2025 Boss Cowman Honorees: Chuck and Kerry Christman

Lemmon, South Dakota will host the 55th Boss Cowman rodeo July 10-13, 2025. Chuck and Kerry Christman were named the 2025 Boss Cowman Honorees. The couple has over five decades of history with the event. Chuck has worked at 53 of the rodeos, and attended every one. He served on the Boss Cowman committee for 29 years, and has participated as a competitor, served as a judge, and worked the chutes. Kerry came to Boss Cowman for the first time in 1972 after she and Chuck started dating, and later was instrumental in starting the Boss Cowman Rodeo Queen contest.

Chuck’s father, John Christman, was named the 1983 Boss Cowman. Christmans are the fourth honorees from Adams County, North Dakota, and still call the ranch six miles north of Lemmon home.  Chuck and Kerry raised their family –Shanna, Seth, and Shad on the ranch, and now have five grandchildren: Shanna’s children Asha, Noah and Finn, and Shad and Rebecca’s children Lyra and Lael.

“I was born and raised on this place, and have lived here my entire life except for going to college,” he said. “It has been good to us.”

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Chuck and Kerry celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in December of 2024. Kerry admits to getting a “deer in the headlights look” when asked to pull the tractor, and is still not certain if a wave of Chuck’s hand means “Stop” or “fifth gear” when he’s wearing fuzzy gloves.

“I did walk to the house a couple of times,” she said.

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But they are both still smiling at each other after 50 and a half years of marriage.

Chuck’s grandfather was a German from Russia who emigrated with his two brothers in 1907. The three homesteads were 10 miles west of the Christman ranch.

John Christman was born in 1912 and grew up working for local farmers and ranchers. His first wife died after their second daughter was born.

“He was left with a one-year-old and a baby,” Chuck said. “The doctor wanted to adopt both girls but dad said, ‘No, they’re mine,’ and went to buy a milk cow so he could feed his baby.”

The milk cow cost $20 and John didn’t have the money, nor would the bank give him a loan. The hardware store owner in Lemmon knew him and gave him the $20 to buy the cow.

“Dad paid him back in a month,” Chuck said.

Times were tough in the 30s, and John had two babies to feed and no job.

“He joined the CCC’s, jumped a freight train to Bozeman, Montana, and worked on the dams being built,” Chuck said. “He sent money home to his folks, and once a month hopped the train to come home to see the girls.”

Chuck’s maternal grandmother came from Volga, South Dakota, to homestead at Grand Valley.

“My grandmother married the gentleman who homesteaded next to her and together they ran the Grand Valley store. My mom, Blenda, was born and raised there. She moved to Lemmon when she was in her early 20s and worked as a Bell Telephone operator.”

John and Blenda married in 1943 when Marilyn and Betty were four and five. “She was always Mother to them,” Chuck said. A son, Bob, was born in 1944. Chuck was born at home in 1952 right after a storm.

“Dad delivered me; they couldn’t get the doctor out even with a plane because there was thick fog, and the snow was too deep to drive to town.”

John was on the phone with the doctor throughout the labor and delivery, and with the party lines of the day, the whole neighborhood knew what was happening.

“Chuck’s sisters and brother got sent to the barn to do chores several times throughout the day,” Kerry said. “It was just a three-room house so there wasn’t much privacy.”

But everything turned out alright, and the following day a neighbor with a snow plane flew mother and baby to the hospital in Lemmon. John and Blenda lost a stillborn daughter before their youngest daughter, Donna, completed the family.

“Dad started farming and ranching and adding on to the place; he bought most of the ranch for $15 per acre,” Chuck said. “He had the chance to buy more, but didn’t think he could swing it.”

John chose to raise registered Hereford cattle, and served on the board of the North Dakota Hereford Association. Chuck is a lifetime member of the American Hereford Association. Although Christmans now lease out their grass, “Hereford cattle are all that have been on this place,” he said.

John was also a founding member of the North Dakota Quarter Horse Association, and raised registered quarter horses for 12 years. Chuck’s love of horses was inspired at an early age by the mares and foals, the horse shows the family hosted on the ranch, and other shows and playdays they traveled to in the area.

