ND Cowboy Hall of Fame - Stories & Articles

Hall of Fame Nominees Selected for 2008 Ballot

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March 4, 2008

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Darrell Dorgan 250-1833

HALL OF FAME NOMINEES SELECTED FOR 2008 BALLOT

Members of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Center of Western Heritage and Cultures: Native American, Ranching and Rodeo (NDCHF) selected 14 individuals for their 2008 ballot. They also selected two ranches and two noted rodeo bucking horses from more than 60 nominations submitted by Trustees. Of the 18 nominees, 9 will be selected by secret ballot for induction in August for the Hall of Fame’s Hall of Honorees in Medora.

NDCHF Executive Director Darrell Dorgan says ballots will be sent in mid-May to the more than 200 Hall of Fame Trustees, and the nine inductees will be selected from categories that include: Pre-1940 Ranching, Modern-era Ranching, Ranches, Pre-1940 Rodeo, Modern-era Rodeo, Leaders of Ranching and Rodeo, Rodeo Livestock and the newly created Rodeo Arena Division.

Dorgan says the names of those selected for the Hall of Honorees in 2008 will be announced over the 4th of July and notes, "The new inductees will join the more than 100 others who have been inducted since 1998.”

The names that will appear on the 2008 ballot include (some are likely from your area):

Pre-1940 Rodeo
2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Henry G. “Hank” Baker of Garrison and Minot was born in 1907 in a log cabin near Garrison. Baker was a well-known saddle bronc rider in the 1920s and 1930s. After his marriage to Alice Tower in 1927, he ranched on the Fort Berthold Reservation and on his parents’ homestead until taking over his in-laws’ spread. Baker later operated a livestock trucking business and established a ranch near McClusky where he raised Herefords. Baker also served as rodeo judge for the Minot Dakota Boys Ranch rodeos, and both he and Alice were active members of the Minot Trail Riders Club. Baker died at his home in Minot in 1982.

George Charging of McLean and Dunn counties and the Fort Berthold Reservation was born in 1893. At age 17, he was hired to ride the range on the Big Lease on the Fort Berthold Reservation. He competed in rodeos across North Dakota in calf roping and, in later years, provided stock for the Minot State Fair Rodeo.

Charging’s ranching endeavors did not permit him to travel very far to participate in rodeo competitions. Always the cowboy, Charging rode many miles to assist other ranchers during round ups and brandings. His roping skills were invaluable. He was active in his local church council, as well as the Fort Berthold Tribal Council. He and his wife raised a family of six children, and he died in 1952.

Modern-era Rodeo
4 nominated, 2 will be selected

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 during the 1970s. Christopherson has coached college rodeo teams and worked with kids in high school rodeos. Christopherson and his wife Eunice moved to a spread west of Grassy Butte in 1989 where he ranches and continues to participate in PRCA-Badlands Circuit and NDRA events.

Photo by Julie Kraft

Maude Kirk Gullickson of Washburn and Center was born in 1911 and starting riding as a toddler. She rode nearly every day until she was 73 years old. Gullickson trained and rode barrel horses, competing in local and regional rodeos and winning the NDRA State Champion Barrel Racer title in 1955. She continued to compete in Old Timers events until age 70 and was also named Old Timers Rodeo Queen. She married Orville Gullickson in 1936, and they farmed and ranched northeast of Center for 40 years where she was a key part of the operation, assisting with cattle drives and branding, along with all the housework and child rearing. Several of the horses she raised went on to win championships in events as far away as Pennsylvania. Oliver County’s premiere cowgirl died in 2005.

Mervel Raymond Hall of Elbowoods, Mandaree and Fort Berthold was born on the family ranch near Elbowoods in 1928 and grew up on horseback. Hall has ranched and farmed near Mandaree since 1948. The NDRA named him Champion Bareback Rider in 1958 and 1964, Champion Saddle Bronc Rider in 1958 and All-around Cowboy in 1964. Hall participated in all three events (saddle bronc, bareback and bull riding) in rodeos from Fort Worth to Denver to Tucson. He liked to win saddles at rodeos around home and found time for the Great Plains Indian Rodeo Association events, too. He was a major competitor in events from Amidon to Wing and from Fort Worth to Tucson from 1951 to 1967.

Lee Selland of Steele and Bismarck was born in 1935. From 1963 to 2005, he competed in more than 650 rodeos, participating in calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping and cow cutting. He belongs to the RCA, PRCA, NPRA, NARC, USTRC and NCHA. Through the years, he won 22 various championships around the country. In 1970, he claimed an unprecedented achievement, winning four saddles at the NDRA championships: calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping and all-around cowboy.

Selland has produced and managed rodeos from Towner to Wishek and taught countless rodeo schools. He taught school when he wasn’t sharing his equine expertise and teaching horse sense. He owns and operates a horse stable near Bismarck.

