Mission Valley Power linemen Richard Laurance, Rodney Depoe, and Kienan Keniston won the Montana Lineman’s Rodeo at the Broadwater County Fairgrounds in Townsend earlier this summer, marking the first time MVP linemen claimed the tough state competition. 

Not only did they come home with trophy belt buckles, but the win also qualified them to compete in the International Lineman’s Rodeo and Expo held in Overland Park, Kan., and Bonner Springs, Kan., at the Natural Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, Oct. 14-17. 

These MVP guys had lots of support, too. Not only their families and friends, but the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes paid for their flights and hotels, and the Local Union #768 paid their $500 entry fee.

The MVP men are a team that doesn’t train especially for the rodeos; they do lineman’s work every day keeping the power on in the Mission Valley. But that’s not the case for many other rodeo teams, which train daily instead of working in the field and go from rodeo to rodeo.

It was truly an international crowd, with linemen from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The event also included an all-women team of linemen and teams representing states and companies all over the United States. 

Seen from above, the scene would have looked like hundreds of toothpicks swarming with tiny toy linemen.

A lantern ceremony opened the international rodeo, with each lighted lantern honoring a lineman who has lost his life on the job during the preceding year. The Montana rodeo also began with a candlelight ceremony for the same purpose. It’s solemn, moving, and a reminder of linemen who’ve gone ahead.

The rodeo featured four events: a hurtman rescue, a pole climb, and two mystery climbs. The poles were forty-footers, and linemen wear boots with gaffs, a sharp iron, chisel-like attachment attached to the inside of a lineman’s climber that jabs into the pole. They also have fire-resistant clothes, long-sleeved shirts, safety glasses, hard hats, and electrical safety gear. 

The reason for the Hurtman rescue is time; if a person gets in electrical contact, that person needs to be rescued within four minutes, or he/she can be brain dead in that four-minute time span.

“It’s a big one. OSHA requires us to complete that (Hurtman rescue) every year,” Laurance said. 

The mystery events are just regular line work; the contestants find out the day of the competition. I, changing out glass, using gloves, etc., the guys said.

“To be a lineman, you have a four-year apprenticeship,” Laurance said.

“That’s 8,000 hours,” Keniston said, “144 hours of school a year.”

They attended Mountain States Line Construction at the same time, and Keniston now teaches there. 

“We have to take a test at the end of each month, and a (comprehensive) exam at the end of every year,” Laurance said. “At the end of the apprenticeship, we’re tested on a pole, and we have to take a journeyman general knowledge, electrical connections and electrical.” 

“It takes like four hours,” Keniston said. “It’s a huge accomplishment, and you’re so nervous.”

The apprenticeship amounts to what would be 20 college credits in math, he added. 

Keniston said he’s a big proponent of all trades: plumbers, HVAC, electricians, not just linemen. As a high school student, “all that was pushed on me was college,” he said. He had a brother who went to lineman school, and his dad worked at Mission Valley Power, so they told him about the opportunities. 

“The biggest thing is when kids finally learn about money, when they get out of school and aren’t living in their parents’ house,” Laurance said.

“I was two years into the trade, with a house, a vehicle, a fishing boat, and no college debt, because it was on-the-job training,” Keniston said. 

The men said many people don’t understand that a lineman makes as much as a doctor or a lawyer. 

If a kid in high school is interested in becoming a lineman, he or she should take as many math classes as are offered, including advanced placement courses. All linemen also have to have a Commercial Driver’s License.

In the end, “Safety is our main concern,” Larance and Keniston said.