. You could ago. “These yards were really loaded,” An elevated wooden deck at the front ride in the caboose, but in a lot of cases it recalls Paul Peterson, who’s been of the car provided living quarters for the was colder there than it was in the car coming to the Stock Show since he was crews. Stout and his companions, who with the heat of the animals.” Gene a boy of 10. Perry Blach, another traveled an extended show circuit, “had Wiese, who railroaded bulls to Denver veteran, says “When I started bringing 2 • 2005 National Western Stock Show SPECIAL SECTION

Perry Blach, right, had good reason to smile in 1967 after selling 51 Hereford bulls to power shopper E. Paul Waggoner, left. Dale Richardson, commission agent for John Clay and Company, helped smooth negotiations. Photo courtesy of Perry Blach. bulls to Denver in 1952 there would be Rex Seibert. “For five or six years they that Northern Pump meant business. from 2,500 to 3,000 head come in for had grand loads.” Rex worked Their first two carloads of yearling bulls private treaty sales.” for the C-K Ranch of Brookfield, Kansas, came to Denver in 1957 and one placed Denver was “the place to be,” for the another legendary competitor. seventh among 62 carloads. Northern Wiese family, who have been selling at the Then there was John B. Holly’s Pump showed until 1977, winning two Stock Show for 55 years. “This is where Northern Pump Company. Holly got his carload grand champions, one of which business took place and that was the start making bombs and bullets for the was the first from east of the Mississippi, purpose of coming– to conduct business.” Navy in World War II, but it was stumpy and many other honors as well. “The Gene calculates his family has sold over a cattle that got him into the Hereford National Western was our basic,” says million dollars’ worth of cattle, semen and business. In the 1940s and ‘50s the goal Eppers. “That was the only place that we embryos here. Three generations of Mark was to produce animals with short legs so showed carloads.” Mills’ St. Francis, Kansas, family have sold less growth was wasted on unmarketable Bull buyers at the National Western Hereford bulls at the show. “We’ve missed body parts. Holly was appalled by the ran the gamut from modest, family- only two years since 1920, and since 1930 occasional dwarfism that resulted. owned ranches to gigantic corporate we haven’t missed a year.” he says proudly. Kenneth Eppers, who showed bulls for operations. “In those days the ranchers “Nobody down here can touch that.” They Holly at the National Western for 20 would come in with their calves or brought big strings, with a single-year high years, explains: “He bought some heifers yearlings for the market and after they of 98. Ranch records show they sold over and took them to a little bitty farm he got their money they’d come down and 1,700 bulls at the Stock Show between had next to the ordnance plant in buy their bulls to take back home,” 1942 and 1983 alone. Minneapolis and got several dwarf calves. explains Seibert. At the other end of the Some outfits loom large in stockyards He decided that he was going devote his spectrum were the heavyweights. “The lore. The ones to beat in those days in the money and lifetime to ridding Hereford yards were where you’d see the big carlot [judging] was the Wyoming cattle of dwarfs.” Holly bought a larger ranchers from Texas, Colorado and New Hereford Ranch out of Cheyenne,” says spread in Illinois and it was soon clear Mexico,” says Stanley Stout. In yards lore, 2005 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW • 3 Continental breeds like this1979 Grand Champion Simmental bull made their first appearance at the National Western in the mid-1960s, changing the look of the cattle show and the quality of the beef on America’s tables.

a gentleman from the Lone Star State was the only show where he bought bulls and we didn’t think it was quite what we towers over all other buyers. and at $1,000 each, he typically took wanted, so he left and in the meantime we home 100. He set the market and it was sold 10 or 12 out of what he was looking The Man From Texas everybody’s dream to sell to E. Paul at. He came back about an hour later and E. Paul Waggoner was the most Waggoner. He arrived in Denver early, says, ‘Well, I guess I’ll just take them.’ SPECIAL SECTION influential bull buyer in the 1950s and toured the pens and bought all his bulls When we told him we’d already sold those ‘60s. When he came to Denver his the day before the show opened. he was angry and he wouldn’t buy nothing entourage occupied an entire floor at the According to Tuell, “His son-in-law John then. The next year he forgot about it,” says Brown Palace. “He was very much a Biggs looked after him, and them two, Mills, who sold bulls to Waggoner for years character,” recalls Eppers. Roger Tuell, whatever they wanted, you did, ‘cause and speaks well of him. longtime exhibitor and chairman of the you wanted to sell. We’d sell 30, 40, 50 Former Waggoner Ranch manager Fed Beef Contest, agrees. “He was a classy bulls in one whack and everybody G.L. Proctor of Vernon, Texas, says, “He dresser. He wore a scarf with a diamond wanted to get Mr. Biggs and ol’ Paul didn’t just buy from one feller. He’d kind stickpin right in the middle of it. Silver Waggoner into their pen.” of split it up and get different breeding in hair.” Another bull man smiles, “I “He wanted to be the first in the pen,” his bulls. We got our pick of whatever we wouldn’t say he dressed clear out of this says Perry Blach of Yuma, who often sold to wanted. He always wanted to be first at world, but he didn’t wear bib overalls, Waggoner. “If you’d sold one bull out of the anything he done, but he was a pretty put it that way.” batch, he wouldn’t even look at the rest.” nice old feller.” Proctor adds, “The old The Waggoner Ranch in Texas was the Consequently, most outfits wouldn’t sell man that run the ranch ahead of me, nation’s biggest spread under one fence anything until Waggoner had been through; Tony Hazlewood, was quite an old cow and when the larger-than-life Waggoner a lesson Merle Mills learned the hard way. man and he knew his cattle pretty good. arrived, it sent a wave of excitement “One time he came down and he made us So he would go with Mr. Waggoner through the yards. The National Western an offer for a dozen or something like that before me so he had pretty good trainin’.” 