History Forum: Female Champ Bronc Rider acquitted of murder becomes stunt double
Lorena Trickey: In 1925 she won the bronc riding title at Chicago and several championships at Pendleton.
Rodeo champ and movie stunt double Lorena Trickey is honored in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
By Karl Vercouteren
“Lorena Trickey: Oregon’s World Champion Cowgirl" is the topic of the fourth and final program of the Original Wasco County Courthouse 2022 Regional History Forum. Chuck Rollins from the Crown Point Country Historical Society will present the program at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26. Due to COVID-19 precautions, the program will take place on Zoom and not at the historic 1859 Courthouse.
Access is free at this link: http://OWCCZoomLink.info and those needing help getting Zoom on a computer or cell phone may leave a message at 541 296-4798. There is a limit of 100 participants. The host will open the Zoom meeting at 1:15 p.m., the presentation starts promptly at 1:30, and admission ends once the program begins.
Lorena Trickey was born on Valentine’s Day 1893 in the long-gone logging town of Palmer, OR at the west end of the Columbia Gorge. She joined the Clarence Adams Wild West Show in 1917 as a trick rider. She was a three-time winner of the McAlpin Trophy for bronc, Roman, and relay riding at Cheyenne Frontier Days. In 1925 she won the bronc riding title at Chicago and several championships at Pendleton.
Trickey doubled for Mary Pickford in the movie “Through the Back Door” and worked with Tom Mix in “The Queen of Sheba.” Accused of stabbing to death her husband, “Smiling Slim” Harris, during an argument, she pleaded self-defense and was found not guilty in 1927. She married a Nevada miner, attended a school of mining and engineering, and prospected around Nevada with her husband for many years. Trickey died in 1961 and in 2000 she was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
The online presentation, just like in-person programs over the past 40 plus years, is free. But donations to the Original Courthouse are gladly accepted.
