OUT WHERE THE WEST BEGINS 



Bozeman, Montana; Bovina, Texas; Sioux City, 

 Iowa; Battle Ground, Tacoma, and Seattle in Wash- 

 ington, with others in Arizona and New Mexico, as 

 well as a thousand less known little ones. 



To Cheyenne must be given the credit of presenting 

 what was probably the first big contest, Frontier Days, 

 staged as a show. This was indelibly put on the pages 

 of history by that ardent lover of the West and its 

 spirit, — the great American, the late Theodore Roose- 

 velt. Different ranch outfits put on the Frontier 

 Days exhibitions — McCarty and Guilford one year for 

 instance, Charlie Irwin another. The tremendous 

 success of these shows will always stand to the credit of 

 those efficient and enthusiastic managers. 



Each show has a slogan, as indispensable as that of 

 clan or college, expressed in terms of the cow-camp. 

 A few of the words of that terse and expressive 

 phraseology are arbitrary and carry no special signifi- 

 cance of their origin or of themselves, but those in 

 common usage are wonderfully to the point to one 

 who knows chaparral and sage-brush and loves the 

 smell of leather. At Walla Walla the slogan is "Let 

 'er kick"; at Grangeville, "Hook'em cow," a term of 

 encouragement to a roped or "bulldogged" steer. At 

 Pendleton it is "Let 'er buck," a phrase which, briefly in- 

 terpreted, means "get busy", but is primarily applied to a 

 cowboy about to mount the hurricane deck of a "buck- 

 ing" broncho; and when you hear that cowboy yell, 

 whether in the arena at Pendleton or on the range, it is 

 a safe bet that something startling is about to begin. 



Human actions are but thoughts expressed, and 

 when a group of Pendletonians desire to start some- 

 thing distinctively original, yet adapted to the Pendle- 

 ton country, it is a safe bet that it will be put over. 

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