“As a kid, those shows were so much fun,” Chuck recalled. “Every pen on the place was full of horses and people pitched tents all over the place and camped out for the weekend. We had cow cutting using Dad’s replacement heifers, and performance events such as reining, barrels and poles. Mother and the homemakers club set up concessions in the garage. I remember it all being pretty exciting.”

The family also joined the Dakota Horse Lovers saddle club and went to shows and playdays at Black Horse Creek, Dupree, Timber Lake and other communities in the area. These would include barrels, poles, flag races, scoop shovel races and other events.

“All of the club members hired Corcoran Trucking and all loaded their horses at the arena in Lemmon. The families would load up in their cars and we would have a picnic under the bleachers wherever we went,” Chuck said.

Chuck has been active in the rodeo arena throughout his life, from 4-H rodeo to high school, college, amateurs to a little pro-rodeo in the local area. He rode bulls for 13 years and roped calves for 23 years. He has been an NDRA member for 35 years: 15 as a competitor, then taking a hiatus while raising a family and joining again in 2006. He judged junior high, high school, college, NDRA, SDRA and NRCA rodeos for the past 20 years, and PRCA rodeos for the past 10 years. Chuck has retired from judging but is still active as an NDRA judging director and on the board.

At a Little Britches (not affiliated with today’s association) rodeo put on in 1962 by Herb Kolb in Bison, South Dakota, Chuck rode his first calf and “got the rodeo bug.”

John took time out of the hayfield to take Chuck to compete. He won the pony bareback riding, the calf riding and the barrel race. That first trophy for all-around cowboy won at 10 years old was the beginning of Chuck’s rodeo career.

Chuck even did some jockeying at local horse races for a while.

“I was a little smaller and lighter then,” he said. “It was a lot of fun. There were no starting gates; we just started flat footed.”

By the late 60s, roping events were becoming popular, and John bought some roping steers.

“None of us knew what we were doing, and it’s lucky we didn’t get killed,” Chuck said. “It was all tie down roping and no one dallied. Those steers were pretty fresh.”

Chuck felt fortunate to have very good horses.

“Dad raised them and made sure they were trained properly,” he said.

John sent a home raised mare to Alvin Gabbert at Lefor, North Dakota for training as a rope horse for Chuck.

“Alvin told Dad, ‘I don’t know if you know what you have or not, but you need to send that kid up here with me.’ I got to go live up there, and of course I had to muck stalls and help out, but he helped me with my roping and with the horse. I knew a whole lot more when I got back.”

Christmans traveled to quarter horse shows in the area, including Mound City, where Hilmer Wessel got John started cutting. They also went to Sturgis, Nisland, and the Valley City Winter show, for which Chuck got to skip school.

“We didn’t have a trailer. Dad built a canopy for the old farm truck, threw in the horses and hay and away we went. It was an old six-cylinder gas hog. We started out with it full of gas, and filled it up at Elgin, Glen Ulllin, Steele, and if we were lucky we made it to Valley City without another stop. A trip that now takes four hours took all day long.”

Chuck graduated from Lemmon High School in 1970, and went to college in Dickinson.

“I didn’t really want to go to school; I wanted to ranch and rodeo,” he said. “Mother and Dad both said to go get an education and then come back.”

“In 1971, a young ranch woman from Watford City came to school,” Chuck said.

Kerry Veeder Christman was raised in the rugged country of the North Dakota badlands North of Killdeer, near Keene.

“Chuck is the Cowman and I’m the boss,” she said. “My two younger brothers tell me I’ve been training for this for years.”

Kerry’s mother was one of 12 children born to homesteading Norwegian immigrant parents. Her father was from a pioneer family of five children.

“My mom and dad only lived five miles apart, but she really didn’t get to know him till they were grown up. Dad was a World War II veteran. Interestingly, his mother died when he was seven so he was raised without a mom. My grandpa kept the family together just like Chuck’s dad did.”

Kerry’s father was involved in some of the last big roundups on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

“Our summer job was to ride pastures, check on bulls and water, and make sure the bulls didn’t get stuck in the mucky black oil gumbo,” Kerry said.

The following summer, 1972, was Chuck and Kerry’s “first rodeo” together at Boss Cowman Days.

“I would come down and follow him around; with a pickup with no air conditioning, we’d go all over and he’d compete,” Kerry said. “They called us ‘Buckle Bunnies.'”