Pre-1940 Ranching
2 nominated, 1 will be selected

1913 Holmboe Photo

Christian P. Burnstad of Logan County left Norway at age 17 and settled in North Dakota in 1905. He acquired 9½ sections of land in Logan County from a land speculator for $800 a quarter. Burnstad’s YO ranch expanded to 54 sections where he raised thousands of cattle and draft horses. He also established the town of Burnstad which, at one time, had a population of 250. The town of Burnstad was believed to be the largest shipping point east of the Missouri. He had 10 steady cowboys on the payroll and supplied beef to the military. He went bankrupt in 1919 and established another ranch near Medora, but it failed when the stock market crashed. The Norwegian immigrant who built an empire died in 1950.

William Connolly of Dunn County was born in 1861 on his family’s homestead in Minnesota. His ranching operations in North Dakota began in the1880s near the Killdeer Mountains. In 1886, he bought the ranch his grandson now lives on in Dunn County. In 1890, Connolly registered the first cattle brand with the new state of North Dakota. In the 1890s, he brought the first registered Hereford bulls from Chicago, and they became the foundation of his cattle empire. Connolly bred English thoroughbred studs with Percheron mares and sold the draft crosses in the Red River Valley and Iowa. He was a charter member of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and was the fifth person from North Dakota to be inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He died in 1946.

Modern-era Ranching
2 nominated, 1will be selected

Alwyn Carus of LaSalle, Illinois, was not born in North Dakota and never listed North Dakota as his residence. However, he left a lasting legacy for many people who are native ranch in the Killdeer area today. Carus, from a prominent family, simply loved everything about being a cowboy. He initially came to North Dakota in 1939 and purchased tracts of land as a hedge against inflation. At one time, his holdings totaled 45 sections but, after some sales, current trust holdings are down to 18 sections. Carus was noted for his generosity, and he helped numerous ranchers in the Killdeer area to purchase spreads they had rented from or managed for him. He offered them a fair price and helped finance the transactions. Carus was a conservationist and steward of the land, and his properties received awards and commendations from such organizations as the ND Stockmen’s Association, ND Chapter Society for Range Management, ND Soil Conservation Department and the Dunn County Soil Conservation District. He visited Dakota on an annual basis and died in 2004.

Photo by Robideau Photography

Alick Dvirnak of Dunn County was raised on his parent’s historic Diamond C Ranch near Killdeer. As a youngster, he 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 added to the Diamond C and subsequently fenced. Chopping their own posts, Dvirnak and two others tried to string one mile of fence per week. 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 and fed their offspring. The ND Natural Science Society recognized the Dvirnaks for contributions to preservation and helping preserve the state’s natural heritage in 1988. He hosted many Native American ceremonies at the ranch, which is located where the Battle of Killdeer Mountain took place in the 1860s.

Ranches
2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Photo by Bubel Photo

The Anchor Ranch, west of the Cannonball River in Grant County, near the community of Shield, was established by William V. Wade in 1889 on open range. After Grant County was officially opened for homesteading, he gained legal title to the acreage. Later, the Wades operated the “Wade” post office and small store on their property. Wade died on the ranch in 1927 and his daughter, Mamie Weedun, handled operations until 1951 and increased the land holdings. The ranch was purchased by John Voigt after he was forced from his spread near Elbowoods by the Garrison Reservoir. The Voigts trailed their herd of Herefords cross country to their new holdings. Duaine Voigt took over operations for his father in 1961. Over the years, he raised Red Angus and Simmentals and cross bred them with Solares. He also raised registered Quarter horses. Voigt uses three brands: the Lazy V Hanging J, the Bar Diamond Bar and the X Lazy J. Upon his retirement, his daughter and her husband now lease the ranching operation and have segued from cattle to buffalo. Two thousand head of buffalo roam the same 23 quarters of land that Wade first laid eyes on 120 years ago.

The Patterson ranches of Burleigh and Emmons counties were established in 1901 when Eugene Patterson purchased 1½ million acres of Northern Pacific grant lands between Bismarck and Jamestown. Business dealings in Minnesota between Patterson and Earnest Duemeland prompted two of Duemeland’s sons to move to Bismarck where George worked in Patterson’s land enterprise selling land to immigrants. The North Patterson Ranch was built during WW I north of Wing, the beginning of a 70-year breeding business. The South Patterson Ranch was formed in 1927 on Apple Creek near Sibley Buttes. The ranch holdings were operated as the Patterson Land and Hereford Company, and several couples served as ranch managers through the years, overseen by George Duemeland. Patterson died in 1924, and the family lost all their land during the Depression. Later, they bought much of it back, but eventually sold their remaining shares to George and his son, Lorin. The Herefords raised on the Patterson ranches gained a national reputation. The Apple Creek Ranch, an 8,000-acre spread north of Sterling that is still owned by the Duemeland family, is the last vestige of the vast holdings that once comprised the Patterson Land Company.

