The Pendleton Round-Up is one of the largest rodeos held in the western United States. It first took place in 1910, just a few years after Sam Jackson, owner of the Pendleton East Oregonian newspaper, had taken over the floundering Portland Evening Journal, which he renamed the Oregon Journal.

Click image to download a 1.1-MB PDF of this menu.

Jackson saw the round-up as an opportunity to bring the two cities his newspapers served closer together, so starting in 1912 he had the Journal charter a Union Pacific train of sleeping cars and a diner to both take Portlanders to the rodeo and also provide food and sleeping quarters while they were there. With thousands of people attending the round-up each year, local hotels were totally booked so the Let ‘Er Buck Special was welcomed by people in both cities.

As this 1925 poster suggests, “Let ‘Er Buck” was a slogan of the rodeo as well as the name of the Union Pacific train that took Portlanders to the rodeo. Click image for a larger view.

In 1950, when this menu was published, Sam Jackson’s son, Phil, was running the Journal and probably joined on this trip to the round-up. The front cover of the menu is a photo of the 1947 round-up taken using an Oregon Journal-owned helicopter, a relatively new technology in those days. A photo of a rider on a bucking bronco on page 2 was also taken by a Journal photographer.

The unpriced menu for Saturday, August 26 offered a choice of salmon, steak, or turkey accompanied by appetizer, soup, salad, potatoes and asparagus, blueberry muffins, dessert, cheese and crackers, and beverage. Clearly, participants in the Let ‘Er Buck Special didn’t have to worry about going hungry.