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Show 7V GUIDE 3J& THURSDAY, JULY PAUL HARVEY FEATURES CLASSIFIEDS tf 197b along the bear river SUPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS EXAMINER, PRESTON CITIZEN. CACHE CITIZEN. GRACE ClIlZEN AND THE LEADER GARLAND TIMES ri i: i ' ' JK P p : deos combined a wild west" town atmosphere and illegal slot machines to get the shows solvent. There were slots in the beer halls and hitching posts in the streets. Bill Head, Franklin County Sheriff in those days, recalls being asked to travel to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation to contract Indians for the rodeo. Head would sign up the Indians and bring them back to Preston where they added an atmosphere to the event and were crowd please rs. Also in those early days, speciality acts consisted of Roman riders and auto polo played in the arena with stripped down cars with rings around them so they would roll on the curves. would normally bypass a rodeo of Preston's size, to compete here. It is interesting to note that Ferguson, who went on to earn $67,000 last year, performed poorly when trying to rope a Kerby calf and failed to place in the Preston calf roping event. Over the years the Preston rodeo arena loudspeaker has carried the names of many other top professional cowboys including Idaho's own pro, Dean Oliver. It has also spurred many young cowboys into the bigger leagues giving them their minor league experience. These names would number by the scores. A rodeo is a rodeo and those who have traveled the rodeo circuit in earnest feel that many Preston shows compare favorably with those in Cheyenne, Calgary, Denver and Houston the big ones. CVNL editor and Preston Citizen columist Hart adds that night Eiaseball was first played in Cincinnati in 1935 and that when the first night rodeo committee set up the lights, they probably did not realize they were making rodeo history and thus did not check out and confirm the THE BUCKIN BRONC hat become one of the traditional sites at the Rodeo, with the Preston Night an a By GARY RAWLINGS No other rodeo group has ever disputed Prestons claim to the "first night" rodeo the 40th annual event will boast again this year. July 31 and Aug. 2 will mark 40 straight years of that great western outdoor show which takes its place among the biggest and the best of the small Rodeo Cowboy Association (RCA) shows in the country. Like many other rodeos in the West, Prestons had its start in a make-d- o arena and saw competition between the local hands. TODAY IT attracts some of the best cowboys on the circuit and this year will feature Miss Rodeo America, Connie Della Lucia, of Ogden. It will also boast a purse which compares favorably with any rodeo its size in the West and D. A. (Swanney) Kerby stock which is the finest in the intermountain west. According to oldtimers, the Preston rodeo started through the interest and concern of Preston businessmen who were more concerned with providing a good western show than with making money. THE FIRST night rodeo" was held in connection with the Franklin County Fair and Horse Show. Mel Reeves, taking over from Charlie Cutler as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, directed the building of the first arena. The present rodeo grounds were given to the Chamber on lease in 1938 with an option to buy anytime in 60 Rodeo the granddaddy of them all as far as a night rodeo is concerned. years from the county commission. The agreement , eluded the stipulation that the grounds be kept in good repair. in-- The commission probably doubted the future of the show. Needless to say, the rodeo arena today is an attractive addition to the fairgrounds and the event by itself now outshines the annual fair. The horse show has also since fallen off in popularity. THE RODEO grounds were finally purchased, the arena upgraded and the event now draws thousands of fans each year. An annual rodeo parade" was added in later years and just recently an Oldtimers Reunion was begun in with the rodeo. It will be held on Saturday, Aug. 2, this year. k Several rodeos were held before night status" was given the diow. Theo and Emil Pettorborg, the Hull' brothers. Tom Handy, Dick 'Bowden and Whet Kimball combined efforts in dusty afternoon rodeos before the Chamber took the bull by the horns in 1935. From a handful of local cowpokes competing for practically nothing in 1923 to 130 RCA cowboys contesting for a purse near $10,000 in 1975, the Preston rodeo has indeed come a long way. The Preston Rodeo doesnt offer the $130,669 purse of the richest rodeo in the world the Cheyenne Frontier Days but it isnt far behind the 25th show on the top 25 list the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo which' offers $23,790. PRESTONS ? U , Garland in Box Elder County owes its existance to one of the great forces of nature, that of water. This has been the controlling factor in the development of the valley. Due to the depositing of great masses of alluvial soil, at the time of Lake Bonneville, the ability of the soil to produce was assured. For ages the soil lay . dormant. ' Indians tramped up and down the valley. Here they camped by the Bear River and succeeded in gaining a FIRST "N , 4 i ro best small RCA rodeos around and one that has e cowattracted a boy. In 1974, Tom Ferguson, who