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     In 1933 the rodeo that became the Omak Stampede was just a dream of two Okanogan County stockmen, Leo Moomaw and Tim Bernard, who had started a rodeo string in 1932.
     They approached Omak’s businessmen, who were eager to try anything to keep the Main Street of Omak busy. The little western town of Omak, situated in the heart of cattle country, soon pulsated with the thought of having a real live rodeo that would attract thousands of people to see world-famous cowboys perform.
     Soon world champion cowboys announced they would participate. The lineup included Stub Bathlemay, world champion at the Calgary Roundup; Norman Stewart, winner of both Pendleton Roundup and Cheyenne, Wyo., Roundup and world’s best bronc rider; Bert Evans, winner of the north central Washington championship in 1932, and Ralph Sutton, winner at Waterville’s 1933 rodeo.
     Since the Cowboy’s Turtle Association — which evolved into the present-day Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association — was not formed until 1936, the rules for riding were set down by the contractors, cowboys and sponsors of the rodeo.
     The first two rodeos were held on the high school athletic field.
     In 1935 a rodeo committee was formed, with Omak mayor R.W. Caldwell as president, E.T. Stewart as vice president and general chairman, E.G. Hubbert as secretary-treasurer and Claire Pentz as publicity chairman.
     The city had purchased land on the east side of the Okanogan River from the Swimpkin family and planned a children’s park there. Grandstands were built and the 1935 rodeo was held in the park.
     The primitive bleachers, built with volunteer help and lumber donated byBiles-Coleman Lumber Co., seated about 750 people. Ross McNett, president of Biles-Colman and president of the Omak Chamber of Commerce, was convinced by his brother-in-law, Paul Maley, that the rodeo would be a boon for the town.
     In the early 1940s the Omak Active Club took over the Stampede under an agreement that called for all profits not required by the Stampede to be used for East Side Park improvements.
     The Active Club building committee, headed by Jerry Bramer, continued to improve the arena with covered grandstands that seated about 1,500. Bleachers provided seating for about 3,500 fans, with the announcer’s stand built above the chutes.
     Stock was held in eight pens behind the chutes. In 1949 lights were added to the arena, enabling night shows to be held.
     The Stampede continued to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with continual improvements being made to the arena and grounds.
     In 1963 the Omak Stampede was incorporated as a non-profit corporation, and took over the event’s operation through an elected a board of directors and a large group of volunteers.
     In 1969 a Friday night show was added, making the Stampede a three-day event. Seating over the bucking chutes was rebuilt in 1973.
     The Omak Stampede now stands as one of the larger rodeos in the Northwest, with a payout to cowboys and barrel racers of $80,479.25 in 2007.
     In 1979 a Saturday matinee was added to the Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon shows. In 1996 the Saturday matinee was replaced by a Thursday night show, making Stampede a four-day event.
     Recent additions inclue a Thursday kids’ night, kids’ mutton bustin’ and Tough Enough to Wear Pink fund-raiser for breast cancer research.
Suicide Race
     The World-Famous Suicide Race, Stampede’s signature event, began in 1935. Publicity chairman Claire Pentz, in a search for something exciting to add to the Stampede, heard of a mountain race run by Indians for many years in the Keller area.
     During the Suicide Race, competitors start 50 feet back from the hill’s edge, then plunge down the embankment and into the Okanogan River. Once they swim the river, they race up the bank and into the Stampede arena.
     The first race attracted what has become an annual parade of news coverage — from newsreels to television and still photographers who have spread images of the Suicide Race throughout the world.
     It was featured twice on TV’s “You Asked for It,” and in dozens of newspapers, a full-length Walt Disney movie, “Run, Appaloosa, Run,” and on national and international television. The young boy in the movie was Casey Nissen, who is a Suicide Race winner many times over.
     A 15-minute feature by a German cinema crew has made a big hit in Europe.
