From banker to cowboy, original Oregon Trail Rodeo board member continues to volunteer with Hastings event

 by Ruth Nicolaus

Hastings, Neb. – Wes Keebler spent much of his life in the banking and rodeo worlds.

The Inland, Neb. man is one of the original founders of the Oregon Trail Rodeo, the pro rodeo hosted in Hastings August 18-20.

It all came about in 1992 when the comment around Hastings was, “there’s nothing to do in town,” Keebler said. “We were sitting at (an Adams Co. Ag Society) board meeting, and said, if there’s nothing to do in Hastings, what can we do to change that?”

When the board voted to host a rodeo, it was a 4-4 tie; board president Darrel Stromer had to break it. He voted for the rodeo.

In the early days it wasn’t always smooth sailing.

Not everyone in the community believed in the event, Keebler said. “We had detractors up the wazoo.” He remembers sitting at the OK Café in the morning at a round table. The consensus was that the rodeo wouldn’t work. “Darrel and I said, ‘watch us.’”

But there were proponents, too, sponsors who came on board and have been on board for all of the 32 years of its existence, along with volunteers and loyal fans.

Keebler remembers visiting businesses with Pat Danehey, trying to secure sponsors.

He also remembers when there was no permanent arena at the Adams County Fairgrounds, and the volunteers set up panels and chutes. The Korkow family, who was hired to bring the bucking horses and bulls, brought the steel. “It was a major task, setting up and tearing down,” he said. “There were a lot of pinched fingers.”

Keebler, a farm kid from Sterling, Neb., didn’t grow up around rodeo. The only horses on the family farm were outlaws his dad bought, horses that no one could ride.

He played middle guard for the Wesleyan College football team, and after graduation, worked at Farm Credit in Beatrice from 1975 to 1982. In 1982, he moved to Hastings, working for City National Bank till 1998. Then he spent several years at Fairbanks Equipment, then went to work for Hastings State Bank.

Like all volunteers with the rodeo committee, Keebler has done his share. He’s secured sponsorships, manned the south gate, organized cowboy hospitality, helped with the kids’ field day, and helped organize the sponsor appreciation night.

Since the rodeo started 32 years ago, Keebler has only missed one performance, due to a health issue.

His wife Verona suggested a few months ago that they vacation in Florida on August 15. “I said, ‘whoa, wait a minute,’” he laughed. He always knows where he’ll be in August: at the rodeo.

His favorite part is the camaraderie, “getting to know a lot of good people, and people from all over.”

Of the nine men who were on the rodeo committee in 1992, only two are living: Keebler and Willis Hunt. The other seven men who have since passed are Rich Asmus, Jack Friend, Stan McMahon, Luwane Nelson, Don Snoberger, Darrel Stromer, and Ken Tilley.

It wasn’t the first time Hastings had been home to a rodeo.  A rodeo had been held at the fairgrounds in the early 1960s, but it fizzled out. In 1992, it was reborn as the Labor Day Jamboree. A year later, it got the moniker it holds today: the Oregon Trail Rodeo.

This year’s Oregon Trail Rodeo is August 18-20 at the fairgrounds in Hastings. Shows start at 7 pm on August 18-19 and at 6 pm on August 20.

Tickets will go on sale in late July.

For more information on the rodeo, visit AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com.