ND Cowboy Hall of Fame - Stories & Articles

NDCHF Press Release

FOR RELEASE
March 2, 2007

For Additional Information Or Electronic Release
Darrell Dorgan 250-1833

--HALL OF FAME NOMINEES SELECTED FOR 2007 BALLOT --

Members of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Center of Western Heritage and Cultures: Native American, Ranching and Rodeo selected fourteen individuals for their 2007 ballot. The fourteen nominees were selected from more than 60 submitted for consideration. Seven of the fourteen will be selected by the group’s Trustees for induction into the NDCHF Hall of Honorees in Medora in August.

NDCHF Executive Director Darrell Dorgan says, “Ballots will be sent soon to the more than 200 Hall of Fame Trustees, and the seven 2007 inductees will be selected from categories which include: Pre-1940 Ranching; Modern-era Ranching; Pre-1940 Rodeo; Modern-Era Rodeo; Arts and Entertainment and Rodeo Producers.”

Dorgan says the names of those selected for the Hall of Honorees in 2007 will be announced over the 4th of July and notes, "The new inductees will join the more than 90 others who have been inducted since 1998.”

The names that will appear on the 2007 ballot include (some are likely from your area):

Pre-1940 Rodeo

2 nominated, 1 will be selected

John Quilliam of Marmarth and Killdeer was born in Minnesota in 1905 and began a rodeo career when he was 14 years old. Mert Buckley and Alex LaSotta taught him rodeo skills, and he tried out all of the events, from bronc riding to team roping and calf roping. Quilliam married Marvel Chapel in 1929, and their family numbered four children. He took up ranching in the Killdeer area in 1938 and preferred to trail his herd of 400 head of Herefords between Marmath and Killdeer. Quilliam kept about 100 horses on his ranch. In the 1950s and 1960s, he partnered with Gene McCormick, and the pair took first place in numerous in team roping events. Quilliam claimed that his proudest rodeo moment occurred at the Cowboys Reunion in Medora in 1976 when he received a trophy as the oldest contestant, partnering with his grandsons. He died in 1981.

Rueben DeCamp of Fort Clark and Morton County was born in 1904 in Minnesota. Orphaned at 13, he moved to Fort Clark, North Dakota, to live with Charles and Mary Noble. He competed in the 2nd annual round-up held at the Weekes’ Ranch over the 4th of July in 1924 and in the Mandan Round-Up in 1925 and 1926. A wild action shot taken by a Minneapolis Journal photographer illustrates just what Reuben could do. He also competed at rodeos in Almont, Carson, Sanish and Yucca. He married Anna Bornemann, and they had two children. His career was cut short by his tragic death in a car fire in the autumn of 1930.

Modern-era Rodeo

4 nominated, 2 will be selected

Henry Almit Breuer of Garrison grew up on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, where he has rodeoed, ranched and farmed his entire life. He started riding exhibition bareback horses and steers at the Sanish Rodeo as a nine year old and joined the NDRA in 1955, specializing in bull riding. Breuer won four NDRA saddle bronc championships and three other NDRA championships while ranching southwest of White Shield. He rode Whiz Bang just one week after Joe Chase did in 1956. He lives in Garrison and continues to team rope. Breuer went off to auctioneer school in Billings in 1961 and is still calling sales.

Bob Christopherson of Grassy Butte was born in Iowa in 1950 and began wrestling steers at youth rodeos in 1959. He competed in high school and college rodeo and earned his RCA card in 1967. Christopherson qualified for six NFRs in the 1970s, winning the average in 1971 and 1975. He lived on what he earned on the rodeo circuit in the 1970s. After a stint as a welder that allowed him time off to travel to PRCA events, Christopherson operated Big Sky Hitches in Glendive. He coached the rodeo team at Dawson College while he lived in Montana and also mentored his sons and their friends in the sport. In 1989, Christopherson and wife, Eunice, moved to a spread west of Grassy Butte where he ranches and continues to participate in PRCA-Badlands Circuit and NDRA events.

