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CHIEF JOSEPH DAYS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
The traits that have carried Chief Joseph Days for 75 years
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — Good people,
hard work and dedication.
These were the charac-
teristics mentioned repeat-
edly by those who have been
involved with making Chief
Joseph Days a must-see
event year after year.
It was those traits in the
1940s and 1950s, when a
group spurred by Harley
Tucker kicked the rodeo off .
It’s those traits — a
desire to continue to make
the rodeo better year after
year — that carried it into
the 21st century, and this
week are bringing back the
“Thunder” for the 75th time.
“You’ve gotta put a lot
of eff ort into this, and it
isn’t like you work the week
before Chief Joseph Days,”
said Darlene Turner, Har-
ley Tucker’s daughter who
also has been involved with
the event for decades. “It’s a
year-around job anymore.”
Longtime involvement
A discussion between
CJD Board President Terry
Jones and rodeo announcer
Jody Carper encapsulated
what has kept the rodeo
thriving for 7½ decades.
“He said ‘Think about
what we need to do (for
nightly openings) for the
75th,’” Jones said. “‘We
need to do some opening
about why it has been here
for 75 years.’ When I look
around, it is the people that
have been involved.”
The reasons, Jones said,
people get involved with
Chief Joseph Days — and
stay involved — are many.
For him, it was that his
daughter, Teah, was a mem-
ber of the court in 1991.
Jones began to get
involved that year, and has
been a part of the rodeo
since. He said, too, there are
several past court members
who are on the present CJD
board.
The court has been a
major part of the rodeo since
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Those in the arena for four nights get the glory, but it’s hard-working volunteers, a commitment to excellence and more from
unheralded heroes that have made Chief Joseph Days not only survive, but thrive for 75 years now.
the beginning. Generations
of young women have served
as court princesses, with one
being crowned queen annu-
ally — with the exception of
1986, when three of Tuck-
er’s granddaughters shared
the title, and in 2020-21,
with the current court of
Casidee Harrod, Destiny
Wecks and Brianna Micka
all being named queen.
The decades of royalty, in
fact, will be honored on the
fi nal night of the rodeo.
“On Saturday night we’ll
point that (royalty connec-
tion) out,” Jones said. “We’re
going to have, hopefully, as
many past court members as
possible walk into the arena,
so people can realize there is
a bg connection.
Turner has been a part,
in one way or another, even
longer.
“We’ve spent a lifetime
trying to keep it going,” she
said.
Her father was instru-
mental in getting CJD started
back in the 1940s, when the
fi rst rodeo was held on the
moraine.
“It’s something that
we’ve all worked for for as
long as we’ve been able to
do it,” she said. “When they
started it, there were a few
people in town who wanted
to make this happen, and
my dad had the stock and
everything, so that is how it
began.”
Turner and her late
husband, Dave, worked
together for decades help-
ing with rodeo operations.
Darlene Turner served as the
board president four diff er-
ent times. All her daughters
served as court members.
Nancy
Waters
fi rst
became involved with the
rodeo six decades ago.
“I was on the court way
back in 1961, I was a prin-
cess — Nancy Wilson,” she
said.
Waters joined the rodeo
committee and served as
treasurer for 18 years. She,
like Turner, worked along-
side her now late husband,
Keith, for years. Her daugh-
ters, Diane and Dawnette,
were on the court, with
Diane being named queen.
Waters lives in Boise
now, but still volunteers
in the souvenir booth and
hospitality room each year
when she returns to Joseph.
Volunteers, in fact, play a
huge role.
“It’s the volunteers and
the people they want to
show up and do a good job”
who make a diff erence,
Jones said.
Waters added that it
became a way of life.
“We worked hard to put
on Chief Joseph Days, but
those were also all of our
friends. We were like one
family working together,”
he said. “We all became
such close friends. It was a
way of life for us.”
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From the start, Turner
said the rodeo staff was
always looking for ways to
improve the rodeo.
That spirit has also
endured for decades.
“We just wanted to make
it better than the next year
and just strive to do better,”
Turner said.
Early on, Turner said
her parents saw the value in
bringing the best entertain-
ment possible to the arena.
