Tale of Two Rodeos

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Hello Everyone!

I‘ve participated in three organized rodeos. First was in Lincoln, Montana the summer of 1974. Working with three other cowboys for the 33-Bar Ranch near Holland Lake, we had the 4th of July off. Of course the crew headed to town for the rodeo.

One the way out the rodeo grounds west of Lincoln, I was cajoled into entering the open class bull riding. Fortunately, the bull I drew was rather puny—so the head-first fall to the ground wasn’t all that far.

Next up was the 1975 Oral Zumwalt Memorial Rodeo at the KO Rodeo Grounds up Miller Creek south of Missoula. Might as well take a stab at saddle bronc riding, right?

While I did a mighty fine job of staying on the bronc for the mandatory eight seconds, no one told the horse he was supposed to actually buck during that time period.

Third time was in college in Bozeman. Team roping with my partner Dick Lyman, we made the finals of the 1977 MSU spring rodeo. Dick set the steer up nicely with a quick head catch I simply whiffed, missing both hind legs with a wayward loop..

It was a short-lived rodeo career.

Read on as I share a couple other Montana rodeo stories. One sunny and nostalgic—the other no quite so….

Regarding the former though, as you’ll see in this post’s first vignette, rodeos and dances used to go hand in hand. And our Mom and Dad liked both. While they were never rodeo performers, our parents used to be quite a pair on the dance floor.

And about dancing, Dad had a saying:

“Dancing is like dinner salad—it’s what you have to go through to get to the good stuff.”

Ok ok ok… See you next week!

Charley Pike

There was a 50th wedding anniversary in 1992 at the Kiwanis Hall in Harlowton. One of the anniversary party’s highlights was the presentation of photo featuring former cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry signed by the star himself.

“Congratulations & my best wishes always Bill & Lauree! Gene Autry”

That photo remained one of Bill’s and Lauree’s prized possessions.

The backstory is that Autry, who at the time owned half of Leo Cremer’s rodeo company, was in Big Timber for the town’s annual rodeo. It was 1955. Autry brought his guitar and band to town.

Gene Autry performed his signature song “You Are My Sunshine” at the Timber Bar after the town’s annual rodeo.

That night Lauree’s aunt, May McKenzie, who lived in Big Timber, asked Autry to perform the song for the couple. May knew that You Are My Sunshine had been ”their” song for years.

Family legend claims Autry commented from the stage, “Those two look like they’ve been dancing together for 50 years!”

Well in 1955 Bill and Lauree had only been dancing together for a little over a quarter that time. But, yes they danced a together a lot and they danced together to Autry’s song again at their 50th wedding anniversary.

Of course Autry wasn’t present that day in Harlow. But through the help of a family friend who claimed he once dated one of Autry’s secretaries used the contact to obtain the signed photo of the cowboy actor—along with a personalized cassette-tape recording of his signature song.

By some miracle—or maybe just by hoarding—the rodeo program from that 1955 Cremer Rodeo in Big Timber survived the family archives—taped to the back of the Autry photo!

After Leo Cremer’s death in a truck accident on Nov 28, 1953, his rodeo company was sold to Hollywood actor and singer Gene Autry.

Montana’s Biggest Weekend” is held every Labor Day in Dillon.

For 68 years the Dillon Jaycees have put on quite a show for thousands of visitors from all corners of the country. The Beaverhead County Fair, a carnival, concerts, a ranch rodeo, and a firemen’s breakfast are all part of a fun week that culminates with a the Jaycees’ Western parade and Pro Rodeo.

The 1979 Dillon Labor Day Weekend though didn’t end with the usual rodeo fanfare. The festivities were dampened with tragedy in a split second—three hours before the scheduled rodeo.

A pair of F-106 Delta Darts

Two jets from the Montana Air National Guard’s (MANG) 186th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron had been dispatched from Great Falls to conduct a traditional flyover of the parade on Dillon's main street—Montana Street.

About an hour earlier the pilots in their Convair Delt Dart F-106s participated in a flyover of White Sulphur Springs. Just before 11:00 am they arrived from the north passing above Dillon. The pilots made a sweeping 180-degree turn over the Blacktail Mountains and headed back north as the parade was starting.

They aimed their planes for a wingtip-to-wingtip flyover directly above the parade route.

The parade was running late

On the ground, event organizers were hurrying to get the parade underway in time for the flyover. Setting out nearly an hour late, the High School marching band finally started the jam-packed parade up Montana Street.

The fighter jets were about two minutes early. Something went wrong during their approach. They were coming in way too low—and one witness thought, way too slow. It’s never been established why the MANG pilots were approaching the city under the 1000-foot deck.

In their path was a 150-foot tall grain elevator.

At 10:58 am, Sept 3, 1979, Captain Joel Rude’s port wing clipped the grain elevator. His aircraft exploded and the main fuselage crashed into an oil storage plant five blocks to the north. The 32-year-old Granite Falls, MN native was killed when his ejection seat parachute failed to deploy in time. He left behind a wife and two children.

At least 11 other persons were injured, four of them severely enough to be admitted to hospitals. A young pregnant woman with second and third-degree burns was flown to the burn center in Salt Lake City. Mother and baby survived.

Montana Highway Patrolman Sgt. Leo Barnett was controlling traffic ahead of the parade. Sgt. Barnett suffered serious cuts and bums from flying debris,

There were no fatalities on the ground.

And the show went on…

It’s often thought that dozens, if not hundreds, of entrants and spectators following the parade up Montana Street would have been injured or killed had the parade started on time.

The Dillon police evacuated 10 downtown blocks as firemen, aided by helicopters and airplanes dropping chemical retardants, extinguished fires at the oil storage plant and elevator.

Meanwhile, despite the shock of the morning crash, the Jaycees started the afternoon rodeo on schedule. Rodeo officials said the crash probably accounted for the fact that attendance was down!

During intermission at the rodeo 18 year-old Katie Todd, the reigning Miss Livingston Roundup, was crowned Miss Rodeo Montana.

Dave Wagner of Huntley wowed the crowd with a bull ride that earned him a score of 80. Jock McDowell of Wisdom, won the average in the saddle bronc riding.

There hasn’t been a Labor Day flyover in Dillon since 1979. But, it’s still “Montana’s Biggest Weekend.”

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