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Wednesday, June 3, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Rodeo roots stretch
back to Spain
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Like Bluegrass or jazz
music, the sport of rodeo has
roots that stretch far back
in time, blending a vari-
ety of cultural influences to
create something uniquely
all-American.
The very name <rodeo=
speaks of Spanish roots.
Late-medieval Spain was
one of the premier equestrian
cultures in history; indeed,
it was the Spanish who
brought the modern horse
to the Americas, as Western
singer Ian Tyson recounts in
his magnificent anthem, <La
Primera=:
I am a drinker of the wind
I am the one who never
tires
I love my freedom more
than all these things
T h e C o n q u i s t a d o r,
Comanche and the Cowboy
I carried them to glory
I am La Primera 4
Spanish mustang
Hear my story
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Bill Pickett invented the sport of
bulldogging (steer wrestling).
The Spanish tradition
found its fullest expression
on the massive ranchos of
California, where vaqueros
rode among the live oak and
swung long, rawhide reatas.
In the 19th Century, the
Spanish tradition met and
mingled with an ancient
Anglo-Celtic drover culture
that pushed north and west
out of the American South,
especially Texas. The Texans
had already absorbed other
Spanish/Mexican influences
in the border brush, and they
brought them north with
massive herds of cattle in the
post-Civil War years.
Cowboys were made part
of Buffalo Bill9s Wild West
Show & Congress of Rough
Riders of the World, setting
the stage for the exhibition
of cowboy skills as a per-
formance. But, as the Pro
Rodeo Hall of Fame notes,
<The cowboys in these shows
were paid performers and it
wasn9t a contest like modern
rodeos.=
Y could get yourself
You
into a scrap arguing over who
gets the claim to fame as the
first real rodeo in America.
Pres
Prescott,
Arizona, may have
the best claim, which is rein-
forc
forced
by The Pro Rodeo
Hall of Fame:
< is very hard to trace
<It
the first rodeo in America.
Ma
Many
places make this
cla including: Sante Fe,
claim
N
New Mexico in 1847,
D
Deer Trail, Colorado in
1869, and Pecos, Texas
in 1883. All early rodeos
varied greatly by events
a and most were free to the
p public. Prescott, Arizona
he
held their first rodeo on
Ju 4, 1888. Much of
July
wh we know today in the
what
sport of rodeo grew from the
Pres
Prescott
Rodeo. The com-
mitt established the fol-
mittee
lowi
lowing
that still hold true
toda prizes awarded, rules
today:
for competition, admission
char
charged,
cowboys invited
c
to compete
and a commit-
t organize. The events
tee to
inclu
included
bronco riding, steer
ropi and cow pony races.
roping
1
In 1889,
the first steer rid-
ing competition was held,
later this event evolved into
IMAGE COURTESY LEN BABB
Rodeo’s origins lie in practical skills of trail drivers and ranch hands who needed to be able to rope and ride with
wild stock in rough terrain.
modern bull riding. By 1917, in 1949 the age of 19. He in Livermore, Calif. went to
calf roping was added to the was profiled in the 2017 Frost. On June 12 (after both
list of events at Prescott.=
award-winning documentary cowboy and bull had traveled
Rodeo events grew out <Floating Horses.=
all night to Oregon), the fight
of ranching skills 4 roping;
Larry Mahan, born in continued in Sisters, where
bucking out a rank horse. But Salem, Oregon, was a six- Red Rock was originally
some of them were stunts. time world champion in the from. It was the last ride of
Riding a steer or a bull has 1960s and 970s, and he was the night, and the adrenaline
no practical ranching appli- among the first modern stars and anticipation was thick by
cation, but it9s not hard to of the sport, parlaying his the time Frost nodded. The
imagine how that got started. fame as a roughstock rider crowd cheered them both on.
Hall-of-Famer Bill Pickett into a boot collection and
<It was an atypical left-
is credited with the creation clothing line.
hand delivery for Red
of the event that would be
Hall of Fame barrel racer Rock, but Frost hung on and
known as bulldogging and Charmayne James took fought the bull all the way
now is called steer wrestling. Rookie of the Year honors in to the whistle. The cowboy
<Legend has it that Pickett 1984 at the onset of a long described it as one of the best
resorted to biting the lip of a and astoundingly successful rides of his life. 8I9ve made
recalcitrant steer to wrestle career. Her trail led through a couple of 91 point rides
it to the dirt to get it into the the Sisters Rodeo season in my life,9 said Frost at the
corral,= the Pro Rodeo Hall after season.
time, 8and this one felt a good
of Fame recounts. <Pickett
Other legends have com- three or four points higher.9
moved from ranch work into peted here, from champion
Frost, just 25, was killed
the show arena in the 1890s, roper Joe Beaver to cham- a year later at the vener-
when he and his brother pion bull riders like Ty able Cheyenne Frontier Days
began the Pickett Brothers Murray and Lane Frost.
rodeo, when the bull Takin9
Bronco Busters and Rough
F r o s t c o n t r i b u t e d a Care of Business plowed into
Riders Show that toured fairs moment that will live forever his back, breaking several
and rodeos. In 1907, Pickett in Sisters Rodeo folklore ribs, which punctured the
was hired as a cowhand on when he rode the previously cowboy9s heart and lungs as
the 101 Ranch in Oklahoma unridden bull Red Rock in a he fell to the arena dirt.
and participated in the Miller seven-rodeo <Challenge of
At 80 years old, Sisters
Brothers9 101 Ranch Wild the Champions= exhibition Rodeo is part of a long and
West Show. He worked on in 1988.
historic tradition 4 not only
the ranch when he was not
As the Professional Bull of sport, but of a way of life
traveling with the Miller Riders Association (PBR) that grew out of the work-
Brothers for more than 25 recounts:
ing of livestock in a rugged
years. He died April 2, 1932,
<Frost and Red Rock bat- landscape, where grit and
after being kicked in the head tled each other back-to-back determination are the keys to
while breaking a colt at the June 11-12. The first event survival and success.
ranch. He was later honored
by the U.S. Postal Service,
who featured Pickett on a
stamp as part of its Legends
of the West series.=
Rodeo has produced many
legends and stars, includ-
ing World Champion Casey
Tibbs, who won the world
Every year we look forward to
June and Sisters Rodeo...
You don’t have to be 80 to b e cowboys & cowgirls!
HAPPY 80TH
ANNIVERSARY
SISTERS RODEO
See ya next year!
n
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