Railroad to rodeo

While the Woodchoppers’ Jamboree and Rodeo is entering its 58th year, it was only in the last few decades that it had the fortune of calling the Encampment/Riverside Lions Club Arena home. As many longtime Valley residents will remember, the arena was once home to the stockyards for the Saratoga-Cow Creek rail line. In 1975, Union Pacific (UP)announced that they were abandoning the line and, in 1976, held a number of public meetings to explain the process of abandonment.

Thanks to efforts by Lloyd Aden and his committee as well as the Encampment/Riverside and Saratoga Lions Clubs, UP made the...