Motocross park owner plans to bring rodeo back to Lake Elsinore

By: AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer | Friday, January 25, 2008 10:33 PM PST ∞

LAKE ELSINORE ---- Dust off the Stetson. Make sure the black leather boots with the electric blue stitching still fit. Pull out the Garth Brooks CD wedged behind the entertainment center.

The owner of the Lake Elsinore Motocross Park, Randy Hiner, is working on bringing back the Lake Elsinore rodeo, an annual event that faded from the city's calendar years ago.

The tentative dates for the rodeo, which would feature a chili cook-off, Wild West show, country music acts and a huge dance floor for line-dancing, are June 20-22.

The last rodeo in the city was held in 2002, said Lake Elsinore Mayor Daryl Hickman, who said he flipped a whole bunch of hamburgers during the barbecue.

"Basically, what we want to do is turn (the rodeo) into an event," Hiner said Thursday.

Some of the other activities Hiner is considering for the rodeo are pony rides, a vendor row and a casino-sponsored poker event for charity. He also wants to try and break the world line-dancing record, which he said was set in Hong Kong by more than 9,000 boot scootin' boogiers.

A San Dimas exhibitor, which stages rodeos in Poway and San Dimas, would provide the arena, stands, cowboys and animals, Hiner said. The event would be held on the 80 acres next to Hiner's motocross park, west of Interstate 15 near Bundy Canyon Road.

Some of the musical artists targeted by Hiner are American Idol standout Josh Gracin and Grammy-winning singer Michelle Branch, who, he said, has an opening on her schedule for that weekend.

Local country music talent also would be invited to perform.

Hiner envisions a family-friendly event that could attract more than 15,000 people to the area.

"This part of the valley is horse country," he said, pointing to the "Old West" history of Murrieta, Wildomar, Temecula and Norco. "It's a great match."

In the years when the Lake Elsinore lake bed was dry, the city's Chamber of Commerce held the annual rodeo there. It also has been held on the land near Collier Avenue and Central Street, where the Home Depot is now, and near Franklin Street and Sixth Street, land known by longtime residents as the "rodeo grounds."

As land became more difficult to secure, costs skyrocketed and interest in rodeo waned, the rodeo went away, recalled City Councilman Bob Magee, who said the council has been asked a couple of times to help bring back the event.

Hiner told Magee about his plans month ago and Magee said he thinks it would be a great event with good, clean family fun.

"He's already shown he can put on an event that brings in thousands of people," Magee said, referencing Hiner's production of November's Lake Elsinore Grand Prix, a race that brought 9,000 people to the area.

Michael Sheehan, a Lake Elsinore resident since 1953, remembers the city's rodeos, which he said were usually held in the summer, as times when the community would come together to enjoy some barbecue and pass on good stories.

Similar to Hiner's rodeo event plans, Sheehan, 58, said the old rodeos were multiple-day affairs that featured dances at the Elks Lodge, parades and other sorts of events.

During one memorable rodeo, Sheehan, a child at the time, was dragged around the rodeo ring on a thin piece of hide held by a cowboy on a horse. At some point, he got flipped around and the cowpoke dragged him around the arena upside down, his pants filling up with dirt.

"That's the kind of thing you did as a kid growing up in this valley," he said.

Buck Kemmis, of Wildomar, owner of Murrieta's Kemmis Equipment, worked on Temecula's rodeos and tractor races when he was active in the Temecula Town Association, a nonprofit group that was active before the area incorporated.

The association brought in big-name musical artists such as Juice Newton before interest in those types of events started to fade.

During the last few saddle bronc riding events his company sponsored in the mid-1990s, Kemmis remembers there being some hubbub raised by an animal rights group.

It wasn't a huge bother, but Kemmis said it was an indication that the demographics of the area had changed since the rodeo's heyday.

"The faces I remember seeing at the events, the big supporters and big contributors, most of those people have left the area," he said.

While he would like to see the new rodeo succeed, he said the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival seems more of a match with the community.

Contact Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.

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