Past & Present

Labor Day Weekend 2008 PAST & PRESENT ELLENSBURG RODEO & COUNTY FAIR Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present 1 EXPAND YOUR LUMBER OPTIONS Our Contractor Sales Staff would be happy to help you with your next building project • Quality Douglas Fir Lumber Contact one of • Pressure Treated Lumber our Outside Sales • Engineered Wood Products Representatives • LP Siding Brad Hutzenbiler • Hardi-Plank 509-929-0868 • Cedar • Metal Rooﬁng Trista Zellmer • Doors & Windows 509-929-5042 www.knudsonlumber.com • 1791 Vantage Hwy. Ellensburg • 509-962-9811 “Serving ALL of Kittitas County & Beyond” Open 7 days 1-866-279-0756 a week 886448 KRH SS 2 Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present About the Cover Table of contents 4 ……………………………………. Love for the rodeo spurs Michael Allen 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 19, 40, 41 ……….. Rodeo timeline 10 …………………………………… Dr. H.E. Pfenning: A man with vision, energy for Ellensburg Rodeo 12 …………………………………… Ann Burkheimer Reed honored with Driver Family Award Photo by John Foster Bob Ragsdale in the calf 16 …………………………………… When saddle bronc was king roping competition during the 1972 Ellensburg Rodeo. 18 …………………………………… Bronc buster recalls rodeo in its youth 20 …………………………………… Rodeo in music 21 …………………………………… Rodeo Lingo 22, 23, 26, 27, 36, 38, 39, 40 ……... Rodeo memories 24 …………………………………… Molly Morrow: Love at first click Daily Record Rodeo & Fair maps 401 N. Main St. 28 …………………………………… Ellensburg 98926 30 …………………………………… Frontier Village gives (509) 925-1414 kids and adults a taste of the old days Publisher: Matt Davison 32 …………………………………… Schedule Adverting director: Tyler Miller 34 …………………………………… Cowboy hats: A mark of Managing editor: Jeff style Robinson 35 …………………………………… Cowboy hats: Etiquette Design editor: Jimmy 43 …………………………………… A history of rodeo Alford events Contributing writers: Mike Allen 45 …………………………………… How to score rodeo Don Gronning events Mike Johnston 52 …………………………………… Rodeo in film Chelsea Krotzer Fair memories Ryan Thompson 54 …………………………………… Mary Swift Photographers: Don Gronning Joe Whiteside Amanda Umberger © 2008 Ellensburg Daily Record Special thanks: Ellensburg Public Library for archive photos Cover ohoto illustration by John Foster Jimmy Alford Kittitas County Historical Musuem Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present 3 Love for rodeo spurs Michael Allen By MARY SWIFT staff writer Michael Allen never cared much for horseback riding. That didn’t keep him from falling in love with rodeo. Call it a passion learned at his father’s side. His father, Stewart Allen, was a Pocatello, Idaho, native, “a fallen Mormon” who ended up marrying a girl who was — and is — a practicing Jew. A modern businessman who lived in town but never forgot his rural roots, the elder Allen owned restaurants and an ice cream shop and did a stint as Ellensburg’s mayor. “We always had a horse, often, two or three,” Allen recalls. “My Dad liked thoroughbreds and Arabs. He didn’t like quarter horses. Around Ellensburg, that’s treasonous.” The elder Allen proudly rode with the Ellensburg Rodeo Posse, a precision drill team. His son fondly recalls the posse’s Friday night practices and the horse races, broomstick polo and camaraderie that followed. Contributed Continued on page 6 ld like t e wou o welc W ll t om a o the e Ellensburg Rodeo & Kittitas County Fair 700 E. University Way • 962-8222 959883.P&P08.cnr AFFORDABLE Member FDIC FUNERAL CARE A Tradition of Caring (509) 925-2902 • 101 East 2nd Avenue, Ellensburg, WA 98926 “e little Bank with BONNIE MARSH • (509)-925-2925 Welcome Rodeo Fans the big circle of friends” to the 2008 Rodeo 965895.P&P08.cnr Complete funeral and cremation services “Best Bank in Kittitas County” available at need or by prearrangement. 957178.P&P08.cnr - 2008 Daily Record Readers Choice Awards Locally Owned and Supporting Our Community 4 Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present 5 ‘He’s the founder and the one who keeps it going.’ Despite his father’s affection for riding, “I am along with his three children. the world’s worst horseback rider,” Allen says. In 1997, Allen helped found the Ellensburg “My Dad bred me a little pinto pony and I prob- Rodeo Hall of Fame. He served seven years as ably rode that 30 times in 10 years. But I always board president and is one of three historians loved the rodeo and we always attended as a who serve on the board. family. I helped my Dad at the back ticket gate In 1998, University of Nevada Press published for rodeo night shows and when I was older at his book, “Rodeo Cowboys in the North Ameri- the ticket gate for the Posse parties. So I grew can Imagination,” a study of the evolution of the up around rodeo. In many ways, rodeo weekend myth of the rodeo cowboy and how