4 • 2005 National Western Stock Show Kenneth Eppers recalls, “He had four or five commission men that went with him and they would recommend what bulls for him to look at and they’d drive them out in the aisle and he’d take a quick look and just say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Make an offer and that was it. It was no big dickering deal with him. He knew what he wanted and what he was going to pay.” Tuell adds, “If you could get E. Paul in to look at your bulls, you never wanted to tell him what you wanted for them or anything. You didn’t want to ask him any questions– just open up and run them out and let him look at them. You didn’t try to convince him. Nope. If anything I believe it would probably tick him off a little if you tried to persuade him on things.” One day in the early 1960s Waggoner SPECIAL SECTION came into Perry Blach’s enclosure after a visit to the C-K Ranch pens and sat down on a bale of straw. “He sat there just National Western General Manager Willard Simms, left, and stockyards manager Charlie stewin,’” recalls Blach. The C-K, another Kirk examine carcass entries in the Fed Beef Contest, which began in 1964. of his regular suppliers, had raised their prices. With the miffed Texan fuming, years,” says Kenneth Eppers. “That the haggling this way: “You’d say what Blach gently suggested, “’I’ve got 52 bulls carload Hereford bull show was just you wanted, and they’d say, ‘Well, I just here and there’s not a bad bull among where everybody went. Then on can’t do that,’ and next they’d say, ‘Well, ‘em. He wanted to see ‘em out in the Sunday, the calves and the champion maybe if I buy another 10 head what alley,” says Perry, whose heart must have bulls were shown.” would you do?’ or they’d say ‘I have a skipped a beat along about then. Blach Another highlight came about half neighbor that’s going to be in here in a had a couple of herd prospects he hadn’t way through the show’s nine-day run day or two and I want him to look at intended to sell but Waggoner wanted when ranchers brought in their steer and these, too.’ Then the two of them would one in order to clinch the deal. “Of heifer calves for the commercial cattle get together and try to buy 20 or 30 course, he picked the best one,” chuckles show and sale. Feedlots bought the larger from you. You pay attention pretty Blach. Waggoner bought 51 bulls. “As far ones, about half the total, while the quick, because there’s a lot of difference as I know, I still hold the record for lighter animals went to outfits that took in selling 10 and selling 30.” selling the most bulls to one buyer at the them home to grass pastures for more The hectic pace sometimes led to National Western,” says Blach. An era growth. The carload feeder calf sale was embarrassing goofs. “The worst thing I ended when Waggoner departed Denver’s known as the Bellringer for the practice ever did,” Francis Rogers admits with a yards for the last time in 1965. of ringing a bell when the auctioneer sheepish smile, “was one time a buyer brought the hammer down. Lee Sheard, came in and I sold him three or four bulls Arm Twisters and Hay Shakers who was a livestock agent for the half- and I didn’t write it down. I thought I In the 1950s and early ‘60s, the yards dozen railroads shipping from Denver, could remember.” Another rancher came show had to be squeezed into the Denver remembers an especially big one. “Forty along and Rogers sold him one of those Livestock Market’s already-bustling double-deck carloads of feeder cattle, 90 same bulls. To patch things up with the operation, which stayed in full swing head to a car, went out of here in one first fellow, Rogers says, “I gave him until just two days before the show night after a Bellringer,” he recalls. another bull and he’s been buying from opened. Then, pens were emptied and Most bulls changed hands in private me ever since.” cleaned and aisles were washed down. By arrangements between seller and buyer Most of the larger outfits had Thursday, show cattle, which had been after some gentlemanly negotiation. herdsmen to care for their show string. temporarily stalled in outlying pens, were Francis Rogers, who along with his wife They called themselves hay shakers, turd brought up to enclosures nearer Mary has been selling Angus bulls at the pitchers and brush hands, but herdsmen the Livestock Exchange Building. show for over half a century, says, “You were crucial. They rode the rails with Buyers were so for a look at the just try your best to be a salesman and their cattle and lived with them at the year’s offerings that many showed up on brag up everything you’ve got and hope show, putting in days that began well Wednesday or Thursday. The yearling you can make a sale. But,” he adds with before sunup and sometimes ended in bull show on Saturday opened the Stock a wry smile, “you don’t get ‘em down the wee hours of morning. Show. “That was the main event in those and ‘rassle ‘em.” Merle Mills describes Early mornings, before the yards got 2005 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW • 5 busy, saw a parade of bulls driven up and down the long alleys for exercise. The animals constantly needed fresh water and feed and the pens had to be bedded with straw and kept clean. Not many outfits did much grooming in those days, but for those that did there was extra work. “It didn’t make any difference how cold it was, you still had to wash the bulls and get them cleaned up,” says Rex Seibert. Cattle from the Western Slope arrived with soot on their backs from the ride through the Moffat Tunnel and needed a wash job. The days were full and evening brought another round of chores: feed and fresh water, a final cleaning of display pens after the animals had been led to nighttime tie outs. When the herdsmen could finally kick up their heels a bit, the Exchange Bar in the Livestock Exchange Building was a popular spot. A place for a hot cup of Crossbreeding transformed winning steers at the National Western between the Golden coffee and a warm-up during the day, it Anniversary and the Diamond Jubilee. It’s a long way from Dorothy Fae Siehl’s thousand- got livelier when darkness fell. Frank pound Grand Champion, a Hereford, in 1956… Padilla, a livestock judge at the National Western now, started out showing remember one year out here, the warmest Company went bust. The historic pens carloads of Hereford bulls here in 1972 it got in the daytime was 10 below zero,” fell silent for good in 1978. Without and recalls a special customer in the bar. says Rex Seibert. Bob Milligan may be facilities to handle the cattle carload show “There was a group talking and pretty recalling that same year when he says, “I the National Western would be “just soon this fella’ from Nebraska disappears sold to Waggoners one year and it was 10 another stock show,” so the association and next thing you know he’s got a below zero. They took those bulls out of started buying the vacated yards. It began Hereford bull coming up the stairs. He the pen and put them through the dipping in 1969 with a three-acre purchase on the brings the bull in, everybody tries to buy vat ‘cause all the bulls going to Texas had Hill and within a decade the National the bull a drink and we kind of hooted to be dipped. I saw them coming down Western owned much of the former and hollered for a little bit and then he the alley, ice hanging off of them and one livestock market. In the mid-’70s the old leaves with the bull.” bull had broke a horn off. You wouldn’t yards got a $100,000 facelift that Sleeping arrangements were often a bit even recognize them.” included 1,750 gallons of red, white and casual. “We had our bedroll and we slept Until 1967, sales and judging were blue paint. Packing House Road became in the pens,” recalls Stanley Stout. “After conducted in the long alley running the National Western Drive. you tied your cattle out at night, you’d length of the yards. “We saw bull sales Affairs in the stockyards continue to SPECIAL SECTION redo their stall and bed down yourself out there and it would be snowing so be a big part of the Stock Show and each right there in the straw.” Others found hard you couldn’t see from one end of the January they once again fill with cattle. lodging on the Hill. “We slept in the barn yards to the other,” recalls Milligan. The buzz of activity offers visitors a where the show animals were tied,” Stanley Stout remembers cattle shows in window on a historic era and rekindles recalls Kenneth Eppers. “It wasn’t so the yards when “they paraded them down memories for folks who knew the yards cold.” The show barns on the Hill were before the judges with snow on their in their prime. gathering places at all hours, he says. “In backs and on the fur coats of the ladies those days, it seemed like you could go that owned them.” Cattle sales finally The Continentals Arrive through those barns until ten o’clock at came indoors when the Livestock Center, Nearly half the cattle shown when the night and sit down and talk to cattle with its 500-seat auction arena, opened National Western celebrated its Golden breeders and people that worked with for the 1967 show. Anniversary in 1956 were Herefords and cattle. Everybody just spent their time In the 1960s the livestock industry the breed enjoyed a big lead over Angus there. You sat in the barns and that’s all was undergoing a drastic transformation and Shorthorns in Stock Show you talked about, fitting cattle and the that brought changes to the Stock Show. championships. Angus accounted for cattle business.” Denver’s packinghouses moved away and nearly four of ten cattle exhibited and Although frigid Stock Show weather is business in the once-bustling yards Shorthorns were a distant third. Had those more myth than reality, the wintry clime slowed. Commission firms and the plump Herefords, Angus and Shorthorns sometimes made for tough sledding. “I can venerable Denver Union Stockyards peered a few years into the future, they 6 • 2005 National Western Stock Show the end product.” The cow-calf man finds out how his cattle stack up against other ranchers while feeders assess their performance at finishing cattle for the consumer. The National Western puts up $10,000 in prize money and entry fees sweeten the pot even more. “It’s a fierce competition,” says Tuell. “There is probably more prize money in the Fed Beef Contest than any other contest, so it’s worth going after. They’ve got a trophy that I think weighs at least 200 pounds. It takes a dolly to move it!” The introduction of new breeds and fierce competition also produced one of the Stock Show’s less glorious moments.