Ralph Klein of Washburn, McKenzie and Dickinson was born in Washburn in 1922 and got his education there. He belonged to the Bismarck Horse Club before he entered the U.S. Army in 1942. While serving in the South Pacific theatre, Klein belonged to the “Roping Club” and participated in Sunday rodeos in Burma and India, along with fellow Gis who were well known in rodeo circles before swapping their Stetsons and Levis for uniforms. Klein was a member of both the NDRA and the RCA and took the Calf Roping State Championship several times in the 1950s. Klein ranched at McKenzie and also worked at Schnell Livestock in Dickinson until he died in a 1955 plane crash while returning from a rodeo.

Harry Olson, of Killdeer, was born in 1940 and lived in Dunn County his whole life unless traveling to RCA, PRCA, CRA and NDRA rodeos where, at various times, he entered each category of competition, qualifying, winning and placing at many events. Olson perfected a style of bareback bronc riding that has since become the chosen style of all successful bareback contestants across the country. In 1958, Olson qualified for NHSRA finals in steer wrestling. He was named Bareback and All-around Champion of the Killdeer Rodeo in 1960. He was a founding member of the first high school rodeo club in North Dakota and worked as a contract bullfighter and a flank man for various rodeo companies during the 1960s.

Pre-1940 Ranching

2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Charles E. Shafer of McKenzie County was born in 1851 in Syracuse, New York. By 1874, he was hunting and trapping in the Red River Valley and, by 1882, had established a ranch on the Tongue River where he sold remounts to the U.S. Army. Shafer was friends with General Miles and Native Americans such as Crow Flies High. He learned to speak Hidatsa and other tribal languages fluently. In 1883, he became the first permanent white settler in what is now McKenzie County, setting up a horse and cattle operation. In 1890, he married Eva Diehm and adopted her infant son. While Shafer served as postmaster in the area, his family expanded to a total of five children. In 1905, he deeded acreage for the town of Shafer to be established on portions of what had been his ranch. Shafer’s adopted son, George, was sworn in as governor of North Dakota in 1928. Charles Shafer died in 1930.

Donald Stevenson of Emmons, Morton County and Bismarck emigrated from Scotland to America with his parents in 1842. After a stint of herding cattle in Texas, he established a ranch in Emmons County, Dakota Territory, in 1872, and managed to hang on through the difficult winter of 1886-1887. The Stevenson Post Office was established at his ranch. He ran a freight business between Bismarck and Camp Meade and was also an Army contractor. Stevenson relocated to Morton County where the Deadwood Stage Road crossed the Cannonball River in 1887 and ranched until 1906. He was elected twice to the state legislature and was active in his local community affairs. He is buried in the Union Cemetery at Mandan.

Modern-era Ranching

2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Alick Dvirnak of Dunn County was 10 years old in 1929 when his parents moved their large family into the original log cabin on the historic Diamond C Ranch. He learned farming and ranching from his father and, during dry years, Alick was one of a crew that trailed the Diamond C herd to summer grazing on the Fort Berthold Big Lease. In 1940, eight sections around the Killdeer Mountains were leased and subsequently fenced. Dvirnak and his wife raised a family of six at the Diamond C. He and his brother bought the ranch from their dad in 1965, splitting the operation in 1985. Dvirnak then ran about 200 cows.The ND Natural Science Society recognized the Dvirnak’s for contributions to preservation and helping preserve the state’s natural heritage in 1988. He has hosted many Native American ceremonies at his ranch, located at the site of the Battle of Killdeer Mountain in 1863.

Jake Larson of Almont was born on the Larson Ranch in Morton County in 1931. The ranch was started by his grandfather in 1881, and Jake took over operation in 1949, starting with Hereford cattle and adding crossbred Hereford/Angus/Charolais cattle in 1952. In 1969, Simmental cattle came to the ranch. He operated with 320 cow/calf pairs, 4,000 acres of grassland and 1,200 acres of farmland. His cattle sold in 13 states and in Canada. Larson conducted his own production sales for many years and was the recipient of many awards. Larson enjoyed amateur rodeo and competed in the NDRA from 1953-1968 and the RCA rodeos from 1953-1957. Larson took first place in calf roping at the Home on the Range Champions Ride in 1957 and was the state champion team roper in 1959. Larson and his wife, Virginia, raised four children, and he was active in local community and school organizations.

