KTVZ Road Trip: Pendleton store brims with history

In one of the farthest reaches of northeastern Oregon is a quaint Western town called Pendleton. I traveled there with reporter Dani Fried and photojournalist Steve Kauffman last Wednesday as part of KTVZ’s Road Trip adventures this summer.

Pendleton is home to quite a famous event: the Pendleton Round-Up. It has been a major highlight of this town and of Oregon since 1910.

Thousands of people travel across the world to see the famed venue and witness events such as: wild cow milking, Indian relay races and the bucking bulls. The famed “Let ‘Er Buck” logo has traveled across this nation, celebrating an old tradition.

However, since the pro rodeo is extremely famous, much of what visitors and tourists imagine of Pendleton revolves around the Round-Up. On our day trip, we learned that this small town holds more secrets.

One of the major historical spots is an old Western store called Hamley‘s. It has been in Pendleton since the early 1900s and resides along the main street downtown, which used to be the Oregon Trail.

William Hamley and his family moved from England to the United States in the mid-1800s. Leather and saddle trade were the crafts he grew up with. It took his two sons a few failed attempts to open a successful store in various parts of the country, until they found Pendleton.

We spoke with the owner, Parley Pearce, who showed us the store like he was praising his child. We could tell from the moment he started telling us the history and his experience with the store that he had an immeasurable amount of love for the fine quality and history of the items within Hamley‘s.

Hamley‘s was one of the first organizers of the Pendleton Round-Up and continues to be a major sponsor. The store designed the modern-day saddle bronc saddle when it needed to be standardized in the early 1900s. Saddles are still made onsite in the old leather-craft room in the back of the store.

Besides the merchandise and leather, Hamley‘s boasts a Western-styled steakhouse, the Cattle Baron’s Club, Pendleton Room, Wine Cellar and the Slickfork Saloon. The old saloon was restored and recreated into an old western bar to be used for its former purpose as a dance room. Many of the decorations were custom made to highlight the authenticity of the Western way of life.

In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of the saloon is the antique bar. Pearce found the bar in Butte, Montana, and when he brought it back to Pendleton, it had to be lifted by a crane through the third-floor window because of its size.

The bar also has a brutal past. An engraved name and blood stain are all that remain of a man who was shot by the bartender for carving his name into the wood. The name remains, to honor the history the bar has been through.

Pendleton boasts a wide and diverse range of historical events and sites. However, it is only on our road trip that we truly learned the details in what makes this unique town a living piece of history.

For more information on our adventure, check out Dani Fried’s story, “RoadTrip: Destination Pendleton.”