Stacy Jo Johnson, a senior at the University of Wyoming from the 99 Johnson Ranch north of Laramie, distinguished herself as Miss Rodeo Wyoming 2008.
Miss Rodeo Wyoming represents sport and lifestyle of agriculture
By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place
DOUGLAS, Wyoming — Pageantry here in the Red Barn at the State Fair is a court of eight, mounted in the saddle, with the reigning Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Allie Bass, her golden bearing, both poised and gracious, styling through the first round of horsemanship.
Bass is a thin young woman handling with ease a 2000-pound horse. There will be a second round of horsemanship for the eight vying to reach a prize valued in this place dominated by western culture — all elegant and intensely hued in cowgirl regalia — strutting before a panel of three judges.
Stacy Jo Johnson, recently married to Kyle Berger, lived the life of Miss Rodeo Wyoming for a year. She won the pageant in 2008, serving as an ambassador for the Cowboy State. She is as authentic a cowgirl as you would find anywhere in the United States.
Johnson, a senior at the University of Wyoming, was the first runner-up in the Miss Rodeo America contest in Las Vegas. Miss Rodeo California, Megan Ridley, from Alta Loma, became the 54th Miss Rodeo America in December 2008.
She is the former Miss Rodeo USA 2006.
In the days ahead in Douglas at the State Fair, through an itinerary choreographed over five consecutive days in August, these eight contestants will conduct media interviews and pose for photos.
The eight will make speeches, dance, attend a luncheon with the Douglas Rotary Club, attend an appreciation picnic hosted by the Wyoming Livestock Roundup at Riverside Park, participate in the Steer Roping Calcutta, and answer impromptu questions on the North Stage.
The eight will ride in the parade along Fourth Street in Douglas — one of the 100 best Small Towns in America — and hoof it some more on horseback. They will sell pageant programs, model showy western wear — cowboy hats adorned with rhinestone-encrusted tiaras — sign autographs and, finally, lead the rodeo grand entry and crowning of Miss Rodeo Wyoming 2010.
“It was such a great opportunity,” said Johnson, whose family has held the Johnson 99 Ranch, which sits on 10,000 acres 20 miles northwest of Laramie, for five generations now.
“Our family is so rooted in agriculture and I represented the state’s agriculture,” Johnson said. “Rodeo is the only sport that came from an industry.”
Part of her year as Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Johnson traveled to big cities in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida, where rodeos where held and visited city schools where ranch life is not forethought.
“I would go out speaking, trying to tell people who don’t know anything about the western way of life what it is like,” Johnson said. “In large cities, people don’t know anything about the western way of life. Rodeo cowgirls and cowboys love to stay in shape like any other athlete. Staying active is important.
“When I would go into classrooms in schools in cities, I would start by cracking a bullwhip,” she said. “Most of the kids had never seen a cowgirl before. I would wear a cowboy hat, a big belt buckle and carry that whip. I would pass out free tickets to the rodeo, so students can just experience what we experience every day.”
Johnson, who expects to graduate in May 2010 with a degree in dietetics at the University of Wyoming, spoke to children about healthy habits and women about diabetes prevention.
Like Bass, the reigning Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Johnson is tall and thin. She is also blond, wearing a cowboy hat, wine-colored short-sleeved blouse, boots and blue-jeans creased to a knife’s edge. She has come for an interview, with mother, Lindy, in tow, looking every bit the part of a Miss Rodeo Wyoming.
Though rodeo is played out as sport and competition, there are practical applications, especially for life on a ranch, where it is an everyday need to rope an animal.
“Team roping is common on a ranch,” Johnson said. “If an animal is sick, needs doctoring, you need to rope it around the head and two hind legs to administer medicine. In rodeo, you are mimicking things you do on a ranch.”
Passing the corral where team roping is being contested, two cowboys rope a steer in less than 9 seconds. Just this week on their ranch, Johnson and her father, Orville, had to team rope a 2000-pound bull to give it a douse of medicine.