that myth is a sacred time for us, ranking second only to has impacted popular culture. Christmas.” It was research on the book that planted the As a student in Ellensburg, Allen picked up a idea for the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame. fascination for magic, something he still pur- “In the mid-1990s I was traveling around to sues. After high school, he served a stint in Viet- various research archives — Pro Rodeo Hall nam with the Marine Corps later worked as a of Fame, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, towboat deckhand, oil tanker man and cook on National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and the Pend- the Upper and Lower Mississippi. Captivated by leton Roundup Hall of Fame — and it occurred history, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Central to me we could do this in Ellensburg,” he says. Washington University, a master’s degree in “Some of the greatest cowboys and cowgirls in history from the University of Montana, and a the history of rodeo passed through Ellensburg doctorate at the University of Washington, where from 1923 to 1997.” he now is a professor of history and American He spoke to Joel Smith and Rick Cole, mem- studies. bers of the rodeo board, about the idea. While working on his master’s he spent his “The 75th anniversary of the rodeo in 1997 summers taking Greyhound to all 50 states and created ‘the perfect storm’ and it happened,” he six Canadian provinces and he still spends time says. “There are 55 inductees so far. This year is visiting and writing about the history of the our 11th induction.” Mississippi River Valley, an area that has long Jack Wallace, a member of the Hall of Fame fascinated him. board, calls Allen “the heart and soul of the “Why? Maybe because I grew up in a semi- Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.” arid part of the state and always yearned for It’s praise echoed by 90-year-old Bertha Morri- lush, deciduous forest, fireflies and turtles and son, also a member of the Hall of Fame board. gators,” says Allen, who lives in Tacoma but also “If it weren’t for Mike, we wouldn’t have a Hall has a home and apartment in Ellensburg and of Fame,” she says. “We’re very proud of it. He’s plans to retire here. the founder and the one who keeps it going.” Despite his wanderings, he never got so far Rodeo, Allen says, is important because it’s from home that he lost his love — or respect — much more than just entertainment. for the rodeo. Each year, rodeo brings him back “Rodeo is a folkway because it’s mostly Continued on page 8 Ellensburg Rodeo through the years ’20s Early 1920s — At least two Kittitas County ranches, including the Ferguson ranch, were staging impromptu competitions called Sunday rodeos. These were the beginnings what would become the Ellensburg Rodeo. 1923 1923 — First Ellensburg Rodeo held Sept. 13-15, with 17 events. Steer wrestling was scratched because of a letter writing campaign charging it “appears to be as hard on the steer as it does the man ...” Continued on page 8 Rodeo Timeline Rodeo 6 Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present 21.'$7+.&+0)5 ³6JG.CTIGUV/QUV'ZRGTKGPEGF2QNG $WKNFKPI%QPVTCEVQTKPVJG0QTVJYGUV´ )CTCIGU5JQRU $CTPU %QOOGTEKCN ³´&QYP (KPCPEKPI1#% %CNN#P[VKOG*QWTU#&C[ (KPCPEG1H¿EGTQP&WV[0QY/QUV &C[U#9GGM #RRTQXCNUYKVJKP*QWTU 957175.P&P08.cnr %1/'5''75#66*'-+66+6#5%1706;(#+4 Ellensburg Rodeo & County Fair 2008: Past and Present 7 based on actual ranch skills — ‘workways’ as folklor- Much of Allen’s own life experience is framed in ists call them,” he says. “Calf and steer roping and some way by rodeo. That includes his father’s death, saddle bronc riding are historic ranch skills.” (That’s an event he describes at the end of the introduction to not true of bull riding, he says.) “Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Tradition”. “Rodeos literally re-enact the workways of the cattle “On Labor Day, Sept. 7, 1992,” he wrote, “at approxi- frontier. The rodeo viewer can sit back and watch how mately 4 p.m., rodeo cowboys received their cham- the American cowboys did their jobs and tamed the pionship buckles in the Ellensburg Rodeo arena. In American West, making the way for civilization. We doing this they carried on a local folk tradition of more can literally watch our country’s history re-enacted than seventy-five years duration. At a nursing home a in the arena. I know no other sport with that kind of few blocks away, my dad died after a long illness. This mythic power.” book is dedicated to his memory.” Ellensburg Rodeo through the years 1924 1924 — The second rodeo had three times the attendance of ﬁ rst rodeo, with sellout crowds over three performances, prizes and prize money higher than the year before.

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