BASSETT - Over its 20-year run, the Nebraska Ranch Expo drew several hundred exhibitors and thousands of visitors to the Rock County Fairgrounds here for three days each mid-June.
In recent years, the event - billed from the onset as the state's largest ranch-oriented trade show - attracted more than 400 commercial exhibitors from about 16 to 18 states and a couple of Canadian provinces, said Gene DeBolt, a Newport rancher.
He and his wife, Dixie, came up with the show idea and were its co-managers all 20 years. The expo was patterned after the long-running Husker Harvest Days near Grand Island each September but with a ranch-oriented focus.
But the Nebraska Ranch Expo - at least, that is, the name - is now history.
Last week, the DeBolts announced that they are moving the event - to be known as the Nebraska Ranch & Home Expo - to the Viaero Event Center at Kearney. Dates are June 9-10, 2010.
DeBolt cites a number of advantages with the move, including no fighting mud or soggy grounds, a modern facility and ample concrete and crushed rock areas for parking and exhibit displays.
He estimates there will be "close to 200 exhibits inside the air-conditioned building," which is best known as the venue for Tri-City Storm ice hockey games and concerts, as well as outside displays of large machinery and equipment.
The livestock-handling demonstrations and purebred beef cattle displays, among mainstays of the Bassett expo, will continue at Kearney, he said. There will be an added emphasis on home-related exhibits, especially since the relocation is to a major urban area, he said.
"We've already sent letters to past expo exhibitors," DeBolt said. "Quite a few of them will probably follow us to Kearney, but there should be a lot of new exhibitors, too."
But Bassett-area residents aren't ready to cash in on hosting a ranch-oriented trade show.
For two decades, the Nebraska Ranch Expo was an economical boon to Bassett - as well as communities with motels stretching in all directions for as many as about 70 miles.
In recent years, annual attendance ranged from about 9,000 to 10,000 people. The attendance peak of about 12,000 was reached in 2008, he said.
The Rock County Agricultural Society has been involved with the Nebraska Ranch Expo for about the past 18 years, said Joe Andrews, a Bassett rancher who has been the ag society president the past 34 years.
Andrews also served 16 years as president of the loosely formed 10-member Nebraska Ranch Expo board, which includes several ag society directors.
Andrews said the expo ran well until about three years ago when DeBolt "wanted out. He wanted all of it or he would move it."
At the time, Andrews said the "expo board wanted to keep it in our own community." He said the expo's assets were evenly split between the board and the DeBolts.
The DeBolts managed the next three ranch expos, which, he said, were self-funded. "Basically, there's been no expo board the last three years," Andrews said. "We were here but had nothing to say. We just stayed organized."
In September, Andrews learned - not from DeBolt but from an area business - that the expo was moving to Kearney.
Andrews said: "That was news to us. We'd never been notified (by the DeBolts)."
But Bassett wasn't ready to give up.
At a meeting in Bassett on Sept. 21, Andrews said, "The old board . . . decided to continue on." Its seven members decided to sponsor a ranch event in Bassett with the same format as in years past.
An informal public meeting - to gauge community interest - was conducted at the American Legion Hall in Bassett Thursday night. It drew about 70 concerned citizens and several longtime expo exhibitors, he said.
"Most were in favor of some kind of a trade show," Andrews said.
Among those pledging their support were three implement dealers - from Bassett, Burwell and Atkinson - who have exhibited at the expo all 20 years, he said.
That prompted the decision to have an expo at the Rock County Fairgrounds on June 16-17, 2010.
Andrews said an organizational meeting is planned for next week when "we'll come up with a new name (for the trade show) and some officers and directors."
Of the DeBolts' decision to relocate the Nebraska Ranch Expo to Kearney, Andrews described it as amicable. "There are no hard feelings whatsoever. It's a win-win on both sides."
But Andrews said, "We've got a lot of hard work (ahead of us)."
DeBolt said he anticipates there will be "some overlap" of exhibitors between the 2010 ranch events at Bassett and Kearney.
"It got to the point that there were too many chiefs, so we decided to do our own thing," he said during a phone interview from his home Friday afternoon.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Marcia Forbes
The Ranch Expo was always looked forward to as an event to attend in Bassett. I am happy to hear a new group will continue the tradition. Your area needs an event such as the expo so that ranchers dont always have to travel for hours to the big cities. It is a fun small community event and I will continue to attend.
Posted: Monday, September 28, 2009
Article comment by:
Buck Jones
Glad to see some folks from Rock County step up to keep an expo there. Haven't made it always to the expo, but when I did I liked what I saw. See you in 2010 for sure.
Posted: Saturday, September 26, 2009
Article comment by:
Phil Beck
It was an awesome event in Bassett, yes the mud was there but the ranchers werent complaining about it, rain is welcomed always in northern nebr. Rock County is close we can get there see what we want to see and get home at a reasonable time. No 3 1/2 drive one way to get there, we live for the Ranch Expo in Bassett each year. Its a great outing for us, a family thing. Carry on the Tradition of the Ranch Expo would be grand in Rock County, Go For It. A regular supporter, Phil