went on to capture the RCA Champion Cowboy title, competed in Preston. His likes the big names have also been in town. big-nam- THE STAR of that Famous Preston Night Rodeo this year will be Connie Lucia, Miss Rodeo America. THE RODEO committee consented to a trade-ou- t system for cowboys which enabled Ferguson, who s ' A by hunting and river may seem small in comparison with some rivers; but it is simply in the destinies of many people. A slow meandering river going to an inland sea seems almost devoid of possibilities, but this me held many. Bear River held sufficient water to irrigate the valley, but the pioneer was helpless in the face of great obstacles and could derive no benefit from it. builder of the canal, they decided to call their settlement Garland. Prior to this time the settlement had been called Sunset and even before that it was known as Poverty Flat for that was what it resembled to those early settlers. After the irrigation system was completed, various experiments were made to determine what could be grown here. The first sugar beets in the valley were IN 1884 John A. Larson, one of the first permanent Sr. The beets were shipped to Ogden to be made into sugar. on IN 190! the Utah Sugar Company built the beet industry by raising beets in the county and shipping them to Lehi to be processed. In 1903 they built their Garland factory at a total of livelihood fishing. This now East Garland. Most of the settlers were young and adventurous and had the determination to win and their efforts have been rewarded. These people farmed what land they could without water. No doubt these early settlers looked wistfully at the water of the Malad and Bear River as it slowly wended its way to the great Salt Lake. In 1889 the canal system was started by John R. Bothwell of Kansas City. The contract for the building of the canal was awarded to William Garland, also of Kansas City. The people were aware of the blessings that the irrigation system was to bring to them. In to give honor to the ocr . t J i;'j iff i K settlers of the valley settled the Bear River in what is THE U and I Sugar company plant, the last sugar factory in Utah. first night" rodeo claim. Hart says that the name Famous Night was used at that time and it wasnt until much later that it was realized that rodeo history had indeed been made. Committee members admit that the rodeo has rode a roller coaster over the years on an up and down scale depending on interest and the amount of work that has gone into the event each year. Over the last eight years, D. A. Kerby has produced what many feel is one of the raised by Myron $1,000,000. The Richards, factorys ori850 ginal daily capacity of tons was later increased, by enlarging the factory, to a capacity of 25000 tons daily. In 1903 the townsite of Garland was laid out on land purchased from William R. VanFleet. Oliver Wilcox and C.C. Mayfield. The principal street running west from the factory was named Factory Street. The completion of the Boar River Canal system was a dream come true for the early settlers. There seems to be some uncertainty as to the year the water was distributed. It is the opinion of some people that the canal water was not used until 1903. The East Side branch (commonly called the Hammond Canal) was not completed and the water actually delivered until the irrigation season of 1904. The original cost of constructing the Bear River Canal system was approximately $2,500,000. WITH THE completion of the canal system and the building of the sugar factory, the town began to take on new life. The town grew so rapidly that people from other sections moved their places of business to the new center. In 1929, the 250,000 bushel farmer owned wheat ware- house was completed to accomodate the thriving wheat industry in the valley. In 1930 another large warehouse was built bringing Garland 600,000 bushels of storage space. Today, one of the largest grain warehouses in the West is situated in Garland. Garland is no longer a wind swept field of bunch grass. Tall trees that used to line the main street have been cleared to make room for more and more modern homes. Garland owes its very existance to the water from the Bear River, for the water brought the farmers and the farmers grew the beets for the sugar factory. This in turn brought cattle and sheep feeders and employment, and the wheat farmers to produce feed for the livestock. The town is fittingly named for it commemorates the name of the great canal builder, William Garland. The water of the Bear River was diverted out onto the land by this man, and out of the soil there arose the city of Garland. GARLANDS WHEAT and Beet Day has its origin in a dance to celebrate the completion of the wheat warehouse in 1929. Another dance was held in 1930 to celebrate the completion of another warehouse. Both of these dances were so successful that the Lions Club decided to sponsor a full day celebration with a meeting the stake tabernacle and a rodeo to fill out the program. Since 1930 new features have been added each year, but always the program has been fast, varied and of highest quality. Originally a celebration of a successful cooperative., enterprise, Wheat Days" has become a harvest festival participated in by an entire valley which owes its prosperity to the Wheat and Beet Industries. |