Locals reflect on the beginnings of the fair and rodeo

The Mineral County Fair and Rodeo has been the premier three days of socializing for at least 50 years, with this year's edition set for Aug. 1-3.

There are many residents that are still in the area who were key players in creating the rodeo and at a recent social gathering, several shared the inception of it as best as they remembered.

“There used to be a River Derby here and they floated a big ball from the Lozeau bridge to Superior and people made rickety rafts. They sold raffle tickets for the best time or how long it took the ball, something like that,” remembers Gary Chambers. 

“It was a daylong event and many of the boats never made it to town, so they were picked up and driven back for the little awards ceremony.” Chambers shifts gears. “Then the Logging Days. That was held on the other side of the river which is the parking lot of the (Mineral County) Food Bank, now. It was the parking lot of the Montana Bar. Chopping, ax throwing, log rolling, sawing. Insurance wouldn’t allow them to have a third year there, so we moved it to where the fairgrounds are now and it wasn’t popular at all,” he said. 

The first two years were very well received because of the location, but there weren’t enough bars close enough to where it moved to on year number three. The organization that was spearheading these events was the Superior Lions. 

“We had to do something,” he said. “We met in Duff Brockway’s garage and decided what we were going to do.” 

The idea of a rodeo floated to the surface. Brainstorming and meetings continued as the proposal developed steam. 

“The plan was sorta sketched out on a napkin, but it worked well. Roger Brockway was a bulldogger and rodeoed a lot so between him and Alan (Brockway), they knew what an arena was to look like," recalled Roger Keasting.

Permission to proceed was granted by the Mineral County Fair board and then the commissioners. 

“Ma Bell gave us all of the old telephone poles we could get out of the ground as they were replacing them. Started pulling them in March using Chamber’s old winch truck to pull them out of the ground,” Keasting said.  

From Tarkio to Dry Creek, the standing telephone poles started disappearing. 

“The poles were used for the chutes and corrals. We bought a little bit of lumber and a lot was donated. All of posts held up the pens,” he said. “Most everything was donated. 

"Diamond (Match Mill) gave us tons of lumber. The rodeo outfit in Kalispell we used gave us roping chutes and lots of pipe. They had a bunch of 3-inch pipe from drilling and 6”-inch laying around,” said Keasting. 

Wally Zimmer remembers that everything was built in place, rather than prefabricated and delivered to the sight. 

“The school let us use their shop. They had a band saw that cut metal. People would come in and volunteer. We had a crew that was cutting metal. A crew that was welding. People that were putting the board on the poles working as another team.” Chambers agreed. “Everyone helped. Alan Brockway had his backhoe over there. That is rocky dirt and took time to dig anything! After we got the poles in place, which we did on the weekends, the weather was nice and we were all there every night after work until dark. It was all volunteer work. Not everyone was a Lion but everyone helped. There were thousands of donated hours to build that thing. We’d have a little BBQ sometimes after we were done.” 

That area was selected for the rodeo grounds because it already had a chain-link fence around it and bleachers from the Logger Days. 

“A few years later when we upgraded, mostly to metal, the donations came again,” Roger Billadeau noted. “John Carpenter in Kalispell was the rodeo contractor and he gave us lots of material we needed. Rocky Mountain Rodeo Company is what I think they were called.”

“In August, we had a rodeo. That was 1982,” Gary Tourtellotte said. 

1988 it became known as the Go for the Gold Rodeo, which remains today. 

“We used to give out saddles but they became too expensive so we came up with this idea. Gold was $300 an ounce then,” smiled Keasting. 

The plan was an ounce of gold would be added to the purse each year until a cowboy or cowgirl won the overall best three different years. They didn’t have to be in a row, but three times accumulated when they participated in the Superior Lions Go for the Gold Rodeo. 

Keasting said, “Dan Cross won it the first two years. Then he got hurt. He didn’t rodeo for 10 or more years and then he came back and won his 3rd time which was 18 years later. That was in 2005 and it hasn’t been won since.”  

The purse was presented to Cross at the Regional Finals in Billings that summer hoping some cowboys would take interest and come to Superior to rodeo. Word got around from that exposure and contestants started driving further to compete.

“The very first year we had the rodeo Thursday night, the Catholic booth sold every one of their hamburgers they’d purchased for the whole fair. They had to find more in Missoula at Daily’s Meats,” chortled Zimmer. 

From there, the Mineral County Fair adjusted their days to coincide with the rodeo. Friday was originally a roping exhibition which made enough money to pay for the insurance for the rodeo Saturday and Sunday. A few years later it switched to what it is today so people could go home on Sunday. Thursday is a variety night now with family and class reunions scheduled for the first weekend in August so everyone can meet each other at the fair. 

The Lions Beer Booth is the big money maker for the organization and they in turn are great sponsors with the Christmas baskets, school scholarships, Shakespeare in the Park, and the Easter egg hunt. Bleachers in the rodeo hold 860 reserved seats with a little over 1000 seats for all spectators including general admission. 

Keasting explained, “Saturday is pretty well sold out each year. Friday, if we sell 75%, we’ve done really good. General admission is only sold the day of the event.” 

Only two stores in Superior sell the reserved rodeo tickets beginning about two weeks before the fair. Napa Auto Parts and True Value in Darlows Quality Foods.

This gathering of old friends took place in Dick Feldburgge’s basement that used to be a full-blown ceramic shop years ago. It’s his man-cave now where fellas drop by for "beer-30" now and then. 

“Guy Gould is the rodeo chairman and has all of the records. This group has the memories,” Feldburgge chortled. “But we came to realize that we couldn’t afford to add an ounce of gold every year once the price went out of our budget.”

Gould joined the Lions in 1984 and has been the Go for the Gold Rodeo chair for the last 25 years. 

“We still add gold to it when we can,” Gould explained. “Which we did last year as we had a good turnout and made more money so into the pot went some more gold. We buy from a local miner and basically, its raw gold being pretty close to 100%.” 

Gould said that Danny Cross happened to be driving I-90 to the Washington coast and saw the sign that the rodeo was that evening. He pulled off Exit 47, entered and won! 

“Kaly Goyins has won twice now in barrel racing. I think she’s from Helena, and Sam Lavene from Wolf Creek is also a two-time winner,” he said but doesn’t know if either are entered yet for this year. So how much is in the purse for 2024? “It’s an undisclosed amount, but it’s more than an ounce,” Gould says with a wink.

Superior Lions and community members that (can be remembered) were involved in the rodeo at its beginning were:

Joe McCarthy, Joe Spangler, Bob Michaels, Doug Cummings, Duff Brockway, Alan Brockway, Roger Brockway, Wendy Bye, Earl Anderson, Orville Thompson, Jim Koke, Roger Billadeau, Roger Kesting, Bob Green, Bill Donahue, Gary Tourtelotte, Clark Conrow, Erin Gussey, Ed Hollenback, John Jackman, Jay Hanson, Gary Chambers, Cliff Case, along with Diamond International, Carpenter Rodeo Company, Bell Telephone, "and a lot of names who worked on starting the event that we can’t remember,” smiles Chambers. 

Upgrading and repairs to the rodeo arena are done every year by the Lions before the rodeo who are working out there on Wednesday evenings already for this year’s event.