Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 2000)
Special Edition Morrow County Fair & Rodeo • Heppner Gazette-Times, Wednesday, August 9, 2000-Page 7 training. Of course the couple found a closeness to each other. Barbara and Joe's family did luck. The group made sure not agree with the couple's future everyone had a ride to the next plans of marriage so the couple rodeo, entry fees were paid and started their life together in a everyone had food in their simple way and eloped in Reno, stomach. No strings were Nevada. attached to this type of care. They traveled the circuit Barbara had a very feminine together for several years. Joe side to her. She had talent in was dedicated to his way of life raising and training horses that and, being only a 145-pound bull few people had back in the dogger, he had his work cut out 1930s. This side of the couple for him. Barbara was beside him was rarely seen. through these years. Joe was a first generation Joe began working on the Catholic Portuguese, bom in family ranch in Salinas in 1942 1912. Barbara was a first while he continued to rodeo. The generation Lutheran Swiss, bom ranch was mostly row crops of in 1920. Their roots are from lettuce, celery and other table Salinas, California, where vegetables. The ranch was large Barbara met Joe. They lived next with a yearly cash flow of $140 door to each in the 1930s. to $150 thousand a year. They Joe made a living riding bulls, had immigrant housing and the broncs and bull dogging on the ranch prospered during this time. TURTLE circuit (the first Joe's main events in rodeo were professional rodeo cowboys bull dogging and riding bulls. He association). He was 16 when he knew' his talents well, yet he was began his career in rodeo. He strategic in his rodeo game plan. traveled all over the midwest and He always entered bulls and bull the Pacific coast. dogging, but then he would look Barbara made a living raising at the competition and if the list and training horses (a very was low in "talent" for bareback uncommon job for a woman at or saddle bronc then he would that time). Barbara learned her enter both these events too. methods from renowned horse Joe and Barbara traveled the trainers like Tom and Bill circuit and ran the ranch until Dorance and Monty Roberts. 1952. Joe competed for 24 years Their methods at the time were of his life in rough stock events the non-traditional "gentle" horse and the most amazing aspect of Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo dedicated to the Cunhas i Joe & Barbara Cunha By Sue Gibbs Hard work, companionship, competition, community and dedication to a healthy life on the land probably best sum up a unique couple from Heppner who recently past away. Material goods mean little to Joe and Barbara Cunha. They both spent their long lives ranching and their roots were deep in horsemanship and rodeo. A good description of the couple's exterior personalities was plainly "gruff'. They kept their distance from strangers and almost had a fear toward other people and being taken advantage of. Joe was, perhaps, hard to do business with and Barbara was shy, plain looking and wore mostly men's clothing. An interior look at this couple, however, revealed very kind, generous people with refined manners. The best part of Joe's life was rodeo. Why? Simply, it was the companionship and competition. Everyone on the circuit took care of the guy who was down on his / # \ (WH€M1W1D) * m u* A * c* ewfTW. me. Jim Swanson, Nancy Snider, Stacie Hiller 265 N. Main Street, P.O. Box G, lone, OR 97843 (541) 422-7410 • Fax: (541) 422-7124 • 1-800-585-7410 Fir All if fu r linraacf Hrcdi Proud ti Soppirt Oir (nnty fair COME VISIT US AT THE MORROW COUNTY FAIR and sample some of our award-winning cheese T illam ook C ounty Cream ery A ssociation 4 1 7 5 H ighway 101 North T illam ook, Oregon 9 7 1 4 1 (503) 8 4 2 -4 4 8 1 '§J Tillamook his rodeo career was that he only broke one bone in his body competing. He broke his ankle from a pick-up man's horse. Joe and Barbara were sole managers of the Salinas ranch after Joe's dad passed away in 1948. It was a family affair with his brother and two sisters. However, the love of working the land only ran deep in the Cunha brothers' blood and when Joe's brother past away in 1972 the ranch was sold. Joe was bitter about this sale but his love for ranching would not stop. Joe and Barbara began their search for new ground to ranch. They fell in love with 4,0000 acres on Willow Creek near Heppner. They began their life in Oregon raising sheep and cattle. Joe and Barbara lived the last 28 years of their life in Heppner, but their beliefs in life never changed. They worked the ranch until the day they died. The last year on the ranch it was known that Barbara drove truck, Joe drove tractor and they fed out 150 mother cows and over 100 head of ewes. They needed little in their life but companionship, hard work, the land and the animals around them. They believed in a healthy life and their community. Rodeo was a precious part of this and it helped shape them into the people they were. Barbara past away last year after her health failed from cancer. Joe truly loved her and she was his companion. So, after her death, he simply had little desire to continue living and passed away last November. Joe and Barbara might have had a rough exterior, but rodeo and this Heppner community touched their lives dearly and they showed it the only way they knew how. They left their estate to those who touched their lives dearly. The Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo was the proud recipient of $30,000. The money was spent toward payment to the new grand stands. They also left $50,000 dollars to Pioneer Memorial Hospital because of the care the hospital showed the Cunhas in their later years. They left $50,000 to both the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Association in hopes the money could help others in time of need. Their last contribution was $50,0000 to the Justin Cowboy Crisis so competing cowboys and cowgirls could be taken care of w hen they needed help. The Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo appreciates both Joe and Barbara for simply being the people they were and having the compassion and heart to be so giving to those around them. The 2000 Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo program will be dedicated to the Cuhna family in memory of their life in rodeo and the Heppner community. They left this world a better place.