Bum Steer or Real Champ? SPECIAL SECTION One evening during the 1972 Stock Show, Jack Orr was finishing up chores …to Julie Lebsack’s 1,268-pound Grand Champion, a crossbred, in 1981. down in the yards when his son and a friend came rushing into the pen. “Jeep’s might have snorted in alarm. By 1981, the 1970s, crossbreeding with up there on the Hill!” they blurted cattle exhibitors would increase five-fold Continentals revolutionized the industry. breathlessly. The steer with the funny and they would be showing a dozen Dan Green, publisher of the Record nickname had started life on the Skylark breeds. (Nineteen breeds are appearing at Stockman, explains: “When you cross two Ranch at Kremmling, Colorado, where the National Western this year.) The breeds you get what’s called heterosis. You one of the boys had prepared him for a change brought a new look to the cattle get the energy from both animals that show and sale in Kansas. He had been a show and, through crossbreeding, new results in one that grows better than either creamy white Charolais back then, but vigor to the livestock industry. breed would have individually.” now he was jet black and entered as an The Big Three moved over in 1966 to The average consumer probably doesn’t Angus in the Junior Show. So began a make room for the first of the know a Pinzgauer from a Polled Hereford, melodrama that still evokes smirks and Continental breeds, so called because but folks with a taste for beef benefited discomfort. “No story created more they hail from places like France, Austria, when cattlemen began crossing publicity in National Western history,” Switzerland and Italy. Charolais, a cream- Continentals with Herefords, Angus and wrote former General Manager Willard colored French breed, was the first Shorthorns. “The Continental breeds are Simms, but it’s a story the Stock Show newcomer, joined the next year by Santa much bigger, framier cattle,” says Green. would sooner forget. Gertrudis. According to then-General “Herefords and Angus are not as big but “They took me up there and except for Manager Willard Simms, by the early they make much juicier, more tender being black, it sure as heck looked like 1970s new breed organizations “were meat.” The genetic mixing resulted in a Jeep,” Orr recalls. If it was Jeep, this was a pounding on our doors for a place to bigger carcass with better meat. “To get the bombshell. Only steers sired by an Angus exhibit ... and above all to sell.” Between maximum heterosis in a cross,” Green bull were eligible to enter the Angus 1970 and 1981, Galloway, Gelbveih, adds, “you need two purebred animals. division and Jeep, if that’s who he was, had Limousin, Simmental, South Devon, That’s why there’s Angus breeders who still a Charolais poppa and momma. A dye job Pinzgauer, Polled Hereford and Red breed 100% Angus and there’s Limousin could be the only explanation for his Angus also joined the ranks. breeders that breed 100% Limousin.” present hue. Soon, the barn talk was all Crossbred cattle were so rare in the In 1964 the National Western about the steer and a protest challenging his 1950s that when one turned up at the launched its Fed Beef Contest to right to compete was filed with Stock Show National Western, show organizers were emphasize better beef. Exhibitors enter brass. When the owner tendered stumped. Roger Tuell, who showed his pens of six animals that are evaluated documents showing an Angus sire, the steer first steers here in 1952 and later before and after slaughter. “They count was allowed to stay in the competition. He ramrodded the Stock Show’s Fed Beef the best five carcasses and they’ve got conceded to using black dye to touch up a Contest, recalls a crossbred his brother to be uniform,” explains Roger Tuell, few light spots but this was a brought to the show. “He was a blue roan. chairman of the contest. “They are practice and not against the rules. He wasn’t an Angus and he wasn’t a USDA quality graded, yield graded and John Grisham might have scripted Shorthorn and they didn’t know what the then a panel of three judges places what happened next. The Angus judge, devil to do with him,” chuckles Tuell. In them. We’re food producers and this is unaware of the hubbub behind the 2005 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW • 7 had heard about Big Mac,” laughs Jack Orr. That fall he checked into Washington, D.C.’s, Mayflower Hotel to help stockmen dramatize low cattle prices. In a Cadillac and horse trailer Collins and Big Mac toured the country, appearing at fairs and 4-H clubs to illustrate what happens when competition goes too far. The storied steer, a champion at heart, lived to a ripe old age and might have said that things turned out just fine.

