Pendleton Round-Up at 100: Oregon's Legendary Rodeo by Michael Bales and Ann Terry Hill Roberta Conner and William F. Willingham

Abstract

 OHQ vol. 111, no. 1 “We have built lodges in national parks and other recreational areas, but nothing like this” (p. 69). With the building mostly enclosed when serious snowfall arrived in November, carpenters, stonemasons, ironworkers, and others continued through the winter with the finishing work. During the winter season and well into 1937, artisans, craftsmen, and an assortment of artists toiled away in Portland,“making the wrought iron furnishings,wood furniture,and textiles — hooked rugs for the floor and woven fabric for upholstery and draperies in the guest rooms”(p.69).Although metal technology was well advanced beyond the“village smithy”and his forge,blacksmiths,many of them well along in years, hammered and shaped the beautiful wrought iron visible at every turn in the lodge. Artists and designers C.S.Price,Douglas Lynch, Charles Heaney, Marjery Hoffman Smith, Martina Gangle, and many others produced decorative works for the lodge. As the summer sun moved inexorably towards the southern sky in autumn 1937,work proceeded at a feverish pace to ready the lodge for the president’s expected visit in late September . Craftsmen worked late into the evening, building furniture and other ornamentals. Master blacksmith O.B.Dawson,who directed eleven workers charged with ironwork design and production, remembered later in life that building Timberline Lodge “was such a big thing. We all wanted every piece of work to be perfect. It wasn’t just a job to the men. What I mean is,they were doing something important, and they appreciated the chance to do it” (p. 96). Although workers rushed to finish their tasks before the president’s arrival, they took great pride in their craftsmanship. Timberline Lodge officially opened February 4 and 5, 1938, under private management. The lodge closed during the Second World War and then reopened in December 1945. The absence of imaginative leadership among Timberline’s several private operators included outright mismanagement, an infrastructure left to decay (including ski lifts), and a failure to pay bills that led to the dismissal of permittee Timberline Lodge, Inc. In 1955, the Forest Service awarded a new permit to Richard L. Khonstamm, a man deeply affectionate of the lodge and a director of Portland’s Neighborhood House. With his permit in hand in April 1955, the truly creative Khonstamm proceeded to clean up the filthy lodge, overhaul skiing facilities, and develop long-term plans for the future. With investments of more than $500,000 in the next decade,Timberline Lodge began to assume its present iconic status as a season-round destination for skiers and visitors alike. Sarah Munro characterizes today’s Timberline Lodge as a “partnership of public and private interests to preserve the integrity of ...a living museum with some of the most beautiful and historically significant art and craftwork in the nation” (p. 166). The author concludes this richly textured volume with an impressive inventory of the art, artists, and craftspeople who contributed to the historic structure. William G. Robbins Oregon State University Pendleton Round-Up at 100: Oregon’s Legendary Rodeo by Michael Bales and Ann Terry Hill introductions by Roberta Conner and William F. Willingham foreword by former U.S. Senator Gordon Smith Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, Portland, Oregon, 2009. Photographs, index. 304 pages. $60.00 cloth. $35.00 paper. The Pendleton Round-Up stands as the most important ongoing cultural and sporting event in Oregon for the past one hundred years. Started in 1910 by area merchants and ranchers, it quickly grew into a four-day extravaganza that was part theater, part sport, and part cul-  Reviews tural instructional device that represented an increasingly distant past in the inland Northwest . Authors Michael Bales and Ann Terry Hill, along with contributor Roberta Conner of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation , present the history and pageantry of this spectacular event in Pendleton Round-Up at 100: Oregon’s Legendary Rodeo. This largeformat book is filled with over nine hundred photos — from its earliest days through 2008 — depicting all of its most colorful characters. These stunning and beautiful photos, along with some strong narrative accompaniment, make this handsome volume both entertaining and enlightening. The book is broken down into twenty-four...