Sutherlin Stampede

The Sutherlin Stampede now fills one Saturday in July in Sutherlin, a Douglas County town founded in 1911 just off Interstate 5. In 2026 it fell on July 11. A parade through town opened the day. By evening the crowd had moved to the rodeo grounds at 240 South State Street, behind the Sutherlin Fire Station. Gates opened at 5 p.m., and the bulls came out at 7.

Bulls at seven, behind the fire station

The evening belongs to the Challenge of Champions Tour, which brings its bull riders to Sutherlin and was billed in 2026 as the Addcox Challenge of Champions. A KQEN News Radio preview of the 2025 edition promised the top rodeo talent from across the Northwest. Tickets ran $15 in advance and $20 at the gate, with children five and under free alongside a paying adult. In 2026 tickets were sold ahead of time at The Salty Heifer in Sutherlin and at Coastal Farm & Home in Roseburg. KQEN warned in 2025 that seating was limited.

Around the arena are food trucks, craft vendors and a beer garden. The bleachers and fencing that keep spectators clear of the action belong to the grounds themselves; the association put them in when it revamped the site in 2024. A barrel man works the arena. When the riding was done on the 2026 night, the association sent people down to Kelly’s Cozy Corner for the after party and “a boot scootin’ good time.” Two days later it reported, “You all showed up!” The post thanked “Jason & crew” of the tour for their partnership.

Sheep, queens and a Most Inspirational Cowgirl

Mutton bustin’ and the queen competition run during the bull riding. The association’s own description of mutton bustin’ is “little kids try to ride a sheep.” In 2025 there was a free mutton bustin’ clinic before the bulls, so youngsters could get some practice first. During the evening the reigning royalty sell 50/50 raffle tickets and sign autographs.

The 2026 competition crowned Alice Springstead as 2027 Queen and Kinley Gross as Princess. Hope Konopaski was first runner-up for queen and Cambria Comstock first runner-up for princess. The outgoing 2026 Queen, Kaitlynn Radka, was named Most Inspirational Cowgirl, a vote taken among contestants, coordinators and volunteers. The royalty keep working after July. In August 2026 the Queen and Princess appeared at the Douglas County Fair, photographed beside the county sheriff and undersheriff.

The grounds stay in use the rest of the summer. In June 2026 the association and the Douglas County 4-H extension office held a no-cost Showmanship Bootcamp there. Its kids practiced in the summer heat and then showed in the rain. Late in August came the Gallop with God Rodeo Bible Camp, whose public Sunday included cowboy church, baptisms, a youth rodeo, lunch, and a silent auction that raised $2,318 for the Rateledge family. The Sutherlin Stampede Association, Inc. runs it all with a board of seven volunteers, led by president Terry Brock and vice president Tom Maddux. It says the money it raises goes to scholarships and to donations to local groups each year.

A rodeo paid for in canned food

The Stampede began in 1991 as a Friday-and-Saturday rodeo. The association behind it was organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1993, and on its own telling it “was and still is, a labor of love by countless volunteers.” The Associated Press describes the rodeo as free from its first year. KPIC reported in 2016 that it became the only free rodeo in southern Oregon in 1997. In place of tickets, fans were asked for canned food or cash, which went to local food pantries. The News-Review named the Sutherlin-Oakland Food Pantry in 2017 and the Sutherlin Food Pantry in 2019.

The 25th year, in July 2016, drew thousands of people over the weekend. That year Cole Collins of Oakland rode in kids’ calf riding, and the reigning Miss Sutherlin Stampede Rodeo Queen, Bethany Rowe, told KPIC: “It’s not really something talent is going to give you, so that’s why I love it.”

The full program in those years ran to bull riding, team roping, breakaway roping and barrel racing for adults, with high school and junior bull riding, calf riding, mutton bustin’, and junior and peewee barrel racing for the young. The News-Review wrote that the rodeo drew cowboys and cowgirls from around the Northwest and a good share from Douglas County. In 2017 the paper followed the Thompson families of Yoncalla, who raise commercial cattle and sheep and roping cattle. Brian Thompson entered team roping with Tyson Olds of Drain, while his wife, Kit, ran barrels. Randy Thompson roped with his wife, Deanna, and their children, Austin and Natalie, competed as well. Kit Thompson had ridden in the College National Finals Rodeo while at Cal Poly. “You pull in somewhere, and the ground’s different, the arena size is different,” she said. “It could be pouring down rain or 115 degrees.”

The Kamikaze Kid at the microphone

The 28th annual Stampede, in July 2019, had Rob Smets co-announcing with Joe Oakes, on horseback or on foot. Smets was a former Oakland resident who had become a speaker and announcer for the World Champions Rodeo Alliance. As a Wrangler bullfighter he had been known as “The Kamikaze Kid.” He won world titles in 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1994. He broke his neck in 1992 and again in 1996. After a third break in 2006 his wife, Carla, asked him “what more do you have to prove?”, and he retired that year, the same year he entered the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

By 2019 Smets lived in Poteet, Texas, but his 92-year-old mother, Ebe, still lived near Sutherlin. “I’ve known the Oakes boys since they were in diapers,” he told the News-Review. Beck Bucking Bulls supplied the stock that year, and the events ran from peewee barrel racing to open bull riding and a saddle cow riding race.

Five summers without bulls, and a rebuild

That 2019 rodeo was the last for five years. A new board joined the association in 2024 and brought the Stampede back that July as a single night with more than 30 bulls and riders, along with mutton busting, steer riding and junior bull riding. “We’re bringing back the Sutherlin Stampede in a little different form this year,” tour promoter Jason Mattox told NBC16, “but eventually the way we’re going and these guys are working, it’s going to be a rodeo again.” Tom Maddux spoke of what a two-day event would mean for the town’s lodging and restaurants. “There used to be a parade,” he said. “I would love to see the parade come back.”

In March 2025 Terry Brock told the city bulletin, “We are starting with a rebuild, from the organization to the rodeo grounds itself.” On July 12, 2025, the parade returned. It set off at 10 a.m. from South Comstock Road and ran down West Central Avenue to Central Park.