Youngsters in the Big Time With chortles all around, the 1973 Junior Show’s grand champion steer was nicknamed Honest Mac. And though the National Western was still smarting, the embarrassing fraud brought some needed reforms. First, the Junior Show, which had lagged in adding new breeds, opened Like all National Western Junior Show exhibitors, Durene Howard faced big-time up to the increasingly popular Charolais competition to earn her right to pose proudly with her Grand Champion and Reserve Grand and added a class for “Other Breeds and Champion wethers in 1963. Crosses.” Now any steer sired by a registered bull could be an Honest Mac. scenes, picked the animal over 86 other Angus blood in Big Mac’s veins. He was, Steps were also taken to thwart so-called entries as the division champion. Two they said, descended from a proud “steer jockeys,” exhibitors who would days later, a second judge chose him over Charolais lineage. The brand inspector bend or break rules in pursuit of the big Hereford and Shorthorn winners to concluded “beyond a doubt” that Skylark money paid for top animals at the Junior become the Junior Show’s grand irons had branded him. The owner’s Auction. Jack Orr, a key figure in champion steer, one of the highest account of the animal’s provenance began exposing Big Mac and later a Chairman of honors at the Stock Show. “He was a to unravel and the steer started showing the Junior Show, says, “We simply tried good animal, no doubt about it,” says white around his eyes as the hair grew out. to make rule changes to where it’s a good, Orr. The award put the critter in the The vet peered up his nostrils again, stood honest show and the kids are really headlines and when McDonald’s laid back with a surprised look and proclaimed, deserving and you’re teaching honesty, down a record $14,250 at the Junior “He’s just as pink as he can be.” respect and responsibility.” Livestock Auction and dubbed him “Big Then the lid blew off the unfolding There were other changes in the Mac,” he was a celebrity. drama. “It hit page one of the Post noon Junior Show as well. Beginning in 1974, Ordinarily, their appearance at the edition,” Simms would later write, “and girls could share in the bruises and auction is the last curtain call for Junior then about every newspaper, TV and excitement of scrambling after a calf in SPECIAL SECTION Show champions, but Big Mac got a radio station in the country, and the AP the popular Catch-A-Calf contest. Kids reprieve. Documents had turned up and UPI wire services.” To the lucky enough to collar one of the frisky purporting to prove his Charolais ancestry accompaniment of media guffaws, Simms rodeo calves exchange it for a prospect and he was sequestered before he could called in Big Mac’s ribbons and awarded feeder calf and spend months halter be slaughtered. Blood samples were them to the reserve grand champion. breaking, grooming and fattening it. They drawn to probe his links to the claimed McDonald’s asked for a refund. return at the next Stock Show to be Charolais and Angus sires. Branding irons Months passed and the storm judged on the animal’s weight gain and from the Skylark Ranch were brought in. subsided while Big Mac grew out a improvement and on their own record A vet had a gander up the champion’s creamy white coat in pens of the keeping and monthly letters to the nostrils for signs that pink membranes Colorado Brand Board, which held him sponsor who provided the calf. had been dyed black. “As far up as we as an unclaimed stray. He had The Junior Show also grew could see, he was black,” the vet said. contentedly munched his way through tremendously. In 1956, youngsters Investigators flew to Kansas to interview 600 pounds of hay and 300 pounds of showed 628 lambs, calves, and hogs. By the owners and 4-H officials. A brand cracked corn by August when Iowa 1981, cattle entries were up 64 percent inspector clipped hair and photographed newspaperman Eddie Collins bought and both steers and heifers were being brands from other Skylark cattle to him at auction– but not to turn him shown in seven cattle breeds plus an compare with the marks on Big Mac. into patties. “Practically everybody in “other breeds and crosses” category. In Separate labs turned up nary a trace of the United States and a lot of Europe small livestock there was an even bigger 8 • 2005 National Western Stock Show boom. Barrows totaled 655 in six breed and bending double at the waist to place around the ears and in less time than it and crossbred classes in 1981, while 486 their flat palms on the floor. These guys takes to boil a three-minute egg the job’s lambs competed in seven categories. are stout as oaks and limber as willows. done. Released, the sheep scrambles to its If their animals’ names are any They’re wearing tee shirts, suspenders, feet and scampers off the platform, indication, the kids had a lot of fun in well-worn britches and hand-made leaving behind an intact pelt that’s 1956. Among the lambs were Ike, Spike sheepskin slippers. The buzzer sounds gathered and judged. The shearer grabs and Mike, Huey, Dewey and Louie and and the Stock Show’s International another critter and starts again. Before Donald Duck. Hogs seemed to inspire Professional Sheep Shearing Contest is he’s done, five pink lambs will be jostling less imagination, with the