     Riders in the 1935 Suicide Race were Leo Crossland, Leonard St. Peter, Tom Woods, Bev Conners, Mathew Dick, Pete Carden, Edward Armstrong, Eddie Parsons, Wallace Moomaw, Alex Dick and Bert Evans. Winners were Wallace Moomaw, first; Bev Conners, second, and Bert Evans, third.
     Alex Dick became the race’s most winning rider, with race victories starting in 1941 and continuing until his retirement in 1967. He notched the most victories on Brownie.
     During their heyday in the 1950s, the pair won 23 of 28 races, including 11 in a row.
     In 1959 Rusty Tawes, a vivacious 17-year-old from Pendleton, Ore., slipped into town announcing that she had come to ride in the Suicide Race. This threw the Stampede committee into a frenzy.
     With Francis Charette as her mentor, Tawes won entry to the race as its first female competitor. Without a saddle, only halter and reins, she crossed the finish line in sixth place.
     Since that time many young men and women, Indians and whites alike, have experienced the thrill of the Suicide Race.
     The original race course was slightly west of the current Suicide Hill, which is owned by the City of Omak.
Encampment
     Prior to the Omak Stampede Indian Encampment, native Americans held encampments near the present-day East Side Park.
     They also would come and pick apples in the area, and to participate in the grand parade and Fourth of July celebrations.
     Early day Stampede organizers welcomed the thought of an Indian village. Paul Maley and Doc Benson, two of the local businessmen involved in the rodeo during its early days, invited the Indians to camp at the west end of the park, across the road from their original encampment.
     As the encampment grew, it moved closer to the arena and then east to its present spot. Today the encampment is a beautiful experience to visit and watch dancing, drumming and stick games.
Royalty
     In 1935 Bert (Robbins) Aveldson was crowned the first queen of the Omak Stampede by votes that were cast in stores downtown prior to rodeo weekend.
     Queen contest committee and staff assistants worked until nearly midnight counting votes cast for the queen’s contest. Bertha Robbins led her closest rival, Flo Huber, by a margin of a million and one-half votes (people could vote more than once) and was declared the Omak Stampede queen.
     Others contestants were Stella Carraher, Belva Gray, Florine Tucker, Jessamine Clark, Katherine Kumbera and Evalyn Nickel.
     Robbins traveled with other rodeo boosters to different towns in the valley to advertise and invite people to come to Omak.
     In 1964 Paul Maley thought it would be a great idea to have an Indian princess accompany Omak Stampede queen Virginia (Ginger) DeTro. Maley went to the encampment committee and, with that group’s help, selected Darlene Moses as the first Stampede Indian princess.
     A Stampede-selected princess traveled with Miss Omak Stampede for about a decade, then the Colville Confederated Tribes began selecting its own royalty representatives to travel on separate schedules.
     Two Stampede queens — Shauna Beeman and Jody Wooten — went on to become Miss Rodeo Washington.
Community
     The Omak Stampede and World-Famous Suicide Race wouldn’t be possible without the support of hundreds of volunteers who donate their time and talents toward making each year’s event a success.
     Members of the Stampede board are volunteers, as are those who take and sell tickets, sell programs, guide fans to their seats, sell concessions, park cars and do dozens of other chores.
     The community supports Stampede directly by volunteering on the grounds and indirectly by organizing parades, promotions, downtown activities, an art show and other activities.
     The City of Omak is Stampede’s No. 1 supporter. The city owns the land on which the Stampede arena stands within East Side Park.
     Stampede’s arena has continued to function through floods, a tornado and knee-high snow. It is a place where cowboys and cowgirls of all ages participate in rodeos and other horse events.
     It’s showing its age, however, and is slated to be razed after this year’s show. A new equestrian center, to be built with state and local funding, will take its place.
     Cowboys, Suicide Racers and barrel racers take center stage at a rodeo, but plenty of other folks work hard to provide fans with a top-notch show.
     Critical to Stampede are specialty acts, clowns and bullfighters, stock contractors, calf pushers (those folks who help get calves out of the chutes so they can be roped), those who work the gates and others who help in the arena.
     Without them there would be not be an Omak Stampede or World-Famous Suicide Race.