on the cover / By Japhet Weeks

Last Cowboy Standing — A tale of rodeo culture in Humboldt County

(Aug. 2, 2007)  For the rodeo cowboy, speed is everything.

A couple of weeks ago, a handful of cowboys gathered at a private arena in Redcrest off the Avenue of the Giants, on a patch of land situated between a forest of tall redwoods and the Eel River. They were there to practice for the upcoming Orick rodeo. Orick is a pretty small deal, but this year it joined up with eight other small-town rodeos to be part of the “Nine Pac,” which means that the top money earner in each event from all nine rodeos will win an extra pile of cash. The competition promised to be a little stiffer than usual.

‘Step into my office’: Cameron Moore takes a break from shoeing horses at his arena in Redcrest. Photo by Yulia Weeks

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Ben McWhorter, the son of Shannon McWhorter, president of the Fortuna Rodeo Association, waited off to the side atop a white horse while George Bushnell, a well digger by trade, worked the chute with Donny Mobley, a fencing contractor. Mobley is a bulldogger, and he looks like one, too. He’s tall and wide, and he hardly ever smiles. Shane Radelfinger had also come out to bulldog — that is, to jump off a horse going 30 mph and tackle a careening steer. Radelfinger is a dairy farmer with slight features and a compact frame, but he bulldogs like a man twice his size. As a teenager, he high-school rodeoed with Cameron Moore, the man who built this arena, and serves as the cowboy community’s unofficial rodeo guru. Moore is the best team roper ever to come out of Humboldt County.

When it was Radelfinger’s turn to bulldog, Moore hazed for him. He galloped along the right side of the steer so as to keep it running straight enough for Radelfinger to dismount and wrestle it to the ground. Just about as soon as he had hit a gallop, Radelfinger lunged forward out of his saddle, grabbed the steer by the horns and crashed down into the dirt. His boot heels dug into the arena floor and he thrust himself back, twisting the steer’s neck until all 200 pounds of the beast hurtled into the tanbark like a controlled car wreck.

Still, the self-deprecating Radelfinger was disappointed with his performance. Walking the horses back to the box for another go, Moore, always humble, asked if his hazing was up to snuff. Radelfinger shook his head as if to say, it’s not you who needs improving.

After a couple hours of bulldogging and roping that evening, the cowboys and Moore inoculated and dewormed the livestock. There was an awful lot of mooing and steers getting jammed up in the chutes, scared shitless (literally). Rodeoing isn’t all about fancy belt buckles and spurs. After all, a cowboy isn’t much without his cows.

At 35, Cameron Moore resembles the patient, steady Eel River that runs nearby his property. He speaks in that slow, laconic drawl that many a cowboy has. He is immensely polite, addressing strangers as “sir” or “boss.” And with a medium build that makes him seem neither too tough nor not tough enough, he bares an uncanny resemblance to a young Robert De Niro, a fact which seems, somehow, incongruous with the cowboy persona he exudes. Chances are, you’ll find him wearing a baseball cap or a Resistol, some sort of patterned button-down shirt and Wranglers in varying states of wear, depending on what the last thing he roped or wrestled or shod was. And a pair of cowboy boots.

On that day, Moore had two things on his mind: the Orick and Fortuna rodeos. Orick, because it’s part of the Nine Pac, and Fortuna because it’s the largest and best-paying amateur rodeo in the state of California. Although Moore doesn’t have to depend on rodeos to pay the bills anymore, he still has a reputation to keep up, as well as a love for roping and riding that has been with him since childhood. If he could win first in team roping at Orick and snag the all-around saddle for best cowhand at Fortuna, it wouldn’t surprise any of the other cowboys, but it would help rekindle that feeling he had, once upon a time, when the sun set and rose over rodeo and Moore was at the top of his game.

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