most popular underway. in the exhaust pen along with shorn name being simply “Entry.” companions from other shearers. Among Hereford steers there Haslem is a big guy with were several Reds and a trio of a ready smile and an Pee Wees, as well as Mickey, encyclopedic memory. He loves Pluto, Stinky, Smarty Pants, and to talk about the Sheep Shearing Sir Loin– this last perhaps Contest, an event he helped start belonging to a youngster with an at the National Western. After eye on the bottom line. stints helping with the Seed, Predictably, Blackie was the Wool and Junior Livestock favorite Angus moniker, but Shows he was tabbed in 1968 to SPECIAL SECTION there were also two Snowballs, start the shearing contest. showing the kids’ ironic sense “Down in the stockyards at that humor. Snap didn’t make it to time in the sheep market was a the show but Crackle and Pop wild Irishman by the name of were there. Mike Hayes,” Haslem recalls The names may have been with a broad grin. “Mike was an , but showing at the institution here in the Denver National Western was serious market when it was probably the business. Morgan County biggest sheep market in the Commissioner Mark Arndt, who United States. He said, ‘Hey, I brags that he’s never missed a want to help on this thing,’ and Stock Show in his life, says, “A he bought a whole bunch of real lot of us grew up with our Stock nice Columbia replacement ewe Show experience. I showed a pig lambs. They were beauties. Mike in 1977 when I was just 16. wanted them to look good for Four of us kids went and I was the oldest, Flanked by swine show judge Tom Conover the first shearing contest so he hired my the one in charge. We stayed in a hotel and superintendent Forest McWilliams, oldest son, Richard, to shear the faces and we were on our own. It was quite an Rodney Russell shows off his Grand and across the back ends. We were all a experience to take that responsibility.” The Champion barrow in 1976. Small livestock bunch of greenhorns but it went National Western was also a lot more entry numbers exploded during the National extremely well. We had young competitive than county fairs. “We were Western’s third quarter-century. contestants from here in the Rocky in the big time. You had better know what Mountain Region and they were awfully you were doing.” Show pressures didn’t good sheep to shear– turned out just real keep them from a bit of youthful Each man pulls a squirming lamb good looking animals.” experimentation, he admits. “They used from the small pen beside the shearers’ With help from the Sunbeam to sell these cigars around the Coliseum platform, turns it expertly onto its Corporation, maker of shearing that were probably two inches in diameter backside, cradles its head between his equipment, and the Indiana State Fair, and a foot long and all of us had to try thighs and goes to work. The wooly which hosted the International one. Boy, they would sure make you sick,” critter goes limp and tolerates its haircut Professional Sheep Shearing Contest, the he says with a laugh. These days Mark with hardly a wiggle. With razor-sharp junior event was so successful that a brings 4-H kids to the show and says, “It shears whirring, both barber and senior division was soon added. In 1976 makes responsible young adults out of customer are at risk if this turns into a the Stock Show lured the international them.” wrestling match. They start with a deft event away from Indiana and it’s been pass down the belly from chin to groin, held in Denver every January since. “We don’t eat tofu, of course.” then trim out the legs. Each successive Shearing is a contest of speed but The first thing you notice is their stroke lays back more of the pelt. It’s as if there’s more to it than the stopwatch. forearms. Popeye had forearms like that. the lamb is being peeled. Near the finish Penalties are added for cuts in the pelt and Broad shouldered and muscular, they’re the lambs are reclining on thick cushions or nicks on the sheep. “If it’s got a bunch loosening up with 360-degree neck rolls of their own wool. A little cleanup of nicks on it, you’re not going to win,” 2005 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW • 9 time some lambs bolted into the middle of a Hereford judging in the Stadium Arena. “They were a bit nervous ‘cause they were freshly shorn and somehow they knocked the gate down and here we had this whole bunch of lambs all of a sudden out underneath these Hereford cattle. We had quite a free-for-all getting those lambs corralled ‘cause they were wild. They weren’t 4-H lambs, they were range lambs and they’d just lost about four or five pounds of wool and they could really move. The cattle were tied to the fence and the lambs were running up and down and underneath them and those cattle were jumping as high as they could on the end of the their lead straps. We had irritated Hereford breeders saying four-letter words about our sheep.” The highlight of each year’s event is the shearers’ feast. “It’s always an excellent banquet, good food and, of course, we don’t eat tofu,” Haslem chuckles. “It’s good legs of lamb and you have a chance to visit with the judges and enjoy a little fellowship.” The International Sheep Shearing contest has drawn big crowds from 1968 to the present day, and it’s in good company with other crowd pleasers.

