Each week Oregon Experience shares a photo highlighting the state’s diverse, exciting history.
In the early days of the Pendleton Round-Up women were fierce competitors, participating in women only events as well as coed. Bonnie McCarroll was a popular and repeat competitor at Round-Up. At the time, the rules required women to ride their horses with the stirrups tied together, supposedly to make it easier for women to ride. In 1929 this dangerous practice caused McCarroll to be thrown from her horse and killed.
Watch the Oregon Experience documentary “The Wild West Way” to learn more about the early cowgirls of the Pendleton Round-Up. This year's Round-Up starts this week -- a unique Oregon event that's still going strong after more than a century.