Chuck drove a 1966 Chevy four-speed pulling a homemade one-horse trailer.

“The axle ran over the top of the floor; my horse had to step over it to get in. But I thought I was right uptown with it. It sure got me there and back again,” Chuck said.

John had a heart attack in 1972, and Chuck was more than happy to come back to the ranch to provide needed help.

“Even when I was in college, I would come home most weekends, especially during calving season. I’d help all night and go back to Dickinson in the morning. It was only 90 miles by the gravel road.”

Kerry continued school in Dickinson, then transferring to the University of Mary where she graduated in 1974.

“I proposed in the spring and we married in December,” Chuck said. “It’s been 50 and a half years. It is often said that every successful rancher has a good wife who works behind him.

Kerry worked at Dacotah Bank until their oldest daughter, Shanna was born, and when their son Seth was three she started working at the school.

“That way I had summers off and I could still help out at home,” she said. “When you’re self-employed, you don’t have insurance, so a lot of farm and ranch wives work off the place. It’s not that you made that much, but it helped with cash flow too. When you get your year’s salary in a lump sum, it helps to have income throughout the year.”

After their youngest son, Shad started school in 1996, Kerry went back to Dacotah Bank and worked there until 2015.

There were some tough times.

“We bought the ranch from my parents in 1978. Everyone remembers what happened in the 80s: cattle prices went down and interest rates went up. We wouldn’t have made it if Kerry hadn’t been working,” Chuck said.

Part time jobs for Chuck were also a Godsend during those hard years. He worked for West River Veterinary Clinic for 13 years, mostly in the country and at sale barns. When Doc Ford took over at Lemmon Livestock, Chuck started working with him. He helped Doc work stock cow sales and work cattle in the country for 23 years. Chuck also served as a local brand inspector for the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association for 30 years.

“Chuck wasn’t afraid to do anything,” Kerry said.

The brand inspection job may have provided more education than income. Through it Chuck got to learn where a lot of people lived and look at a lot of different cattle and operations.

“I got pretty good at reading brands, even when they were upside down, smeared or the cattle were haired over. Sometimes they would have them in a 10-acre lot to run by you, and you’d have to figure out by guess and by golly what the brands were,” he said.

With encouragement from Ronnie and Susie Dauwen and Doc Ford, Kerry Christman, Connie Urlacher, Melody Schopp and Jody Thorn started the Boss Cowman Queen contest. Shanna was the Jr. Queen in 1992 and the Sr. Queen in 1995. Now the Perkins County Rodeo Queen contest, it gave Shanna and many other young ladies the opportunity to practice public speaking, modeling and horsemanship skills as well as the basic lesson of “what you start, you finish.”

“During one rodeo a thunderstorm came through, and that poor girl and her dad were out there at slack cleaning the arena for the timed events in the slop, the rain, the cold. It was miserable but you had to do it,” Kerry said.

Chuck said that he has enjoyed being involved with the Boss Cowman Rodeo for all these years.

“It’s pretty fun to be involved in something for so long and see it succeed,” he said.

Credit for the success can be given to many individuals, too numerous to mention them all.

“Johnny Holloway provided stock in the early days, and did it for 50 percent of the gate,” Chuck said. “There were times when I’m sure he didn’t pay his fuel bill to come to Lemmon, but he took 50 percent of whatever it was. Had it not been for him we would have never survived.”

Board members and local businesses have also made a huge contribution. One year, before insurance and waivers of liability were standard, an accident at another area rodeo and the subsequent lawsuit made the climate difficult for putting on rodeos. Christman and other volunteers kept Boss Cowman going that year.

Chuck also served on numerous boards and committees in the area, including 27 years on the Lemmon Junior Livestock Show board, Adams County Fair board, West River Health Services Foundation, Lemmon Federal Credit Union, Lemmon Equity Exchange, Lemmon Thunder Hawk Coop, and as an Adams County Commissioner. Chuck and Kerry both led 4-H clubs, were involved with FFA programs, and are active members of St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lemmon.

“I did it because I loved what I was doing,” Chuck said. “Being involved is really important in community enhancement and survival. I couldn’t have done any of it without this lady and our family. Kerry supported everything I did and has always been there to help.”