By Jim Olson , © 2016 , www . TotallyWestern . com
In 1909 , a seventeen-year-old Oregonian named Lee Caldwell won the bronc riding contest held in conjunction with a baseball game and fourth of July celebration in Pendleton . A year later , the official Pendleton Round- Up was born . Caldwell participated in , and won or placed in the bronc riding event at Pendleton for many years thereafter . The day before the semifinals in 1920 , Lee broke his arm . The doctor offered an injection for the pain , but Caldwell refused , saying , “ The pain makes me dadburned mad !” It put him in a frame of mind to “ pour it to one !”
Lee Caldwell was born near Joseph , Oregon in 1892 . His father was a farmer and rancher on the Umatilla Reservation under a lease agreement with the tribe . Lee was raised there alongside the Indian children . He rode many outlaw horses during his formative years on the reservation .
Rodeo historian , Willard Porter , wrote , “ Caldwell has been described as being quiet , personable and unassuming . He was well liked and his astonishing ability to ride broncs was known everywhere in the West where they snubbed down salty stock for salty cowboys .”
In his memoirs , the great Yakima Canutt wrote , “ Lee Caldwell was one of the finest contestants of early-day rodeo .”
During the teens , Lee Caldwell participated in rodeos and Wild West shows all over the United States and Canada . Although there were no official “ World Champions ” back then , he did indeed win several rodeos where they claimed their winners were the “ World Champion .” He was definitely known as one the guys you had to beat if you wanted a to win a check riding broncs .
Lee was one of the first guys to keep a book on bucking horses . Many times a contestant would draw a horse they did not know and ask Lee about him . He would pull out his little book , flip through the pages and give a detailed report on the bronc .
When the call of duty came during World War I , Lee signed up with a group of Oregon volunteers ( mostly cowboys ) to join the cavalry . On May 29th , 1917 the East Oregonian News Paper announced ,
Lee Caldwell Miles City , 1914
He was well liked and his astonishing ability to ride broncs was known everywhere in the West where they snubbed down salty stock for salty cowboys .
“ Lee Caldwell , champion of champion bronco busters , will lead Pendleton ’ s rough riding troop of cavalry . He was the unanimous choice of his mates to Captain Troop D .”
George Fletcher , a fellow bronc rider and friend of Caldwell ’ s , trained with the other cowboys hoping to join the fight in Europe . It just so happened , that since Fletcher was black , the Army turned him down when he applied to become a member of Troop D . Lee Caldwell however , stood up for his friend , saying , “ He can ride as good as any of us here . We want him in Troop D .” When told that the Army was segregated , he continued , “ You ’ re telling me , on account of the color of his skin , the government don ’ t want him to fight ?” It was a loosing battle with the Army Brass and George Fletcher wound up being drafted into a “ colored ” unit later .
After the Armistice , being wounded by shrapnel and exposed to poisonous gas during battle ( he never breathed quite right the rest of his life ), Captain Lee Caldwell was discharged from the Army on July 29th , 1919 . He returned to his home in Pendleton a war hero .
In 1969 , Lee was inducted into the Pendleton Roundup Hall of Fame ( during its inaugural year ). In 1966 he was a National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum , Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductee . The Ellensburg Daily Record wrote this about the event , “ Caldwell was the acknowledged leading saddle bronc rider or his day . From 1914 through the early 20s , an era when no national champions were named , he won laurels at every major riding contest in the Western United States and Canada . During WWI he Captained a company of the famed Rainbow Division . After retiring from rodeo , Caldwell became a thoroughbred trainer on West Coast tracks .”
Once he returned from the war , he never quite had the same success winning rodeos as before . Many claim it was because it was now so hard for him to catch his breath . Sometime in the early 1920s , Caldwell retired from rodeo and moved to California where he had some success as a race horse trainer .
Lee Caldwell , one of the great early-day bronc riders from the formative days of rodeo , died at his home in Stockton , California in 1952 at a young , sixty years of age .
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August 2016 AZintheSaddle . com