2015 Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo • Highlights

Mouth-watering authentic Buckaroo Breakfasts have been a fair tradition for 70 years. Started in 1944 by Redmond’s city fathers as a way to sell war bonds, the menu is still the same except that steak is no longer on the menu and the cost is more than the original 75 cents.

Many of the same families are still part of the 200 volunteers it takes to stage the breakfast every year on Sunday morning of the fair, this year August 7. Fifty percent of the volunteers who return year after year come from outside Central Oregon and outside the state.

Top hand for the second year in a row is John Campbell, who is a second generation ‘pan breader.’ His parents became involved in 1946 creating the pan bread made of flour, eggs, butter and milk and fried in a pan on a wood burning stove.

The Top Hand is the person who steps up to ‘run the show,’ but Campbell passes most of the credit to the food “wranglers.”

All the food stations have their very own wrangler and some have two, said Campbell.

“I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have top of the line wranglers. They are the ones that do all the work,” he said.

Campbell’s duties range from organizing work crews, to creating supply inventories, to checking with the head wranglers of each ‘camp’ to be sure they have everything they need.

The Buckaroo Breakfast site at the north end of the fairgrounds consists of individual camps that each provides a part of the breakfast. The fried potatoes are cooked up by the Whittiers and the Nicholls. Bob Shumway, using his commercial mixer, prepares all the pancake batter. Randy Baker provides all the juniper firewood for the wood burning stoves, which are started at 11 p.m. Saturday night and banked at 3 a.m. Sunday morning by Don Lehnertz so they are ready to go by 6 a.m.

Sue Fuller, a 1977 Redmond High School graduate and former member of the fair rodeo court, grew up washing dishes with her parents each year and carries on the family tradition to this day, wearing her signature red apron.

Local businesses have long been big supporters of the breakfast. Bob Eberhard of Eberhard Dairy provides all the milk and a refrigerated truck to keep things cold. Grocery Outlet is the source for all the dry goods and allows any unopened packages to be returned.

The popularity of the breakfast grew after the war years until in the 1950s and 60s some 3,000 people were served in four hours. People used to fly in to the Redmond airport and take a special shuttle to the breakfast.

It’s $8 for adults, $5 for children, and kids under 6 free, attendees will feast on tasty sausage, from-scratch pancakes, farm fresh eggs, crispy bacon, fresh made hash browns, still warm pan bread, and beverages. Breakfast is served from 6 –10 a.m.

For more information visit their Facebook page at

www.facebook.com/buckaroobreakfastclub