Leaders of Ranching and Rodeo
2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Photo by Alexandria, MN Photographer

Pete Pelissier of Medora was born in Minnesota in1865. By 1883, he was working at the Eaton Brothers’ Custer Trail Ranch near Medora. Pelissier also 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 a ranch on Sully Creek where they raised of four children. Theodore Roosevelt was a friend and ranching associate.For a few years, Pelissier served as sheriff of Billings County, and then 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 he was called the “Buffalo Bill of the Missouri Slopes”. He died in 1912 in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Jim Weekes of Almont, Slope and Sioux counties was born in 1917 on the family ranch near Almont. His grandfather, S.P. Weekes, and his uncles produced rodeos, and Weekes entered his first pony race when he was a seven-year-old tenderfoot. His folks moved to the HT Ranch near Amidon in Slope County just a few years later. As a cowboy, Weekes competed in saddle and bareback riding, as well as steers and relay races. After his discharge from the Army in 1945, Weekes and his dad bought a ranch in Grant County. He married a girl who was reared on the O Bar O on the Cannonball. After his father died, Weekes partnered with J. C. Stevenson and Jack Chesrown in an amateur rodeo stock business, which worked well until 1960. Weekes then put together a band of Quarter horse mares and decided to go PRCA as a pick-up man. Duane Howard was his pick-up partner. The Lazy J W Ranch on the Cedar River was Jim and Janet’s base of operation for 25 years, a working ranch with irrigated alfalfa meadows that made for happy cattle and horses. His children followed in his footsteps and participated in rodeo events. Weekes died in 2002.

Rodeo Livestock
2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Anchors Aweigh of Blaisdell and Watford City was the celebrated standard-bred saddle bronc owned by the Figure Four Rodeo Company. Clarence Wirtz sold him to Dean Meyer the very day he was tried out at the 1971 Blaisdell NDRA Rodeo. He dominated the saddle bronc scene for 15 years. In 1982, Anchors Aweigh earned the title “Most Outstanding Saddle Bronc Horse” at the North American Rodeo Commission Finals in Denver. He was retired in 1986 at age 19.

Red Pepper from the Killdeer-based Fettig Brothers Rodeo Company was a red sorrel gelding whose age and breeding were unknown. The Fettig Brothers Rodeo Company purchased him in Miles City in the late 1950s and branded him with their rodeo brand Y. Red Pepper was a consistent saddle bronc who performed well in any and all conditions: day or night, indoor or outdoor, hard ground or soft muck. He was selected for the NFR for 11 years and appeared in 20 performances with cowboys placing in the top four on him 15 times. Red Pepper was also chosen as the top saddle bronc horse at the Deadwood Days of ’76 Rodeo and made appearances at the Match of Champions at Sentinel Butte, North Dakota, too. Red Pepper died in Texas.

Rodeo Arena
2 nominated, 1 will be selected

Steve Tomac of St. Anthony was born in Hettinger in 1953. The second oldest in a family of 18 kids he had to be tough just to get a shot at the dinner table. He accidentally got a start clowning at Raleigh on July 4, 1971, when the contracted clown cancelled his appearance. Within five years, Tomac had worked every NDRA rodeo. He worked as a bullfighter from 1971-1980 and a barrel man and contract specialty act from 1975-2004. Between 1983 and 2001, he worked 40-50 PRCA performances each year, covering a range of 7 states. In 2005, Tomac was invited to make a “farewell appearance” and be a special feature at the Mandan Rodeo Days celebration in July. His barrel has been placed on display at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora. Elected in 1986, Tomac served stints in both houses of the state legislature until 2003. At present Tomac ranches a 1,100-acre spread near St. Anthony with his brother, and works as the senior legislative representative at Basin Electric Cooperative.

Monica Fettig Hovden was born in 1919 in Killdeer. In 1945, she married Morris Hovden and began working as the city auditor and taught business classes at Killdeer High while raising her three children. “Moni” had found her niche though--rodeo secretary extraordinaire. Her brothers, Phil and Jack, formed the Fettig Brothers Rodeo Company, and Monica’s business skills were an invaluable resource to them. She worked as secretary and timer from the early 1950s until 1969. She and Phil were visionaries who strived to improve every aspect of rodeo as a spectator sport--from showmanship to rodeo stock. They perfected a serpentine ride for the grand entry that culminated with the Bar over Y brand spelled out in the arena by the flag bearers. All their rodeo workers wore western shirts with this brand and Fettig Rodeo emblazoned on the back. Monica collaborated with the Schnell and Tescher outfits to create and promote the Match of Champions Ride and served as secretary for it, too. She attended to the myriad of details that make up a successful event and worked tirelessly until shortly before her death in 1970.

The Hall of Fame’s Center of Western Heritage and Cultures is open by appointment during the winter months and will officially begin the 2008 season by opening daily from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. on May 1st. 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.

The Hall of Fame was named the North Dakota Tourist Attraction of the Year for 2007.

Fundraising for the project continues. Dorgan says the Hall of Fame hopes to raise an additional $1 million over the next year and become debt free. Contributions for the project may be sent to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, 1110 College Drive Suite 216, Bismarck, North Dakota 58501.