Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Iron Horse Arena in Tekoa will soon be no longer, at least in its original location just east of the base of the Tekoa trestle. It was on land leased from Union-Pacific by the city of Tekoa.
The railroad terminated the lease Nov. 1.
“Union Pacific has enjoyed a long relationship with the city of Tekoa. We decided to end the partnership, and, in accordance with the lease provided 35 days notice,” said Hannah Bolte in Media Relations for Union-Pacific, in a statement. “We recognize this is a big change for the city of Tekoa and the Tekoa Fair Board, and have offered to relocate equipment and infrastructure on the property to a place of the board’s choosing.”
It is not yet known what the Union-Pacific plans to do with the ground, which was the one-time location of a railroad roundhouse.
“I guess we’ll find out what the railroad has in mind,” said Troy Wilson, Tekoa mayor pro-tem.
As of now, no plans are set to re-construct the arena elsewhere.
Bill Harp, chairman of the Tekoa Fair Board, said much of the arena’s fencing and panels will be donated to a new FFA/4H ag barn being built in conjunction with the school.
Bucking chutes and roping chutes may be sold, with the money donated to the ag barn project.
When this all may happen is unclear.
“We can’t touch the stuff (at the arena). We have to wait for them, it’s their property,” said Harp.
Might the Fair board take up the railroad’s offer to help move all of it and reassemble it elsewhere?
“They said they’d move it. They didn’t say anything about setting it up again,” Harp said.
If a site is found to recreate all or part of the arena, which includes a cook shack, announcer’s booth and equipment shed, it would likely go on private land.
“Right at this point, there is nowhere for it to go,” Harp said. “We wouldn’t want to put it on leased land again.”
The Tekoa Community Fair Association (fair board) was formed by the late Dean Gumm, Ray Harp and Rich Lawson, who put the arena project together in the late 1980s.
The facility has been used at different times for weekly cow-cutting, horse shows, rough stock, FFA tractor events, 4H gaming and a PRCA rodeo as well as many amateur rodeos.
In recent years, 4H riders have been using the arena for practice.
“We were keeping it up, hoping somebody was wanting to use it,” said Harp.
To get it all started 30 years ago, the Community Fair Association sold annual and lifetime memberships ($100) to lay out the arena. For construction, the group secured cut pieces of rail from Union Pacific lines that were taken up around Tekoa in the mid-‘80s.
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 lease for what became the Arena ground was signed in 1989.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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