Miss Rodeo Montana Spreads Sign Language Interest
When Bentley McCullough left Montana to continue her education at Northeastern University in Boston, the plan wasn’t to ever come back and make the Big Sky state her residence.
“I was ready to stay there, honestly,” the 2026 Miss Rodeo Montana explained prior to this week’s Wolf Point Wild Horse Stampede.
But the joy of living a rural lifestyle started to reenter her thoughts. She worked on a farm in New Hampshire and then became a small animal vet technician.
“I was trying to turn the East Coast into Montana,” she laughs. “Montana has a special way of bringing you back.”
Her family was overjoyed when the Geraldine native made the decision to return home. McCullough, her sister and parents run the Two Sisters Ranch that her great-grandfather homesteaded in 1908. They have 135 head of commercial and registered angus.
“I’m a Montana rancher through and through,” Miss Rodeo Montana said. “Leaving home and going to the East Coast has given me a new perspective. I have some fresh eyes.”
She was crowned Miss Rodeo Montana in January, and she has already served at 15 rodeos. “It’s been a blessing and gift from the Lord,” she said. “I love the opportunity to give back to the great state of Montana.”
She earned a degree in American Sign Language at Northeastern University. She currently serves as an interpretor at a Montana school.
“I learned a lot about the deaf culture on the East Coast,” she explained. “I wanted to bring a lot of the knowledge back here.”
McCullough uses her Miss Rodeo Montana title to increase the interest in American Sign Language. “I’ve interpreted at a few rodeos,” she said. “It gets people’s wheels going that maybe that’s something they want to try.”
She has been learning the sign language skill for eight years and continues to improve.
“The more minds I can connect with, the better chance they might try American Sign Language,” she explained. “I will forever be learning the language.”
She urges people to attempt American Sign Language. She doesn’t feel that it’s that dicult to learn.
“I picked it up pretty easily,” she said. “But I do believe it’s a gift given to me by the Lord.”