“With Mom and Dad
being out with all the other
committees and every-
thing, they saw what they
thought would be entertain-
ing. They brought the best
entertainment Joseph could
aff ord,” she said. “We had
the best announcers, the
best clowns. It was because
of their knowledge that that
happened.
“When we were in it with
my husband and I, we tried
to follow those same lines.
We tried to hire the best
acts, the best clowns and
all that so it would be pretty
professional.”
Jones said the board
today has the same vision,
and said it’s not cheap bring-
ing the top acts in.
“We’re between about
$175,000 and $200,000 that
we’re committed to in con-
tract (acts),” he said. That’s
a lot of money for Wallowa
County for an event.”
The board also pays
more $50,000 in added prize
money for rodeo contes-
tants, Jones said.
It’s more, too, than just
paying for the best. Work is
constantly done to keep the
Harley Tucker Memorial
Rodeo Grounds in top con-
dition, whether it’s paint-
ing the grandstands, repair-
ing old sections or updating
a portion of the area.
One upgrade done this
year, for example, was the
expansion of the space and
seating in the beer garden.
While several volun-
teers help with updating the
grounds, Turner said Max
and Gary Prout are two in
particular who step up each
spring and summer.
The goal, Jones said, is
to “make it bigger and better
every year.”
“We try to improve
things, make our grounds
better, make our rodeo bet-
ter, anything we can do,”
he said, acknowledging that
doesn’t mean anything is
bad, but rather if things can
be further improved upon.
“In all the time I’ve been
involved, that has kind of
been the No. 1 thing. We
just want to make this bet-
ter. They just want to keep
improving it. We hope it’s
been good all along. We
hope people enjoy it and that
it is good, but we still want
to do things better if there is
a way we can do it.”
Recognition
Jones was shocked one
day a few years ago when,
checking into a hotel and
picking up a Western mag-
azine that features some
of the best rodeos, that the
rodeo he was a part of was
featured on the list of “Top
10 must-see rodeos.”
“You got your Chey-
ennes and Pendletons and
those,” he said. “They got a
write-up on each one. I go to
the top of the second page,
and it says Chief Joseph
Days. To get mentioned in
an article like that with those
big rodeos, it was very grat-
ifying. It makes all those
long nights, whenever we’re
up there painting, pullings
weeds, it makes it seem
worthwhile.”
Magazine writers aren’t
the only ones who constantly
sing the praises of the CJD.
Hospitality is constantly
pointed to as top-notch.
Jones said PRCA judges are
asked to comment each year
on the quality of stock, the
arena and more.
“They give us a really
good report,” Jones said.
Carper, who has been the
rodeo announcer for CJD
close to a decades and does
rodeos across the county,
said he is constantly asked
what his favorite rodeo is.
He says, unequivocally,
that it’s Chief Joseph Days.
“Some announcers prob-
ably wouldn’t say that,
(but) it really is my favorite
rodeo, just the way it is set
up, the way the crowds are,
(Wallowa) Lake is a huge
draw,” he said. “The people
in there, they are like fam-
ily to me. I’m tight with a lot
on the committee, and even
other people around the
area there that are not on the
committee.
“And they do every-
thing so great. The food is
so good, they feed us three
times a day, you don’t get
that at every rodeo. They
take care of you so well.
There is an excitement in the
air. That is something you
don’t get elsewhere.”
Carper said the people
who put on Chief Joseph
Days are reasons No. 1, 2
and 3 why it is successful,
saying they know what the
event requires.
“That is what’s pushing it
for 75 years is quality peo-
ple,” he said. “At the end
of the day, they want it to
be good, they know how to
make it good and who to ask
to take it to the next level.”
The rodeo announcer said
the popularity of the sport
is rising, and that he is see-
ing packed arenas across the
nation.
“And I expect that again
in Joseph,” he said. “I think
it’s going to be bigger this
year.”
Turner said her father,
who was so instrumental
in getting the rodeo off the
ground, would be stunned at
where it is, 75 years later.
“To see what they have
done, there are so many peo-
ple who have contributed
to that. I think he would be
amazed to see how great it
is now,” she said. “I think
a lot of those people that
have passed on that had their
heart and soul in it worked
very hard toward making
CJD what it is today.”
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