The World's First Rodeo

By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Last month, I took you back to the formation of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, yet another amazing geological formation. If you missed that post, you can read it here: https://www.hhhistory.com/2020/06/tallest-sand-dunes-in-north-america.html.

This month, let's look at an event that also attracted a lot of people, but instead of geological formations, the attraction is more of a performance and animal nature.

DEER TRAIL - Home to the WORLD'S FIRST RODEO

One of many proud signs near town

The year was 1869. The day was July 4th. Just 2 months after the historic joining of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads, creating the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. For Deer Trail, Colorado, when the rest of the country was celebrating Independence Day, this little town was holding the world's first rodeo. Although Santa Fe, N.M., Pecos, TX and Prescott, AZ also claim to have held the first rodeo, Deer Trail has it on record and documented as being the first.

Kansas Pacific Railway train

Deer Trail was founded when the Kansas Pacific Railway built a station there in 1870. It soon became a shipping point for grain, livestock, and eggs, but the rodeo has been the town's claim to fame for 150 years. Despite several severe snowstorms and a flood, the town incorporated in 1920 and reached a thriving level during that decade. Unfortunately, the Great Depression caused a significant decline, and from that point forward, the annual rodeo is what has kept the town alive.

Bronco Bustin' at the Rodeo

The historical significance and the account of the event was written about by a reporter in the “Field and Farm” magazine. Local ranch hands looking for a way to settle bets on who was the best at various cowboy fundamentals is how the idea of the rodeo got started. Folks from all the area ranches came with their most notorious broncs and best cowboys to the “Bronco Bustin’ Contest”. The prize was a suit of clothes, which was awarded to the Champion Bronc Buster of the Plains, Emiline Gardenshire of the Milliron Ranch. Emiline rode fifteen minutes on the back of Montana Blizzard, a horse known for being the worst outlaw of the bunch.

Deer Trail's claim to fame

Deer Trail, Colorado, about 45 miles east of Denver along East Colfax Avenue, has been recognized as the Home of the World’s First Rodeo by the Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame, Colorado State Legislature, the History Channel, Guinness Book of World Records and many other publications. So, if you're looking for a rodeo to attend, come to Colorado and visit Deer Trail in July.


NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Have you ever attended a live rodeo? If so, when and where?

* If you were to participate in a rodeo, what event would you like to do?

* What topics would you like to see covered in future posts?

Answer any or all of the following, or leave any comment or question you'd like below. Come back on the 9th of August for my next appearance.

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those childhood skills to become an award-winning and best-selling author and speaker who is also an advocate for literacy as an educational consultant with Usborne Books. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help better their lives.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and two dogs in Colorado. She has sold twenty (23) books so far and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

History of the Rodeo Clown

This week an icon in the PRCA rodeo passed away.

Lecile Harris (1937-2020), died in his sleep Wednesday night after the final show of the Dixie National Rodeo and Livestock Show in Mississippi, my home state. At 83 years young, Mr. Harris was still doing what he loved, being a rodeo clown. And he was good at it.

It was a shock to hear the news on Thursday morning, and it got me to thinking about the history of rodeo clowns.

When competitive rodeo became all the rage in the early 1900s, promoters hired cowboys to entertain the crowd between events. Prior to that, let’s just say the games and matches played out on the plains between cowboys matching skills and wits, there wasn’t really any need to “entertain” between the events that the cowboys themselves had come to see. But once there was a paying audience, those people wanted a lot of bang for their buck, and wanted to be entertained every second they were at the “show”. Much like the people at the medieval jousting matches and the Roman Coliseums.

The cowboys whose job it was to entertain the crowd started wearing oversized, baggy clothing, and some even painted their faces just as circus clowns do. The rodeo clown took a lot of cues from circus clowns and court jesters as their job—initially— was the same: to entertain the rowdy crowd. It wasn’t exactly dangerous… unless the crowd became unruly, I suppose.

But soon the crowds grew bored and wanted more danger and ill-tempered bulls were brought in for the bull-riding events. As most of us know, bull riders are only expected to stay on for 8 seconds and after that, that mean, ornery, I-will-trample-everything-in-my-path bull is out for blood.

[Photograph of Rodeo Clowns], photograph, June 24, 1959; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth531666/: accessed February 14, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Erath County Genealogical Society. 

So the rodeo clowns stepped up to distract the bulls from the rider so he could get to safety. Many times the clowns worked in pairs, and I’ve seen as many as three or four in the arena. In the 1930s, Jasbo Fulkerson introduced a wooden barrel as a barrier and a way to escape the enraged bull. These days, a heavy duty plastic barrel does the trick, but still, it all looks quite scary when you see a bull butting one of those things and you know a bullfighter is inside!

These men are professional athletes and the proper term for them is bullfighter all across the globe. Many still wear baggy bright clothes and all kinds of flashy things to get the bulls’ attention, but make no mistake, they are highly skilled at what they do. When a rider is injured or hung up, they risk their lives to free that rider. Honestly, they are some of the bravest, most skilled men I’ve ever seen in action.

In larger rodeos, there are bullfighters who are 100% focused on the bull, and then there’s the rodeo clown (sometimes called the barrelman) whose job is to poke fun at the bull, the riders, the other bullfighters and entertain the crowd, while also convincing everybody he’s the tough one out there in the ring. But even that seasoned old cowpoke who might be a bit over the hill has paid his dues, and at one time, he was the one with an angry bull breathing down his neck.