“Greased Grasshoppers” and Versatile Purebreds With the Stock Show Band belting out tunes, stock contractor Verne Elliott’s gnarly critters kicking up their heels and daring rodeo clowns dancing before snorting bulls, the Coliseum rocked for each rodeo. Three hundred cowboys competed in the Golden Anniversary performances and by 1981 over 900 SPECIAL SECTION cowboys and cowgirls were annually A deft hand with the clippers and a strong back are crucial to success in the Sheep Shearing making the trip to the January show to Contest, which first came to the National Western in 1968. compete for a quarter-million dollars in prize money. says Haslem. “We had one shearer from pray that the judges would be fair and Bronc riding champion Casey Tibbs, the Pacific Northwest. He was rated honest, he’d pray that the contestants would a top cowboy and rodeo’s most eligible extremely high there. A big guy and he was be good sports and that the contest would bachelor in 1956 wrote Denver Post fast, there was no getting around it, but he go well and the best person would win,” columns detailing behind-the-chutes was a bit rough and there was enough recalls Haslem. He smiles remembering the action. In one article, he described how nicks on his sheep that it was pink in lots time they entered shearers in the rodeo. he felt before getting on a really rank of places. Of course, with the lanolin in the “One year we tried a showmanship nag. “It’s a funny kind of feeling. No wool that would heal up right away, but, gimmick. We had a generator on a trailer matter where you are or what you’re needless to say, he never came back.” and we went all the way around the rodeo doing, everything seems kind of quiet Haslem remembers special events down arena in the Coliseum while the four top and nothing seems important but that through the years. There were Otis shearers had to shear one sheep. A lot of horse. You make the ride in your mind Sneethen, the poet-shearer, and Gandy that crowd had never seen a sheep shorn a hundred times, getting him out of the Hidalgo who offered a prayer before each before in their lives.” chute, getting him ridden, letting him competition. “He’d pray for the sheep, he’d A rodeo of another sort occurred the have more rein if he needs it without 10 • 2005 National Western Stock Show losing it all.” Writing about War Paint, a top bucker at the 1958 rodeo, he said, “I’ll have to admit that sometimes I go a little weak before I get on a rough one like this pinto. He’s well rested and grained up snuffy as a prize fighter at his peak. The pinto comes out like a greased grasshopper and if you get with him for a good ride, it’s the greatest feeling in the world.” Rodeo clowns in outrageous get-ups performed sometimes- politically-incorrect comic routines to the delight of Denver audiences. In 1956, Wilbur Plaugher poked fun at the city’s SPECIAL SECTION proposed leash law. When he ceremoniously placed a tiny Chihuahua in the arena, announcer Cy Taillon reminded the clown of the ordinance. An ornery Brahma bull weighs his options during a staredown with barrel man Jimmy Schumacher and Plaugher stomped purposefully bullfighter Wick Peth. off, returned with a heavy bronc rider’s rope, hooked up his pet and led him The Westernaires, a mainstay in the Palominos, Quarter Horses, Arabians, away to a chorus of cheers from the crowd. arena today, first appeared at the National Appaloosas and Paints enlivened the Behind the comedy it’s always been Western in 1956. The equestrian group National Western’s horse shows. serious business for the clowns who can was formed in 1949 by Elmer Wyland to Beginning in the 1940s, trends in the make the difference between a cowboy provide training and equine recreation for horse world were reflected at those finishing in the money and going home youngsters aged nine to 18. Even kids events. It began with breed registries for empty-handed. Jim Shoulders, rodeo who didn’t own a horse could join the Palominos and Quarter Horses but soon super-star who made his reputation on riding program designed to teach spread to other breeds. “As these the hurricane decks of bareback broncs character, discipline and physical and registries and associations got going the and bucking bulls in the late 1950s, mental stamina. The group has brought horse shows started growing,” says says, “If they get in front of him or turn thousands of kids into the Coliseum over Randy Witte, publisher of Western him back, that can help you a lot.” One the decades and no rodeo at the Stock Horseman Magazine. “It just kept getting of Jim’s favorites was George Mills. Show is complete without the stronger and stronger as the horse From the 1950s through the ‘70s Westernaires blazing around the arena in population increased. The horse shows bullfighter Wilbur Plaugher and barrel colorful drills that demand split-second were one outlet for people to do man Jimmy Schumacher teamed up to timing and no small amount of courage. something with their horses.” Horse help Brahma riders get their money’s Rodeo and horse show events were owners competed in halter classes to worth and save the necks of those who blended and that posed interesting showcase the physical quality of their got more than they bargained for. challenges for horse show exhibitors. animals and performance classes to Famed African-American rodeo clown Jumping, the horse show high point, and demonstrate their working abilities. In Leon Coffee delighted Stock Show bull riding, rodeo’s big crowd-pleaser, showmanship classes it was the human audiences in the 1970s. were placed at the end of each on the end of the halter rope who was A good rodeo announcer, with a western performance. “The bulls were all in the scrutinized by picky judges. Many of the drawl broad as a Brahma’s shoulders and a chutes and the horses go in the arena and breed