Chief Joseph Days aims to ride this year

Published 6:00 am Thursday, May 7, 2020

Chief Joseph Days director Terry Jones is not giving up on holding the annual rodeo as usual during the last weekend of July. The rodeo has been an annual event for 74 years.

JOSEPH — Chief Joseph Days has been celebrated on the last full weekend of July for the past 74 years. If the rodeo’s board of directors has its way, this year will mark 75.

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“The community and our sponsors have supported us generously through all the years,” said director Terry Jones. “They count on Chief Joseph Days economically. It’s a mutual relationship. Especially this year, we want to support our sponsors and the community.”

Jones said the Chief Joseph Days board will make a final decision in late June on whether to hold the 75th rodeo this year or postpone it until 2021. That will depend on whether the state is opening and what the governor’s phased guidelines specify. They are cautiously optimistic the show can go on as it has for 74 years.

“We’re not trying to endanger the community. We’re not trying to bring in the virus. We’re just trying to ride this out in the hope that we can have a rodeo and support the community,” Jones said.

The board has wrestled with the decision to cancel or hold the rodeo since early March when it became apparent lots of public events were likely to be scratched due to state-mandated COVID-19 social distancing requirements and stay-home orders.

“The first thing we thought of was that we would have to cancel this year. That would have been the easy thing to do,” Jones said.

But directors considered the economic and social repercussions of cancelation, it became evident the “easy” solution was rife with complications.

For one, Jones said, 18-25% of the total tourism revenue for businesses in Wallowa County, especially restaurants, bars, and lodging, is generated during Chief Joseph Days. If the event was canceled, especially this year, Jones said he thought the economic consequences could be a potential disaster for business.

“You might just as well hit ‘em over the head,” he said. “I think this year a lot of people are looking at the revenue from Chief Joseph Days visitors as their profit for the year, like my family did when they ran Russell’s at the Lake long ago.”

For another, Chief Joseph Days is more than a rodeo. For many, it’s a time when family and friends visit. It’s time when former Wallowa County residents return home for a week.

“For the economic impact alone, we just couldn’t cancel,” Jones said. “Then we began thinking of all those other things, and we just had to hang on and hope.”

The Chief Joseph Days directors are sticking with the traditional, last weekend of July dates. And keeping their fingers crossed that by then the state will be more open., allowing generous crowds to fill the grandstands, the riders, ropers, and performers to assemble, along with the broncs, bulls, and steers.

“We owe it to our sponsors, the community, the businesses and all the wonderful people who have put this rodeo on now and for all the years it’s been going,” Jones said. “It’s not just a rodeo. It’s about people and this community. We owe it to them to make this the best rodeo and gathering we can — especially this year.”

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