“I think ranching is a wonderful way to grow up,” said Johnson. “I represent the fifth generation that continues ranching as a lifestyle.
“When I was a kid, the animals came first. They can’t feed themselves. We did chores before we had breakfast. It is a great responsibility raising animals,” she said.
Her ancestor, one of three brothers, came to the territory from Denmark. One brother was thought to have been captured by natives, never to be seen again, while a second brother returned to Denmark. It was the hearty Andrew who founded the Johnson 99 Ranch 130 years ago.
Genealogy is difficult for those who descended from Andrew, whose original Danish last name is lost in history. Apparently Johnson was more phonetically amenable than whatever his original Scandinavian name was. The change has made it nearly impossible for Stacy Jo Johnson and the direct line from Andrew to go looking for relatives in Demark.
The family that now runs the Johnson 99 Ranch is small — grandmother, grandfather, mother and father, sister and her two children. Her husband has a son, 7-year-old Kaden. The cow-calf operation, which is busy this time of the year putting up hay, has 500 cows and nearly 500 calves.
The family has rejoiced in Stacy’s success.
“We are very proud of her,” said Lindy. “She worked hard as Miss Rodeo Wyoming. There were a lot of years preparing for it. People think it’s a glorious job, but there is a lot of work. You have to make sponsors and fans happy.”
She looks at you with ice sparkling blue eyes. She has perfect salesmanship.
“One of the goals of Miss Rodeo Wyoming is to get more people into the sport,” she said. “We are always trying to educate people. We have to deal with PETA (People for the Equal Treatment of Animals) on how we raise animals. We take care of these animals.”
An aside — giving credence to her authentic cowgirl status — just days before roping the one ton bull, she was thrown by her horse Bugger, who, apparently, was fulfilling the demeanor of his name given 10 years ago.
“I think you should call them (horses) by a better name because they will become better,” said Lindy.
“I got the wind knocked out of me,” Johnson said. “I caught my breath. You need to get back on. My husband trained him a little. I raised Bugger. He is 10 years old.”
The way Johnson is acknowledged and greeted walking through the fairgrounds there is a sense of savior faire. Perhaps Miss Rodeo Wyoming is to this part of the country what the Heisman Trophy is to football or what being named a Rhodes Scholar is to a college student recognized for academic achievement.
Meanwhile, in advance of being here in the Red Barn, Johnson shared what she knew with the eight seeking the privilege of wearing the sash for a year. She served on a pageant committee. Undoubtedly Bass, with days of being judged behind her, will follow in due course.
Judges are scoring on “how well you ride and how you are able to handle your animals,” she said.
Contestants face public interviews twice during the week. There are written tests. A successful contestant must know the rules of the sport, history and be familiar with equine science.
“They want a well-rounded Miss Rodeo Wyoming,” Johnson said. “You have to be able to speak in front of people and do television and radio interviews.”
Then there is the stuff akin to a beauty pageant.
“Miss America wears an evening gown. We wear leather dresses,” Johnson said.
The eight came to the contest with titles of achievement.
Raenell Edsall, of the Double E Ranch in Wapiti, is Miss Rodeo Crook County. Ashlee Estel, Miss Laramie Jubilee, is a transplant from Arvada, Colorado.
Erin Heffron is Miss Teton County Fair and Rodeo from Alta. Jamie Pond is Miss Albany County Farm Bureau of the Laramie Valley.
Shawna Praeuner, of the Black Hills, is Miss Rodeo Weston County. Sadie Rabold, from the rural Evanston area, is Evanston Cowboy Days Queen.
Brittany Richards, of the Snowy Range, is Miss Butch Cassidy Days. Lacey Strub, from Cody, is Miss Cody Nite Rodeo.
Heffron won the 2010 Miss Rodeo Wyoming contest, capturing the categories of horsemanship, personality and speech.
Erin Heffron, a senior at the University of Wyoming from Alta, won the Miss Rodeo Wyoming 2010 contest at the State Fair in Douglas, Wyoming.