blackfoot-valley

No sketch of Ovando, however brief, would be complete without men- tion of Trixi McCormick - cowgirl, show-woman, and Montana legend. Born around 1910, she grew up in Hamilton in the Bitterroot Valley south of Mis- soula. As soon as she was old enough to be on her own, she began perform- ing around the country at rodeos, vaudeville shows, nightclubs, and theaters, often on the back of one of her trick riding horses. In one of her most fa- mous exploits, she was credited with saving the Calgary Stampede in 1930 when it was in danger of folding. Her offer to help was accepted and she came in mid-stampede. The sight of the petite and scantily-clad 120 pound woman riding her horse while spinning an 80-foot lariat - which few men can do, let alone on the back of a galloping Palomino - brought the crowds to their feet. Her fame spread across both the U.S. and Canada as newspapers from coast to coast wrote stories about her. Her success, now unassailable, reached across the Pacific when in 1940, she was booked as a trick rider by the Royal Rodeo Show in Sydney, Australia. During and after World War II, she performed with USO shows in Australia, the Philippines, Japan, and elsewhere with celebrities such as Bob Hope and Slim Pickens. When Trixi retired from trick riding in 1960, she bought a bar in down- town Ovando and three years later set up Trixi’s Antler Saloon and Restaurant on the hill overlooking the town, in clear view of Highway 200, which had just bypassed it. During its first years, she and her last show horse, Silver Dol- lar, lived just behind the bar. Trixi established a reputation for hospitality and cooking with great flair, while accepting no nonsense from any patrons who misbehaved after having too much at the bar. On April 6th, 2001, Trixi died in Coalinga, California, where she had spent her last ten years or so, at somewhere around ninety years old (she would never divulge her exact age). After a memorial service in Drum- mond with 75 attending, including a great-great-grandaughter, her ashes were spread over hills above Ovando, where she had loved to camp with her grandaughters. Trixi’s Saloon is still very much in business, however, and is 137