100 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Sept. 15, 1920

In days gone by, Butte was nearly as wild as Happy Canyon is. That is one of the reasons why the Happy Canyon dance committee contracted with Myers’ Novelty Orchestra, formerly with the Butte Gille, to furnish music for the four nights of Happy Canyon. The orchestra of late has been playing at Dreamland, Astoria, and its fame in Oregon is carried under the name of the Dreamland Orchestra. Having the reputation of being the best dance music orchestra in the northwest the sextet will vend jazz strains for the hundreds who nightly throng to the wildest little city in the west. Happy Canyon management reports 150 Astorians are coming with their soles slicked up to dance to the strains of their favorite music. In addition to the standard Pullmans, the train that bears the Lower Columbians will have two dining cars and an observation car. This train will be parked intact in Pendleton for three days and will be a hotel on wheels for the members of the party.

50 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Sept. 15, 1970

“You could hear the crowds all the way to Rieth,” reminisced Ella Ganger, a nominee to the Round-Up Hall of Fame this year who rode in the cowgirl races the first three Pendleton Round-Ups, along with her sister, Rhoda Lesley. “They knew we girls rode so they sent a delegate out to the Ukiah ranch to interview our father (Henry Lazinka Sr.) and see if he would let us ride. He brought in four horses for my relay ride and three horses for Rhoda’s straight races.” The cowgirls’ relay race involved four horses, three changes, and every half mile when the rider changed horses she had to change the 25-pound saddle. All of which was done in a full length riding skirt. “We didn’t know they were hard to ride in,” says Mrs. Ganger. “That’s all we had.” The two girls never practiced for their races — “We just thought of it as an old wild west show,” laughs Mrs. Lesley — but they were in good condition because they helped their father on the range. They did get to wear shorter bloomer pants for that.

25 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Sept. 15, 1995

Nearly everybody, it seems, gets into the Western spirit during Round-Up. Colorful brushpoppers, tight-fitting jeans and dapper hats are donned by even the most button-downed businessmen as the city transforms itself into what amounts to a cowboy costume party. The sales tables come out right after Labor Day, stacked high with mountains of boots, jeans, hats, shirts and belts. Store owners in Pendleton call the cash frenzy over cowboy clothes the closest thing to Christmas. To accommodate the crowds, Jim Gibeau, manager of Emporium, stocks the store with an extra 100 cases of Wrangler jeans — or about 2,000 more pairs than are normally on hand.