Within the week, a new sign will be erected on site for Petty Irrigation located on the east side of Toppenish.  And fittingly so, the new sign will include a silhouette of Dale Petty on a Brahma bull, a hobby Petty took up as a teenager and later developed into a better-than-average rodeo cowboy in rodeos throughout the Pacific Northwest.  With the return of the Toppenish Powwow and Rodeo this year, July 2 and 3, it is appropriate to feature Dale and his rodeo exploits he took up in 1944.
Born and raised in the Valley, Petty attended high school in White Swan.  Originally from Wapato, he was raised on a farm in the Medicine Valley area.  “With World War II, many of the guys were being inducted into the army.  I tried to, but they deferred my induction and sent me back to farm.  So, that’s what I did and in my spare time, I began to rodeo,” Petty said.  And rodeo he did.  He was a bull rider, bareback rider and roper. 
“Most of the rodeos were right here in Washington and Oregon,” he said.  “They had a big rodeo in Tampico every year, too.”  His rodeos included Wiley City, Ellensburg, many on the coast in Washington and in Oregon, and of course, here in Toppenish.  When asked about the Toppenish rodeo, “Oh yes, I was in the Toppenish rodeo about five or six years.  It was a big rodeo in those days.”  Many years included celebrities like Slim Pickens, Montee Montana and Rex Allen.  Petty has a collection of photos of his rodeo exploits and one includes a photo of the now-deceased Slim Pickens as a rodeo clown in Toppenish.  Pickens started as a rodeo participant and clown and later became a well-known movie star. 
Although Petty was never in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA), now the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, or PRCA, he still participated in their rodeos.  Many of the top cowboys came to the Toppenish Powwow and Rodeo on July 4th weekend, more commonly known as Cowboy’s Christmas weekend, due to the numerous rodeos scheduled on that weekend.  A lot of rodeo purses could be won then if cowboys were lucky enough to ride or rope successfully.
Petty’s opinion of the Toppenish rodeo back then?
“It was a good place to go.  Everybody knew everybody.  People like Art Merritt and the other people in charge of it knew what they were doing,” he said.  “It was just a good rodeo to be at.”
Petty primarily did bull riding, bareback and roping. 
“I did split the money one year in the Toppenish rodeo in 1948 or ’49 in bullriding,” Petty said with a slight grin.  On those bull rides in Toppenish, he could still picture Slim Pickens in his rodeo clown outfit in the rodeo arena doing his job of protecting the riders. When asked about any serious injuries that always seem to come with this dangerous sport, Petty pointed to his chin. 
“I got kicked in the chin once by a bronc in bareback.  It didn’t break my jaw, but it did hurt a little bit,”  he said. 
He was fortunate enough to have never broken any bones all the years he was in rodeo.
“For the record, I never got bucked off either,” he said  It’s a point that shows he was quite proficient on his rides.
“One thing I do remember about the Toppenish Rodeo, it was a night rodeo that usually ended around midnight.  It was freezing every night after the rodeo.”
Petty remembers in the 60s when the rodeo bleachers burned down the week of the Toppenish rodeo. 
“They had to cancel the rodeo.  The rodeo never seemed the same after that,” he said. 
Does he miss his rodeo days? At 83, he quickly replied, “Of course, I do.” 
Petty’s last rodeo was back about in the late 1950s. He was born in 1927 and after growing up in this area, remembers his old buddies like Swede Carl, Art Merritt, Vernon Lawrence and Al Carl.  “I and Swede became very close friends and we used to run around together.”
Believe it or not, Dale still rides horse back.  “As a matter of fact, I rode just last weekend.”  Today, he raises around 12 horses on his acreage in the Tampico area.  “As a matter of fact, Tampico is directly north of Medicine Valley, where I was raised a few years back,” Dale smiles.
As stated, Dale now lives in Tampico with his wife Evelyn (formerly Evelyn Carey).  When asked about retirement, “How can I afford to retire with the way things are today?”  So, Dale still drives 35 miles to work every day and has just enough business with the  farmers in the area that he has no intention of retiring just yet.
Now that the Toppenish Powwow and Rodeo has returned after a few years off due to financial woes, the memories of past will linger on the past reputation of this rodeo.  Many of us still remember the decorated streets, the large Indian tepee village, carnival and thousands of people lined up along the street for the parade.
When Dale was asked which was his favorite rodeo of all the rodeos that he participated in, he relied without hesitation, “Toppenish.”