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HASTINGS RODEO CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY
Building a rodeo tradition from the ground up

HASTINGS, NEB. – (August 29, 2011) Back in 1992, several Hastings men took a leap of faith.

They re-ignited an event, the Oregon Trail Rodeo, that had taken place in the early 1960’s, and brought it back to life.

This year, the Oregon Trail Rodeo celebrates its twentieth anniversary, and it’s grown from its birth back in 1992.

Wes Keebler remembers the early days. The Hastings resident was one of nine original board members, and getting the rodeo off the ground wasn’t easy. There were few volunteers, and the board did everything from setting up bucking chutes and the corrals, to hanging banners. “There was a lot of work there,” adds Darrel Stromer, another original board member. “We’d set up all the chutes and corrals, then we’d tear down after the rodeo, and load them up. If anybody would stick around to help tear down chutes, we’d take them to Bernardo’s for supper after it was done.”

Another thing that was difficult in the early days was sponsorships. “When we started (the rodeo), that word wasn’t hardly heard of,” Stromer says. “It was tough getting sponsors. We had to twist arms to get people to sponsor.” Sponsorship has improved, Stromer says. “The sponsorship has grown so tremendously over the years. It’s been crazy for me to see how the community has gotten behind the rodeo and the fair on sponsorship.”

When the Oregon Trail Rodeo began in 1992, it did not have that moniker. “The first year, it was called the Labor Day Jamboree,” Keebler remembers. It was in the second year that the name changed. “That was the name of the original rodeo from the ‘60’s but we didn’t know that,” he says. “I came up with that out of the blue sky and it was one of those funny coincidences.”

In the two decades since the rodeo began, volunteerism has increased, and about 65 people give of their time to make the rodeo work. “People like Stan and Glenda Ruhter and Dave Rethorst started helping us,” Keebler recalls. “That is the biggest change, going from not having a clue about what we’re doing to the point where people show up and they know what their job is and you never think about (them doing their job) twice.”

Even though the work was hard, the board had fun, too. Keebler remembers rodeo clown Donnie Green who drove an amphibious vehicle into the arena during the rodeo, equipped with a squirt gun. “He’d spray the crowd, but he’d try to pick out the board members. He did that the first night, but the second night we set up Darrel’s (Stromer) water truck at the north end, and stood at the flagpole in a cluster with the fire hose hooked up. He came after us, and we shot a stream of water sixty feet in the air and soaked that guy. He was spinning, trying to get away from the water.” Keebler laughs at the remembrance. “We had to buy him a new microphone because we soaked his other one.”

Hiring good clowns and specialty acts has been part of the rodeo’s criteria from the beginning. “One of our priorities is to hire a good act, because we’re an urban rodeo and that’s what a lot of people come for.” National Finals Rodeo quality acts such as The One Arm Bandit John Payne, Gizmo McCracken, and Troy Lerwill the Wild Child have entertained in Hastings. The clown act “is what kids talk about and that’s what brings people back.”

Keebler and Stromer were on the fair board in 1992 and oversaw the rodeo’s creation. The other board members were Luwane Nelson, Rich Asmus, Jack Friend, Ken Tilley, Willis Hunt, and Stan McMahon. Hunt and McMahon, as with Keebler and Stromer, have been rodeo committee members to the present.

And the rodeo is still going strong. This year’s dates are September 2-4 at the Adams County Fairgrounds, where it began twenty years prior. It begins at 7 pm each night and offers fan freebies such as a dance following the rodeo on September 3, and a free barbecue for all ticket holders on September 4. For more information, visit www.AdamsCountyFairgrounds.comor cal the fair office at 402-462-3247.

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