Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Iron Horse Arena
They called them the last cowboys in Tekoa.
A new sign at the Iron Horse Arena pays tribute to the men who brought it about: Dean Gumm, Ray Harp and Rich Lawson.
In the late 1980s the three of them got together to build a rodeo arena on leased Union-Pacific railroad land in the shadow of the Tekoa trestle. It was built in 1990.
“A lot of people over the years helped make it what it is,” said Bill Harp, son of Ray.
Since then, it’s been used at different times for weekly cow-cutting, horse shows, rough stock, FFA tractor events, 4H games and a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and many amateur rodeos.
To get it started, the three men formed the Tekoa Community Fair Association, sold annual and lifetime memberships for $100 to lay out the arena.
“We just all sat together in the back of Tekoa Café and had meetings, wrote out the bylaws and they went for it,” said Nick Lawson, son of Rich, who died in 2010.
The association sold windbreakers with its name on them and Prairie Panel Company of Idaho gave it a deal on the fencing. For construction, the group secured cut pieces of rail from the Union Pacific Railroad lines that were taken up around Tekoa in the mid-1980s. The site of the arena itself was the former location of the Union Pacific “roundhouse,” where the track turned in a circle, since it was the end of the line.
When construction time came, Dean Gumm pounded the railroad iron into the ground with a post-pounder on a John Deere tractor. To create the oval arena, Rich Lawson brought a D-6 Caterpillar carryall with a scraper, which son Nick still uses to build waterways, and hauled three yards of dirt at a time.
Once it was complete, the Fair Association maintained it. For certain events, such as PRCA rodeos in 1994-95, risers were rented from the Tekoa School District, as well as Rosalia and Liberty.
The original bleachers were built by the Tekoa High School shop class while an additional set was bought from WSU after they disbanded their rodeo team.
The land, then as now, is leased by the city from Union Pacific Railroad. The agreement for what became the arena ground was signed in 1989.
“They were just retired guys who liked a place to ride,” said Bill Harp. “Though an old farmer never retires.”
A native of Tekoa and longtime farmer, Ray was born in 1923 and lived in Tekoa until his death in 2010.
Gumm, who raised cattle and bred quarterhorses, was born in 1929 and died in 2011.
“If mom made a doctor’s appointment on one of his riding days, she would get in big trouble,” said his daughter Lauralee. “He was just a good ol’ cowboy.”
The idea for a sign commemorating Gumm, Harp and Lawson came together last summer when family members of Gumm brought it to the fair association.
“We had some money and decided to do it,” said Bill Harp. “And away it went. Kind of like how the arena got built.”
In recent years, the Palouse River Ropers used the arena for cattle roping every third weekend through the summer and now they store equipment there. They moved to Rosalia in 2012 after the Tekoa water project construction crews began to use the surrounding area for materials during two phases of pipe replacements under town streets.
“We’re trying to get some people to use (the arena) again, but we haven’t had any luck,” Harp said.
Earlier this month, the fair association put on their annual potluck dinner behind the grandstand, setting up barbecues for the John Wayne Trailriders.
It’s mainly a service for the riders, although donations are accepted.
“We usually break even,” said the association’s current secretary, Lou St. John.
Another use in recent years came from a man in Montana who called about a place to train young bucking bulls in rodeo chutes.
In the summer, Harp keeps up the grounds, keeping weeds down and loosening up the dirt with a tractor and a three-point cultivator.
Two winters ago water pipes burst in the cook shack leading to a longer project.
“Eventually we’ll get it back to what it was,” said St. John.
Cow-cutting at the arena was once a weekly activity of the late Gumm, Harp and Lawson, in which a group of cattle, from yearlings to full-size are sent into the oval with one young one designated as the one to separate from the herd.
“If you’ve got a good horse, all you do is sit and hold on,” Lauralee said.
“They’d borrow somebody’s calves and bring them in,” said Harp. “They’d go down and play.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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