Such was the case with Lecile Harris. He started out wanting to ride bulls, but his tall, lanky frame wasn’t suited to the job. He fell into the job of bullfighter when another guy failed to show up one day, and the rest is history. He was a natural and was always a “class clown”, so he loved hamming it up for the crowd. At the age of 52, he was injured in the arena, which ended his career as a bullfighter, and he spent the next 30 plus years in the ring entertaining the crowds as the main attraction, the Rodeo Clown. Six decades in the ring, and he’d performed a few hours before he drew his last breath.

RIP, Lecile Harris.

Lecile Harris (1937-2020)
www.lecile.com

For more older photos of rodeo clowns, visit Lecile's FB page and scroll through the photos. Or go to Youtube and search for rodeo clowns or rodeo bullfighters to see some of these guys in action!

Today's the last day to get your print copy of
The Crossing at Cypress Creek for $5 from Tyndale.
Click here to order your copy today!

Rodeos and Trail Rides

All Trails Lead to Houston

 by Martha Rogers

When I moved to Houston from college in 1957, I heard about the big rodeo and livestock exposition held every February. I became fascinated with the idea of rodeos and how the majority of Houston citizens celebrated Go-Texan Day for the big rodeo parade downtown.

I saw my first parade in February, 1958. I learned that schools closed on that Friday and business allowed people to take a break and witness the parade to kick off the two weeks of rodeo and livestock exposition. As I thought about those days recently, I became curious as to the origin of the rodeo and the trail rides that precede the week and make up most of the parade.

In January, 1932, seven businessmen met for lunch at the Texas State. They decided to host a livestock exposition Houston. They named Sartwelle as the first president and named it the Houston Fat Stock Show.

The very first show opened in April of 1932 at Sam Houston Hall, the Democratic Convention Hall. The show was designed as a regional event to showcase the agriculture and livestock of the area. The show ended with a deficit of $2,800 with approximately 2000 attendees at the end of one week. The only performers were the members of the Future Farmers Band of 68 high school students from across the state. A Grand Champion Steer was named and auctioned off to a local restaurant owner for $504. Here are ranchers bringing in their livestock for one of the early shows and then gathered around the Grand Champion.

Undaunted, the committee went ahead and held the show for the next four years and attendance grew to the extent that they outgrew the venue. They
began looking for a larger arena in Houston, and at the end of the 1936 show, the old Sam Houston Hall was torn down and the 1937 show was cancelled to allow for construction of a new arena. That year off gave the organizers the opportunity to expand and solidify plans for a larger even.

Sam Houston Coliseum: Home to the Rodeo until the Astrodome was built.

In 1938, they added the parade through downtown Houston, a carnival and a midway, and a rodeo that yielded a $640.50 purse. As interest and attendance grew, so did the plans. In 1940, the organizers decided to add musical entertainment.


 




At first, local talent performed at the rodeo in the evenings. In 1942, Gene Autrey, the singing cowboy appeared on stage as the first nationally 

recognized entertainer to perform at the show.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were two other popular performers at the rodeo.

One of the early posters advertising the Rodeo

As Houston grew and became more urban, interest flagged in the early 1950’s. In order to attract more  attention, the organizers decided to add a trail drive to the activities to precede the show. The first one originated in 1952 when the media were invited to join some cowboys for a 75 mile ride from Brenham, Texas to Houston and the Fat Stock Show.

When the event was so well-received, the Salt Grass Trail Association decided to continue with the drive. This inspired groups from other parts of the state to do the same. Thus one trail drive for publicity became a much larger event drawing statewide attention.

In 1961, the show became the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The show grew even more and moved from the Sam Houston Coliseum to the Astrodome and Astrohall in the mid 1960’s.

To go along with the trail drives, a day shortly before the first night of the show, the committee designated a Go Texan Day for everyone to wear traditional Western wear. Someone said that now Texans were dressing the way most of the rest of the country thought they dressed all the time.

              Heading for Camp on the Trail                         Cooking on the Trail
Photo by Atha Marks
    Dimon


                                    
The Salt Grass Trail ride is still the “Granddaddy” of the trail rides that now converge on Houston the final Friday before the show begins. They camp out in Memorial Park the night before the parade and then ride in formation to 
downtown Houston for the parade on Saturday morning. People line the highways leading into Houston to greet the trail riders as they make their way to the park from all over Texas.  

Today, the show gives thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving youth for their college education. In addition, the auctions at the end of the championship judging now bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the owners of the champion and reserve champion livestock.

So, the dream of seven men at a lunch at a hotel gave birth to what is now one of the largest rodeo events in the country and is recognized by the Professional Rodeo Association.

I have several special memories about the event held at the end of February and beginning of March. One of my favorites is the time my middle school homemaking class entered a contest in which we had to decorate a table with a theme of “Go Texan” for the rodeo. My class won first place for middle schools with our theme, “All Trails Lead to Houston” featuring the Salt Grass Trail Ride. I was so proud of my girls.

Pictures are from: https://bit.ly/2lHTG4V  and the files of The Houston Chronicle

Have you ever been to a rodeo? If so, what was your favorite part? Mine is the barrel races. 

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Since receiving her first novel contract at age 73, Martha has written and published over 50 books. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active members of First Baptist Church. They are the parents of three sons and grandparents to eleven grandchildren and great-grandparents to five. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years at the college level supervising student teachers and teaching freshman English. She is the Director of the Texas Christian Writers Conference held in Houston in August each year, a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS chapter in Houston, and a member of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers Alive.

Find Martha at:  www.marthawrogers.com, 

                        Twitter:  @martharogers2   

                        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarthaRogersAuthor