Remembering Howard Pitzen of the Effie Rodeo

Howard Pitzen performs cowboy poetry during the Dec. 15, 2012 Great Northern Radio Show in Bigfork, Minnesota. Pitzen died April 2 at his home across from the grounds of the Effie Rodeo, which he founded and ran for 60 years. (PHOTO: Shelly Hanson)

Howard Pitzen performs cowboy poetry during the Dec. 15, 2012 Great Northern Radio Show in Bigfork, Minnesota. Pitzen died April 2 at his home across from the grounds of the Effie Rodeo, which he founded and ran for 60 years. (PHOTO: Shelly Hanson)

This week we learned of the passing of longtime Northern Minnesota rancher and cowboy poet Howard Pitzen, founder of the Effie Rodeo near Bigfork, some 40 miles north of the Iron Range. Nearly 89, Pitzen died in hospice care at his home not far from the rodeo grounds.

Howard was a guest on a 2012 episode of my Great Northern Radio Show that we did up at the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork. He talked about how he came to start the Effie Rodeo, now entering its 60th year, when he landed in the North Woods of Minnesota after years rambling out West. Back when the land was cheap ranching in Northern Minnesota was good business, he said, until the prices were driven up by all the lake people.

Today, the Effie Rodeo is the state’s longest continually running rodeo, and it will carry on this summer from July 24-26.

I loved interviewing Howard Pitzen. At the time, though, I was a little intimidated. He was tough. I don’t mean “tough” in the threatening way, but in a manner derived from natural confidence and moral certainty one seldom finds these days. He was a man of character. Though, to be clear, I’m pretty sure he could have kicked my ass that night if he had wanted to.

You can hear my Howard Pitzen interview and one of his classic cowboy poems in our podcast of that Bigfork show which, in today’s context, might make you weep.

Britta Arendt wrote a lovely obituary for Howard Pitzen with help from the family. Howard was buried in a pine box on family land he had designated as a cemetery 20 years earlier for just this purpose. His obituary concludes with the prayer that Howard read before every Effie Rodeo. You can plainly see that it’s not just about a rodeo, which is a fitting summary of Howard’s personality and his impact here in the woods where he hitched his ponies:

Heavenly Father, we pause mindful of the many blessings You have bestowed upon us. We don’t ask for any special favors for we know we can’t all draw the best bucking stock or the straightest running cattle. All we ask for is a clean break at the gate.

We ask that You watch over us today in this rodeo arena as well as in the arena of life. Be my wrangler O Lord, so that when the time comes for me to hang up my hat and saddle and cross that great divide to the country where the grass grows lush green and stirrup high, and the water runs cool, clear and deep, and we knock on that Grand Entry Gate up yonder, that you O Lord will say, “Come on in Cowboy, your entry fees are paid.”

This we ask in the name of Your son Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

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