“My pappy used to say, ‘Son, everything is a accident—’” He digs the blindfold from a hip pocket and hands it to me. “The trick is making believe it’s on purpose.”

Ken Kesey, from Last Go Round

Rounding up the Round-Up

So you’ve come to love this blog, you ache to better know its mysterious author, but are you aware of this blog’s bigger, older, somewhat less attractive but ultimately much more useful sister website? It’s called Oregonlive, and it’s where all The Oregonian’s Round-Up coverage lives. Here’s a picture of a grown man filing a horse’s hoof with a giant nail file, followed by a breakdown of The O’s Round-Up coverage…

PHOTO SERIES

Portraits: Pictures of all kinds of people from Round-Up.

Then-and-Now: Really old pictures placed alongside newer versions of the old pictures. 

Drinks at The Hut: Inside a classic Pendleton bar.

Life with the Indian Relay Racers: Spend some time with this group of riders from Cawston, B.C.

PICTURE STORIES (w/really big pictures that will fill your browser window)

Getting ready for the Round-Up

Out of the chutes at the Round-Up

Pendleton’s Hotel de Cowpunch draws road-weary cowboys

Riding bareback and breaking records at the Round-Up

WORD STORIES 

Pendleton’s Hotel de Cowpunch draws road-weary cowboys for generations

Pendleton’s Westward Ho! parade, by the numbers

Pendleton Round-Up changes through the years

Selling pitch for Minam River Lodge moves to Pendleton Round-Up

Let ‘er buck, but let women take a bigger role, some say as Pendleton Round-Up celebrates centennial

First go-round: New merchants step in to fill downtown holes during Round-Up

2010 Pendleton Round-Up: One family’s history enfolds in a beloved doeskin dress

2010 Pendleton Round-Up: A brief history

Cowboy dreams: Pendleton family’s love for rodeo grows in a backyard arena

I think of these pictures as metaphors for something. If I told you any more you might do that thing people do where they hide their faces in their hands and moan and say things like, “Ed, will you just pass the mashed potatoes already?”

The final day of Round-Up coverage begins.  

The Fellas, Parts I & II.

I’ll start work on Part III when the money is right. 

Keith Isley, rodeo clown

First non-creepy clown I’ve ever seen. Maybe because he’s in good shape?