East Helena Valley Rodeo

The first permanent grandstand at the East Helena rodeo grounds seats 650. Kyle Simpson of Simpson Oil Field Services gave the donation that bought it, and the East Helena Valley Rodeo Association says it would like to buy a second. The rest of the seating is bleachers, which volunteers set up during the week before the rodeo while they hang signs and work the arena dirt. The grounds lie along Highway 518, across from the Kleffner Barn, on 20 acres the City of East Helena gave the association. During rodeo week, tickets sell from the first trailer on the south side, cash or check only. A coat or phone left in the stands turns up at the camper by the south ticket booth.

Rodeo week on Buckle Street

The 2026 rodeo filled most of a week in July. Big Sky Barrel Racing opened it on July 8. On Thursday, July 9, came the Lewis & Clark In-County Rodeo. There, county residents compete for championship buckles in team penning, team roping, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, ladies’ and junior breakaway, goat tying, and barrels for pee wees, juniors, and open riders. The association billed the night as local cowboys and cowgirls competing for buckles and bragging rights, and it added bronc riding as the special event for 2026.

The Northern Rodeo Association performances followed on Friday and Saturday, July 10 and 11, with gates at 5 p.m. and the rodeo at 7. Before each performance, the in-county steer riders and junior barrel racers ride for their own championship buckles. According to the association, the rodeo draws contestants from all over Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Canada, with 300 to 400 rides or runs a year. KTVH’s coverage of the 60th annual rodeo listed rodeo clowns, the Ramblin’ Rose Drill team, saddle bronc, and bareback riding. It also described a “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” night attended by the new Miss Montana, Faith Johnson, a Helena native. In 2026, Tanner Laws played after the Saturday performance, and the Saturday rodeo ticket covered admission. The Gold Buckle Dreamin’ Kids Rodeo closed the week on July 12. Afterward, the association thanked its volunteers and noted that the weekend had been a hot one.

Sheep, steers, and a parade down Main

Reed Palmer started the sheep riding in 1963, and it has been part of every rodeo since. Children aged 4 to 6 ride sheep, and those 7 to 13 ride steers, with riders drawn in advance. The 2026 draw put ten sheep riders on each night’s card and six to eight steer riders. At the 60th annual rodeo, Maeve Fetherston gave the event a try. Asked her favorite part, she said, “Riding the sheep,” and added, “You get to get snacks here.”

The parade runs Saturday at 1 p.m. It starts at the VFW and heads east on Main Street, led by the Reisbecks of Stack’s Clothing Co. and Antiques. The association’s history says hundreds of people, young and old, line the sidewalks to watch.

The association has no paid staff. Its website counts over 30 committee members working year-round, and at rodeo time the volunteer roster grows to about 100. “People have been out here all day, every day since Monday,” president Katie Bakke told KTVH during setup. “Everything you can imagine we do, we do.” Treasurer Rhonda Vogl called it “a week of no sleep.” Her favorite part is handing a prize to a young cowboy or cowgirl: “They’re so excited because they won their first check.” Planning for the next year starts again, Bakke said, “about a week after the rodeo each year.” Crowd counts differ by source. KTVH put spectators at between 2,500 and 3,000, while the association’s history says over 4,000 people have attended the four-day events.

A barber, the VFW, and company land

Reed Palmer moved to East Helena in 1960, opened a barber shop, and joined the VFW. He had been involved with the Augusta rodeo, and he was always looking for ways to promote his new town. He proposed building rodeo grounds, and the VFW members agreed it would bring people to East Helena. Palmer met with Stan Lane of the American Smelting and Refining Company, ASARCO, and got permission to use company land. LeRoy Johnson leveled it, and the members of VFW Post 10010 built the arena and the chute gates and produced the first rodeo in 1963.

That first rodeo went badly at the start. George and Shirley Schiller led the Grand Entry, and as they rode into the arena, their flags caught the electrical wires and ripped out the PA system. Bruce Cornell announced the rodeo to the crowd without one. In 1965 a bull escaped and killed VFW member Rip Brydich.

In the late 1960s, VFW members and others formed what became the East Helena Valley Rodeo Association. It filed a Certificate of Incorporation with the Secretary of State in 1972, and its members redesigned and built a new arena.

Hail, rain-outs, and buckles

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the members split over issues and the rodeo’s future was in question. The Northern Rodeo Association’s blog later said “Survival of the Fittest” got them through. Some members left, new ones came in, and women, once few in what had been more of a men’s group, came to make up the larger part of the meetings and offices. They sold tickets and worked the livestock stripping chute. By 2012 the association counted over 55 members.

The association’s history lists the weather it has rodeoed through: 100-degree heat, rain, hail, and wind that tipped over the port-a-potties, which were luckily unoccupied. In the late 1980s, a three-day rain-out wiped out the rodeo. The association borrowed money to pay the stock contractor anyway. When he later learned what had happened, he was upset, but he was also pleased that it had felt so strongly about meeting its obligations.

In 1992 the In-County Timed Event Rodeo was added, and rodeo week grew to four days. The Northern Rodeo Association named East Helena its Rodeo of the Year in 1993, 2000, and 2003. The association judges facility safety and condition, prize money, number of contestants, and promotion of the sport. Reed Palmer died in 1998, and that year’s event ran as the Reed Palmer Memorial Rodeo. A special All Around Award in his honor went to Robert Bright, a bull rider who grew up in the Helena Valley.

Most of the profits went back into the grounds, and each spring the board walked them to decide what needed repair. The association has also given scholarships to members of Helena’s high school rodeo team. The 50th annual rodeo ran July 12, 13, and 14, 2013, with Ray McGowan as president. Tickets cost $4 in advance and $5 at the gate.

Fifty-eight days on Highway 518

By then the old grounds belonged to the Montana Environmental Trust, and when that land was sold for industrial use, the rodeo had to move. The 60th annual rodeo was the last on the familiar grounds. Its land-use agreement had never allowed community events. Kris Bakke, chairman of the board, said the new site would change that: “Instead of having just a three-day rodeo, we can have rodeos every weekend, barrel racing. We can do whatever we want on this property in the future. It will be ours to use and the communities.” KTVH reported that the project was expected to cost one million dollars. A Lewis & Clark County grant covered engineering and excavation, and the association went on raising money for grandstands, power, and water.

Construction began the first part of May 2024. Helena Sand brought the arena over, and for 58 days the site rang with backing trucks, hammers on metal, and electric saws. Volunteers spent their Fourth of July weekend welding gates and building a temporary crow’s nest for the judges and announcers. “It took us six years to build the old one,” Bakke said, and he counted over 100 people and businesses who came through in two months. Ray McGowan, now the rodeo’s director, called it “pretty phenomenal.” The 61st rodeo opened on the new grounds in July 2024. “We had some doubters,” Bakke said. “So that I think that’s what got the snowball really going was to make it happen. We have to have the East Helena Rodeo.”