"Oh, You Cowgirl!" A Documentary Film

 Featured clips from the documentary film,  "Oh, You Cowgirl!" will be shown exclusively in the upcoming exhibit in Portland, Oregon at the Oregon Historical Society Building. The exhibit will be open daily beginning March 3, 2010 through July 4, 2010 and honor the anniversary of 100 Years of the Pendleton Round Up. 

It has been nearly three years since I first heard of showgirls, ranchers and cowgirls like Lulu Parr, Prairie Rose Henderson, Fox Hastings, Bertha Kaepernik, Mabel Strickland and hundreds of other women who found their fate and glory across the country performing in wild west shows, circus', and competing alongside the rawhide tough cowboys in rodeo's large and small across the country. It became my passion (obsession) to write about and record their history as accurately as possible. The accomplishments, adventures, hilarity and sometimes tragic moments of these remarkable women has been all but lost in the passage of time.

I believe I have remained true to that goal.

I am moving right along with the book, "Oh, You Cowgirl!" a collection of creative nonfiction stories.  For those who call that an oxymoron I challenge you to breathe heart and soul into these women who have remained forgotten for the better part of the last 100 years. It may be, the greater fiction is what has been written and recorded as fact in records now found in dusty old rodeo offices. What I have found in some instances, are written accounts prone to reflect the social disapproval and disdain for women who dared compete on the same level as her male counterpart. In fairness, the press was none too kind to any cowboy who would lose an event to the gentler sex, no matter how rye or accomplished she may be.

The documentary film is in final editing and will feature rare film footage showing actual rides of many of the cowgirls including, Bertha Kaepernik-Blancett, Bonnie McCarroll, Vera McGinnis, Lorena Trickey and more. 

I am honored to be part of the opening of the new, permanent cowgirl exhibit at the Pendleton Hall Of Fame, this year honoring six cowgirls who were important to the beginning of the Pendleton Round Up. Bertha Kaepernik - Blancett, Ollie Osborn, Mabel Strickland, Ella and Rhoda Lazinka and a cowgirl few had heard of before I uncovered her in an obscure newspaper article, Florence Adams, will be this years inductee's.

Florence Adams was the recorded winner of the Ladies Wild Pony Race at the first Round Up held in 1910. What was not recorded in the official results was any mention that she also rode in the Cowboys Saddle Bronc Event. What is even more remarkable was the fact that she reportedly "unofficially" won the Cowboys Saddle Bronc Event.

"How", you ask, "does one 'unofficially' win a saddle bronc contest?" You ride harder and longer a bronc that no cowboy could ride in the same contest and then are told by the judges that you weren't really entered because it was a cowboy contest and since Florence was so obviously not a cowboy she therefore, was not "officially" entered. Her story along with many others will finally be told in     "Oh, You Cowgirl!" The history of the American Cowgirl.

For more cowgirl stories and photo's, please visit my blog http://thelonecowgirl.blogspot.com