Zumwalt Dead – Last KO Rodeo
Last KO Rodeo Sunday
After Sunday there will be no more KO Ranch Rodeos.
One hundred head of bucking horses, both bareback and saddle bronc, plus 18 bulls, will be bucked and sold in the last of a long series of KO rodeos.
After some tough luck producing rodeos and two fires on the ranch this summer, owner Ray Kohrs is giving up. Kohrs bought the rodeo company and string from Oral Zumwalt after the renowned rodeo producer died.
He set up shop on the same ranch Zumwalt made famous. Now, he says, “I’m about to be subdivided out of here.”
The ranch is owned by the McCullough estate. Subdivisions of new homes already have taken some of the prime pasture land. This spring, Kohrs told The Missoulian he expected a high school to be constructed on the site of his bull pasture some day.
The rodeo will be similar to the annual Miles City bucking horse sale. Each animal will be bucked so prospective bidders can see how he performs. Then the bidding will start.
Horses with monikers like Hootchie Kootchie, Sadie Hawkins, Arsenic and The Brown Bomber will be sold along with bulls carrying such questionable titles as Martin Luther, Porky and Yellow Fever.
Also to go across the blocks will be several trucks, 10 saddles, 50 bronc halters, a dozen pairs of chaps, bridles, blankets and branding irons.
Howard Raser and John Ray will call the sale, which begins at 11 a.m. at the ranch three miles southwest of Missoula up Miller Creek.
The above article appeared in The Missoulian on August 13, 1968.