For years and years in this part of Montana there was only one place to be on the Fourth of July. That was the rodeo at Warrick.
There were hundreds and hundreds of spectators, hundreds of participants, numerous fights and one of the best dances Fourth of July night seen in all of Montana. Matter of fact the entire Fourth at Warrick was not to be missed year after year by many Montanans!
The first Warrick rodeo was held in 1927. The last one in 1984. Sometimes the rodeo went dark for several years but then someone would always get it up and running again. Spending the Fourth of July at Warrick when the rodeo was up and running was like a rite of passage for many a Montana young person along with older ones too.
A 1984 program gives a history of the event.
“The first rodeo in the Warrick area, but not at the present site was about 1927. It was held on the Weaver ranch. They had a corral but no shutes. They roped horses out of the corral, blindfolded them, saddled, got on and rode them out in open country. They had a dance in the hayloft of Weaver’s barn that night.
The Warrick community built the arena at the present location in the early thirties. The families helping were: Henderson, Schmid, Dumas, Kane, Norden, Boyce, Faber, Olson, Weaver, McConky, Siebrasse, Phalen and Maxwell.
They built the first arena on an old Indian campground. There are still about fifteen tepee rings below the arena. We always have Indian cowboys competing at Warrick Rodeo. A person wonders if over 100 years ago some of their ancestors camped there and what the scene looked like at the time.
They used all local stock at the new arena. The events were: saddle bronc, bareback, wild horse race, wild cow milking and cow riding. We still use some local stock but get most of the stock from a rodeo stock contractor.
There is no grandstand or bleachers at Warrick. There is a hillside part of which is kept free of cars for people to sit. The rest of the hillside people park their cars and can watch the rodeo from the car. The thing about Warrick Rodeo is you don’t have to sit in one place. You can walk around and visit. Many people come the evening of the third and camp out by the arena. They take in the rodeo and dance on the Fourth, and go home on the fifth. Ice cold beer and concessions are sold at the rodeo and dance.
Warrick has always been a place where young cowboys got started. Many of them have gone on to do very well in larger rodeos. Buck Boyce rode at Warrick in the forties. He went on to win first place at the Calgary Stampede in the bull riding of 1955. Boyce was also a director for bull riding of the professional rodeo cowboys association for two terms in the early fifties. Larry Kane went on to be rookie of the year with professional rodeo cowboys association in 1960. Larry was one of the top saddle bronc riders in the nation. Jerry Valdez practiced and rode at Warrick. Jerry went on to become rookie of the year in Canada.
Again this year we are having a Tug of War. A team of horses vs. equal weight of human beings. If humans win Warrick Roping Club will give each person that completes a six-pack of beer. Must be 19 or older to compete.”
Recently Bud and Carol Boyce along with Don Greytak sat down to reminisce about the good old days when the Warrick Rodeo reigned supreme Fourth of July.
Carol Boyce explained that the Warrick Rodeos ended in 1984 because their long time stock contractor Bud Geer could no longer supply stock and a different stock contractor would charge around a thousand dollars more for stock.
“We usually made around fifty dollars on the rodeo,” said Boyce. “We knew we would be going broke with the new charges.”
Bud Boyce recalled that there were area rodeos before 1927. There was a rodeo at the Hockanson’s ranch and the 1927 rodeo was at Weavers. The present rodeo grounds came later.
No one would hazard a guess as to how many spectators showed up. Bud Boyce said that one year so many had camped out that he took off his hat and just went around collecting fees in the hat. He laughed and said that doing it that way they probably made more money than if they had sold tickets at a gate.
Rodeo organizers had their share of bum checks through the years from participants and spectators. Many times next year Boyce and other organizers would cajol the bad check people into paying for this year and what they owed in arrears in cash just by joking them along.
One day Jack Nystrom called and said he needed to sign up for the rodeo but could not get his money to Carol Boyce in time. Nystrom said, “Oh, you can be sure my money’s good.” Boyce put the money in for Nystrom and was paid back later.
Oh, goodness but there were fights. Who had the worst one is a matter of who witnessed which one. Few were ever fought at the rodeo. It was at the dance or before that tempers, awash with Budweiser, often times got violent.
“The worst one I remember was two women fighting,” said Bud Boyce. “I don’t remember who they were but they were fighting over Clifford Frederickson.”
Boyce also remembers two guys fighting and swinging at each other and one hitting Boyce by mistake.
Don Greytak said his most memorable fight scene was one man knocking down another man and saying, “I ought to kick you when you are down. I think you would do that to me. Matter of fact I think I will.” Then the upright man starting kicking the downed man.
Another time an older man challenged Merle Boyce to a fight. Boyce hit the man who just stood there shuttering like a wounded elk, then fell to the ground. The man’s son then started hitting Boyce and yet another man came to Boyce’s rescue. Such were the grand fights at Warrick.
There was dance. It was usually put on by a social organization called the Bear Paw Belles.
The Belles would hire the musicians. Boyces’ and Greytak recalled through the years Jerry Kane playing violin, Richard Schmid calling square dances, Babe Malone playing his saxophone, and many Dumas men playing an array of musical instruments.
There was only one fatality during all those rodeo years. In the early 1950’s a cowboy was riding a horse. The horse and rider went to the end of the arena and over a fence and landed in the middle of other horses. The cowboy was killed.
Then there was the year that Rocky Boy decided the rodeo was making too much money and charged a fee to go through the reservation on upper Beaver Creek. Most rodeo goers not wanting to pay a road fee as well as a rodeo fee went around by Clear Creek that year.
There was the year of the disaster. It had been hot and dry and the arena was dry as a bone. Bud Boyce set his irrigation sprinklers in the arena to wet it down. Then there was a cloud burst and the day of the rodeo so much mud that people couldn’t lift their legs out of bottomless bogs of goo.
Bud Boyce said he was not a very popular guy that year.
1984 first section bareback entries included Ron Rowland, Tim Hanson, Doug Winchell, Tim Herron, Sam Pease and John Fitzgerald.
That year kid’s barrel racing included Lisa Bessette, Terra Brewer, Karen Boyce, Christa Bickford, Dusty Solomon, Billy Jean Ball, Carrie Gilmore, Sister Williams, Valarie Chopwood, Danette Longfox and Teresa Longfox.
Saddle bronc riding that year were Larry Scofield, Jack Nystrom, Steve Fox, Dennis Sangrey and Bill Brown.
Pretty quiet this Fourth of July should you drive through Warrick and past the old rodeo grounds. One thing for sure, though, if you ever attended a single Warrick Fourth of July Rodeo, it is something you will remember for the rest of your life!