Arts and Entertainment

2 nominated, 1 will be selected

The Tibor Brothers of Hebron started playing for local events when the family still lived south of Almont. First known as the “Rhythm Cowboys”, they played on the radio and in local talent shows. In 1948, they were featured with Patsy Montana in a performance in Mandan. Variously known as the “Country Cousins”, the “Mavericks” and now as the Tibor Brothers, they have always been generous with their time and talents all over southwestern North Dakota. Their hit, It’s So Easy Loving You, made the Billboard Top 100 in 1976 and was the springboard for the development of their own studio and record label. Last July, 60 years in the music business was celebrated in a big way in Hebron, with 3 stages and 13 hours of music featuring most of the musical offspring of the Tibor Brothers.

James Kirkpatrick of Beach and Jamestown studied painting in Chicago and at the School of Applied Art in Battle Creek, Michigan. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War I, he moved to Jamestown where he made a living through commercial art at his sign company. He was prolific in creating oil paintings, the subjects of which were most often western themes. He was named to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, and examples of his work can be found at the Smithsonian and within halls and walls of the U.S. Senate. His paintings, two of which are in the collection of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, have appreciated considerably and sell for thousands at auction. The building that housed his studio, where townspeople could watch him paint, has now been relocated to Frontier Village in Jamestown where it serves as a gallery and sales space for local artists.

Rodeo Producer

2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Pete Pelissier of Billings County was born in 1865 and left his widowed mother and siblings in Minnesota when still in his teens. He headed west, showing up at Eaton’s Custer Trail Ranch near Medora in about 1883. Pelissier worked at the HT Ranch, owned by A.C. Huidekoper. The Little Missouri Horse Company was considered the world’s largest horse outfit at the time and he was a top-notch roper. Pelissier married Harriet Eaton, and they built their own ranch on Sully Creek. The Pelissiers raised a family of four children and Theodore Roosevelt was a friend and ranching associate. Pelissier once served as sheriff of Billings County and created a Wild West Show that he took to many important events around the state, traveling along the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The entourage even performed as far east as Boston. The specialty acts and Pelissier’s sense of showmanship and style were well received, and the moniker, “Buffalo Bill of the Missouri Slopes”, is most appropriate. He died in 1912.

Sam Rhoades of Killdeer was born in Tennessee and relocated to Texas with his parents in 1874. His father worked for the Miles outfit and, when Sam was big enough, he earned his room and board by working for Miles, as well. He took up bronc busting because it paid better than being a regular cowpoke. Rhoades found his way to North Dakota when he rode up the trail from Texas with the AHA outfit in 1892. It was an arduous four-month trip, during which the herd was quarantined for Spanish Fever. After he married Huldah Mott, they moved to the T5 Ranch north of Grassy Butte. They later moved to Killdeer and also had a place at Oakdale. Rhoades ran a livery business that kept him busy in the Killdeer area until 1928 when cars replaced horses and buggies. Rhoades organized the Dunn County Fair and Rodeo in 1922 and produced the first Killdeer Mountain Round-up Rodeo. He staged other rodeos in Grassy Butte, Sanish, Lost Bridge and Beulah. Rhoades sold out to the Killdeer Mountain Rodeo Association in 1945, but continued on as manager. He continued to help his son-in-law in the sales yard until he was 85 years old and died of pneumonia in 1963.

Induction ceremonies for the seven selected for the Hall of Honorees will be held at the Tjaden Terrace in Medora on August 4.

The Center of Western Heritage and Cultures is open daily from May through September and by appointment during the winter months. The 2007 season begins May 1, and the Hall of Fame will be open daily 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Its galleries and exhibits detail the history of the plains horse culture. The facility is also used for meetings, reunions, weddings and other events. An attached patio provides room for more than 200 people for catered events. Catered food and beverage service is available.

Fundraising for the project continues. Contributions for the project may be sent to The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, 1110 College Drive #216, Bismarck, North Dakota 58501.

Release and photos of nominees available electronically at

www.northdakotacowboy.com

back to What's New | Article Archive