Go, Daddy

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”

– G.K. Chesterton

In 1897, William McKinley became the 25th president of the United States, Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the precursor for the movie projector, Boston saw their first marathon and the country’s first underground subway, Grant’s Tomb was dedicated, and the Klondike Gold Rush began. Colorado saw the Leadville miners strike in their 21st year as a state.

Just north of us, Wyoming’s capitol celebrated the very first instance of a little rodeo and get-together called Cheyenne Frontier Days.

125 rodeos later, the “Daddy of ’em all” more than doubles the population of Cheyenne every summer as the “World’s Largest Outdoor Rodeo and Western Celebration” brings the masses for concerts, air shows, pancake breakfasts, and one of the biggest and most important professional rodeos in the world.

Long gone are the days of sheer talent getting a rider to the top of the heap, just like in any other professional sport. Today’s pro rodeo athlete is a finely tuned machine, often spending their “off season” training in strength, balance, and endurance. Many of the riders had careers in other sports such as wrestling, football, basketball and more. Whether their event requires eight seconds on a bucking back or extensive time around a timed course, the men and women on today’s pro rodeo circuit spend as much time focusing on their craft as any other athlete in sport.

That’s not to say there aren’t wrinkles in rodeo that don’t make it utterly unique. Name another sport in which a competitor pays a fee to enter themselves into their contest, let alone one that pays out so heavily to the winner of the competition. Add to that the ability for young riders to compete at both the pro and collegiate level simultaneously, and the depth and breadth of competition at every level, and it’s easy to see why audiences spend tens of millions and the very best riders can earn millions over their careers.

In addition to bringing a little bit of Western flavor to hundreds of thousands of visitors, the events also have a great financial impact for the community (and surrounding communities) of Cheyenne. Visitors spend nearly 30 million dollars a year in Cheyenne over the week and a half of Frontier Days, and it impacts businesses all up and down the Front Range. If you don’t believe me, try and make your way from Denver to Cheyenne on a night when Garth Brooks is doing a show or during the Rodeo Finals. restaurants and gas stations up and down the path to DIA see an influx during Cheyenne’s biggest show.

The capitol city had only been a state for seven years when this little soiree began, and a handful of people showed up to compete. 125 years later, with hundreds of competitors going after over a million dollars in prizes, the town of less than 60 thousand residents sees a real change over those ten days. The sporting event that’s been around longer than the Broncos and Nuggets combined, and has a history longer than the Super Bowl or NBA Finals is back in business. After taking the only year off in their history due to COVID, the world’s biggest outdoor rodeo is serving up even more hot stuff than the 100,000 pancakes they crank out every year for the pancake breakfasts. The “Daddy of ’em all” is very much back in business to the joy and enjoyment of rodeo fans everywhere.

Go, go, GO, Daddy.