Saddle Celebration Couple Who Lost Barn In 1991 Fire Holds Saddle Ride To Thank Horse Club That Rode To The Rescue
A wiry cowboy poet stands among a small group of weary riders relaxing in the shade.
Pat and Bill McKinney of Spokane sit on folding chairs, listening intently to Bob Brown’s stories - one about a rider who lost his horse on a ride near Horseshoe Lake a few years ago, another about a man who bought shin guards instead of breaking his horse from a kicking problem.
“You get your barn-raisers and your hell-raisers,” Brown is saying. “We fall somewhere in the middle.”
It’s only Brown’s second year on the Firestorm Phoenix Trail Ride, but already his stories have become a favorite.
Other riders are relaxing in their motor homes and campers parked in two rows of recreational vehicles behind the rodeo arena at Springdale, Wash. A bright late afternoon sun creeps in the windows.
Their stories would be told later.
The horses, which had made an 11-mile or 17-mile trek over moist trails, munch oats. The ride was the first of the season for most.
“There’s getting to be some better rides around, and this one ranks right up near the top,” said Jerry Johnson. The Rathdrum, Idaho, man never has missed a Firestorm Phoenix ride.
The three-day event is one of the legacies of Firestorm ‘91, a series of more than 100 fires in Eastern Washington that October. One of the fires burned Marty and Wally Russell’s property as well as more than 2,500 acres between Wellpinit, Ford and Springdale.
The couple lost its horse barn, an outbuilding, two pickup trucks and 20 acres of timber.
“As I drove up the road, I still remember a black smoke as I never saw before,” recalled Marty Russell.
But the destruction was no match for the volunteer spirit. When members of the John Wayne Pioneer Wagons and Riders heard about the fire, they offered to help the Russells rebuild.
Members of the riding club came from all over Washington and Idaho to help their fellow riders.
On the weekend of Nov. 9, 1991, they pulled their campers onto the Russell property and started raising a barn. It took 40 people four days before the new barn, complete with pack room, loft and three horse stalls, was finished.
“If somebody gets down on their luck, you’ll never find a better group to be around,” Brown said.
The barn-raising was shown often on Spokane television. The barn was the first structure to go up after the fires, which destroyed more than 100 homes.
It was almost on a lark that Marty Russell told the volunteers the couple would hold an annual saddle ride to thank the community.
The Firestorm Phoenix Trail Ride was born. It has grown from 45 people in 1992 to more than 100 expected last weekend.
Howard and Orva Anderson came all the way from Monroe, Wash.
“We’ve had to turn people away,” said Marty Russell. “I don’t know how they find out about it - we don’t advertise.”
The staging area for the ride was moved from the Russell farm six miles south of town to the Springdale rodeo grounds. Now, there’s entertainment, meals, square dancing and cowboy poetry. A person who shoes horses is on call.
The prep work also has grown, and the Russells, both retired teachers, were riding every day trying to find trails, clear debris and mark the trails so riders wouldn’t get lost.
The hard work has paid off.
“Any time you can get on a horse for five or six hours, you feel happy,” Johnson said.
The length of the ride, the challenge of the terrain and the company along the trail make the Firestorm Phoenix ride attractive.
But it’s the old logging roads that wind through the green hills north of Springdale that set it apart.
“You kind of forget the cares of the big city out there,” Brown said.
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