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)
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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.