Making Moses Lake a rodeo town

Editor’s note: This is a Columbia Basin Herald second in an exclusive three-part series on the rich history of the Moses Lake Roundup and its tribute to western heritage. Herald staffer Rodney Harwood sat down with longtime Moses Lake Roundup committee members Mick Hansen, Bill West, Paul Kersey and Larry Schwab to talk about the Moses Lake Roundup, which is now 75 years in the making.

By RODNEY HARWOOD

Staff Writer

MOSES LAKE — When the rodeo was over, they’d turn all the wild horses loose to run the open prairie until the next year.

It’s come a long way since Harold Schwab, Royal Rauter, Bud Saunders, Forbes Grigg and Guy Giersdorf put their heads together with the idea that Moses Lake could put on a better rodeo than the Pasco event they participated in back in 1943.

Like any good campfire story, the story of the Moses Lake Roundup is best told by guys whose daddies, uncles and granddaddies know a little something about how it was and handed down the tale from one generation to the next.

There wasn’t the internet or a computer to store the information back then, just a man’s word. But around these parts, a handshake and a man’s word means something.

Schwab’s uncle Harold Schwab was there from the very beginning. As Larry recalls, five local cowboys went down to Pasco to ride in a rodeo in the early 1940s. As they made their way back home, they stopped on a country road and pulled up a spot under a shade tree.

“That shade tree was over at Broadway and Alder where the first Roundup was,” said Schwab, who used to ride bulls back in the day. “They decided they could put on a better rodeo than the one they were just at.”

It was on that day, during a time when America was starting to put the Great Depression behind them, “Gone With the Wind” was the film of the day, nylon stockings were the latest craze with American women and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just been elected for a third term, those five cowboys envisioned a rodeo in Moses Lake.

Like Harold Schwab, Royal Rauter, Bud Saunders, Forbes Grigg and Guy Giersdorf, the 21st-century guys have carried the vision into an era where rodeo has become a multi-million-dollar industry, where the National Finals Rodeo is held in the big city and bright lights of Las Vegas, where the stock is almost as famous as the cowboys that ride them.

But without the likes of past committee president Mick Hansen, Bill West, whose father was the arena announcer for years, past president Paul Kersey and longtime committee member Larry Schwab, who has been on the committee for over three decades, the Moses Lake Roundup might have faded off into the sunset instead of celebrating 75 years.

They are the past, present and future, along with a vast number of volunteers.

There wasn’t a shade tree to sit under, but as they recalled their favorite rodeo or special moment, the twinkle in the eye and smile on their face was enough to say it’s been worth the ride.

West pushed an old black and white photograph of a calf roper across the table.

“If you look at the background in the stands (which were nearly empty), that’s what we were up against when we first started,” he said. “We had a tough time competing with Ellensburg, Omak or Pendleton (Ore.). It’s due to a lot of hard work, but we have made this a rodeo town. Back in the early ’60s we wanted to build the new arena (at the Grant County Fairgrounds) and we knew we had to generate more income than previous years.

“So we hired a Dan Blocker, who played Hoss on ‘Bonanza.’ He came out came to the old arena (1961) and was just a tremendous hit. The people were hanging from the rafters and we generated enough money to build the arena where we’re at now.

“My dad called it the ‘House that Hoss built.’”

They brought in Michael Landon (Little Joe) in 1962 and country singer and film star Rex Allen (1964-65), and the Sons of the Pioneers, but it was Dan Blocker that touched the hearts and spirit of the Columbia Basin rodeo fans.

See Friday’s Columbia Basin Herald for the conclusion to this exclusive three-part series on the 75th annual Moses Lake Roundup, which runs Aug. 16-18  at the Grant County Fairgrounds.