shows culminated with a lively voice that rumbles like gravel in a gold , these bulls are banging around and the auction where breeders and exhibitors can add a lot to any performance, and the horses were not fond of that,” says Sandy paid top dollar for top equine prospects. National Western has always attracted top Dennehey. “They ended up putting us Back in 1938, Palominos held a breed microphone men. The tradition began with after the bulls and that was better. We show at the National Western and they Abe Lefton at the Stock Show’s first rodeo in didn’t get the crowd that we got when we continued until 1963 when they were 1931. Perhaps the greatest of all was Cy came before, but we had a little better dropped due to declining entry Taillon who called arena play-by-play from behavior out of the horses.” numbers. Parade classes, with their 1946 to 1978. In addition to hunters and jumpers, emphasis on physical beauty and fancy 2005 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW • 11 paddock so exhibitors warmed up their mounts as best they could. “They let us go over that old bridge thing to the old arena if they weren’t showing cattle or something. You’d go over there, jump a few jumps and then come back across the ramp and wait outdoors. You combine that with the fact that you’re going from outdoors to in, light change and the whole thing. I think about it now and I don’t know why any of them did it.” The Diamond Jubilee saw the return of the gentle giants to the National Western. Draft horses had been big at the show in its formative decades, but were dropped in the 1930s. By the 1970s, interest in the powerful equines was on the increase. According to Randy Witte, “People realized that those really are beautiful animals. They’re different than other horses and there’s just a fascination being around something that Snappy Appaloosas stand for judging in the Stadium Arena in 1959. Originated by the Nez large and that gentle.” Whether it was Perce Indians, the breed was a hit at the National Western. purebred Percherons, Belgians or Clydesdales in dazzling harness pulling tack, were a highlight of Palomino Participants and spectators at today’s fancy rigs, or all-business grade horses shows. Arabians trace their ancestry to horse shows might be surprised at the dragging heavy sleds across the arena, the deserts of North Africa and were differences of half a century ago. the huge horses were a hit with Denver shown in Denver from the mid-1940s Recalling her first years at the National audiences. “It was great,” says Witte. until 1968. The Appaloosa Horse Club Western, Elkins says, “It was definitely a “They would just pack that stadium. It held its first show at the National much looser environment for showing was instantly popular.” Western in 1959. The dramatically horses.” Sandy Dennehey, who has shown When the National Western marked its spotted Appies, developed in the vast hunters and jumpers at the Stock Show Diamond Jubilee in 1981, it had many herds of the Nez Perce Indians, were so since 1952, agrees. “I showed in the big reasons to celebrate. The show’s run had popular that they outnumbered jumper class. I can’t imagine a 12-year- expanded from nine to 11 days and Palominos and Arabians combined. The old doing that today. We jumped attendance and entries were climbing. The American Paint Horse Association held however high our horses would jump. show featured 99 judged events for its Denver debut in 1967 and entries We’d have one horse and show him in everything from rabbits to draft horses and quadrupled by 1981. The Paints still put every class– be a hunter one night and a 36 sales for cattle, horses, lambs and hogs. on a big show each January. jumper the next. You would no more do New cattle breeds were adding interest SPECIAL SECTION The American Quarter Horse that today than fly to the moon.” and the show in the yards remained strong Association began regular shows at The National Western’s Events Center in spite of industry changes. Young Denver in 1944 and for sheer numbers has made it a top horse venue in the exhibitors were flocking to the Junior no breed at the National Western can country, but things were a bit rougher Show and the Fed Beef and Sheep match them. Quarter Horse entries back in the 1950s when exhibitors stalled Shearing Contests were going strong. The quadrupled between 1956 and 1981. their horses in metal Quonsets and a two- recently returned draft horses were clearly Changes in the Quarter Horse reflect story barn. Ken Ochs, whose family going to be a big favorite and the horse the importance of shows like those at showed horses at the National Western show and rodeo were still real crowd the National Western. Renee and until 1963, recalls the unique climate in pleasers. Best of all, the show was still Dauane Elkins have seen an evolution the metal buildings. “I always stayed out making special memories, whether it was a during their 30 years as horse show of there because when it got cold the Hereford breeder selling a big batch of his managers. “They’ve gotten larger, taller, moisture would go up to the top and best bulls to a top buyer, a family enjoying heavier and more defined,” Elkins says. freeze and during the day time when the the action and antics of a Saturday rodeo “They aren’t as much of the short stocky sun hit it, it would rain.” It sometimes or a proud 12-year-old cradling a bunny in quarter-mile runner that they were got so cold in the unheated buildings that a shoebox on the bus ride home. ■ known for before. They’ve had to water buckets froze solid. expand in their conformation to Although the Coliseum was a great NOTE: Next year’s program will chronicle the perform all the diverse things they do.” place to compete, it had no staging National Western’s fourth quarter-century. 12 • 2005 National Western Stock Show