YEE-HAW!!! Pendleton Oregon

Pendleton, Oregon –  Rolling wheat fields, cattle ranches and home of the famous Pendleton Roundup. The roundup is a huge rodeo event and pageant, held every September.  We’ll be gone by then unfortunately, but we did have time to visit the  Pendleton Roundup and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame, where we talked with the docents about the history of the event and admired memorabilia of all types.

We learned the story of Warpaint,  the mounted (as in "stuffed") horse that greeted us as we entered. He was a bronc who was famous for his ability to toss riders, and who liked to bite! That’s why he’s posed with his mouth open. The displays included historic Native American costumes and beadwork, rodeo clothing and leather work,  a lot of historic information regarding the rodeo itself, and a full size teepee.

The hall of fame is right across from the rodeo arena, so you can really picture the event. Happy Canyon is the back side of the arena, which fills up with a Native American village and hosts the pageant portion of the rodeo. The bronze in front of the arena is world famous, not only as a symbol of the rodeo, but also as the logo for Pendleton Whisky.

Some folks will think we're crazy, but as we aren’t too fond of crowds we’re just as happy to see it before the festivities are set in motion.

Pendleton, in addition to the rodeo, is a neat western town to visit. The old downtown has some really classic  old cow-town buildings, most filled with modern “saloons”, western wear shops, restaurants and the like. The famous Hamly Steakhouse wasn’t open for lunch, but we were able to go in and got a brief “tour” from the manager – what a beautiful establishment! And talk about historic furnishings. . . the divider between the restaurant and lounge is the tellers counter wall from the last bank that Butch Cassidy and his gang held up, while the bar back itself is Victorian and came from a town in Montana. The whole restaurant is beautifully done, and their prices didn’t look too bad.

I paid a visit to the Pendleton Quiltworks, which has to be the friendliest quilt shop in the state, and picked up a few pieces of fabric for my projects. Meanwhile, Steve chatted with folks a couple of doors down at the Prodigal Son. I joined him later for a cold one and lunch. (We tend to schedule my quilt shopping at stores with a pub nearby.) There was a moment of deja vu as I looked around the room and noticed a large print of Dr. Pierce's Barn, which is in Cottage Grove (where we used to live).

In addition to the rodeo, Pendleton is also famous for the Pendleton Woolen Mill, producers of wool blankets and clothing, so we couldn’t pass up a chance to visit the mill and take their tour. It was very informative and we learned a few  interesting facts – first, all the fabric for clothing is made in the Portland, Oregon, facility which also does all the dying and washing of the wool and finished products. The mill in Pendleton cards the wool, spins the yarn and weaves blankets.  It’s quite a partnership between the two mills. We also learned that some of the looms they use for tapestries are quite old, but have been computerized, and they produce some fantastic products. We saw a few of them on the walls of the mill during our tour. We have a little album from the tour, if you are interested in how the process works.

While in Portland we stayed at the Wildhorse Casino RV park. As casino parks go it’s pretty nice, especially if you can get one of the spaces along the back row as we did. We had a nice, open wheat field behind us and a fairly spacious grassy patio area.  Wildhorse is a Native American casino, and we noticed that, in contrast to many Native American casinos we’ve visited, most all the staff here actually is Native American.  The tribes seem to be doing a top notch job of managing the business too – they were racing to finish at least seven floors of a huge new hotel complex on the  casino, with the goal of being ready for the Pendleton Roundup rush.

Adjacent to the RV park is a beautiful cultural center called Tamastaklikit. We very much enjoyed our visit. Displays and videos cover the history and culture of the Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Nes Perce and other tribes in the area. There are several examples of different housing types in the outdoor area that often house crafters, demonstrating traditional arts. The young craftspeople we met out in the tule reed shelter were beading jewelry at the time, and were very friendly and conversational.

Our last day in Pendleton was devoted to stocking up (again!) and getting ready for a meet-up with friends at Anson Wright, a county park in Morrow County. ( on SR 207)