Community work projects like the Ellensburg Rodeo field day are just as much a legacy of Western heritage as the pioneers’ individualism and independent spirit. Old-fashioned frontier traditions thus combined with nostalgia and the modern Chamber of Commerce booster spirit to produce Ellensburg’s first rodeo.
Competitions sprung up naturally among top hands as their fellow cowboys looked on. The Record reported that the “Riders are Skillful and Horses and Steers are Wild.” More importantly, the Record noted that well over 500 rodeo fans had been turned away and that “Hundreds Are in Overflow Crowd; Grandstand Filled”. The event takes place each Labor Day Weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo Fairgrounds and is the state's largest rodeo. This special fundraising project highlights all seven PRCA events. The nation's best riders, ropers, and wrestlers compete in one of the country's best rodeo arenas.
ERHOF’s website is http://www.ellensburgrodeohalloffame.com/.
They got a wagon load of poles and made the corral and made the arena [and] chutes.” During the early 1920s the Fergusons were staging rodeos “every other Sunday.” It was not unusual for 100 to 300 spectators to attend. In a very important way, the people of the Kittitas Valley relied upon their frontier heritage to create their rodeo. The fair has grown into a five–day event held each Labor Day weekend. Michael Allen, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Washington, Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg and serves on the board of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association.
At the urging of newspaper editor Clifford Kaynor, businessman Clarence Fitterer, and several others, the Kittitas County Commissioners started the ball rolling on April 1, 1923, budgeting $10,000 for the purchase of 18 acres adjacent to the fairgrounds in northeast Ellensburg. The rodeo boosters immediately faced a huge obstacle: they needed money to buy land for the grounds, construct an arena, and stage the proposed three day event. Local merchants donated coffee, “weenies on buns,” ice cream, and other foodstuffs that women volunteers prepared and served on the grounds building site. by Mike Allen, Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association. Since the land cost $6,450, the balance would be used to construct the arena and bleachers.
Another Tuesday article stated optimistically that “Movie Men May Come to Field Day” and noted that one moviemaker wanted to film a “good slow action comedy of some banker or lawyer in the pick and shovel brigade.”. All Rights Reserved. Without volunteer community workers, the first bucking bronc may have never exploded out of the chutes into Ellensburg’s splendid new rodeo arena on the day the Ellensburg Rodeo was born. Today, the Top Hands have only two of the original members remaining in their group.
The membership serves a three year term at the discretion of the Rodeo Board. The Kittitas County Fair Board, which included townspeople and farmers alike, proposed the inclusion of a rodeo in the venue of the Kittitas County Fair, held annually in the early fall. Just got a neighbor boy or two up here, went out and rounded them [cattle and horses] up. The men and women who founded the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 were ranchers, farmers, Indians, and community-minded citizens working in a group effort of huge proportions. In addition to bull riding, bronco riding, and steer roping, the rodeo also features a parade, clowns, and the Miss Rodeo Washington Pageant. They were motivated not only by a desire to celebrate a vanishing frontier way of life, but also by a desire to promote their community and generate commerce. They graded a road, a racetrack and the grounds, and rerouted Wilson Creek around the site. The economic potential of all this activity did not go unnoticed. The men and women who founded the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 were ranchers, farmers, Indians, and community-minded citizens working in a group effort of huge proportions. Local cowboys, farmers, and Indians were joined by townsmen and women, businessmen, and professionals, and all looked upon the event as a good way to celebrate the past while fostering business and promoting their community around the Northwest.
Their mission is simple and straight forward, “support the Directors of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in successfully putting together the Ellensburg Rodeo and all associated Labor Day Weekend events.”.
Started in 1923 with the same volunteer spirit that still “fuels the fire” of today’s volunteers, the rodeo has grown from a local competition among ranch hands to the Professional event of today with over 600 contestants and prize money in excess of $400,000! The first organized Kittitas County Fair occurred in 1885. By the early 1920s, Kittitas Valley cowboys had taken the process one step beyond the strictly amateur category. Howard Thomas, who helped organize and competed in over ten Ellensburg rodeos, remembered that first rodeo as “a good one.” Mrs. Lillian Pope noted, “You knew pretty near everybody that was riding in it…it really made a difference [because] it was really more of a local show.” Chalmer Cobain described the contestants as “regular cowboys.
All Superintendents and Foremen Have Been Over Job and Know Work to be Done Men Unassigned Should Bring Picks and Shovels.”, In a Tuesday article entitled “Women of the Valley and Town Respond,” the Record discussed the “Feed” local women planned for Thursday noon. Some of the first rodeos were impromptu amateur affairs held in conjunction with the annual roundups in cattle country. Ellensburg’s field day was actually a series of work days held in June of 1923.
On Monday, June 11, the Record previewed the official plan: “Every Man Urged to Report to his Strawboss at 7:30 Thursday Morning.
A rodeo would draw visitors to Ellensburg, generating tourist revenue and promoting the community’s business prospects and prestige in the region. Sight of Toilers Working in Common Cause Inspiring.” After several hundred men stayed over to work on Friday, the Record’s headlines concluded, “Cooperative Work Has Astonishing Results.” The rodeo arena was ready to go. The Ellensburg Rodeo and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) does not allow for the video recording, transmission, distribution or selling of any description, account, picture, video, audio or other form or reproduction of the event without permission. Rodeo is a relatively young sport. It is true to say that Ellensburgers staged a rodeo as a celebration of their frontier heritage. Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame historian Mike Allen stands by the new display of the 2020 inductees Slim Pickens and Mable Strickland at the newly opened Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of … Officers of the Top Hands are elected by the membership for one-year terms and consist of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Member at Large – all subject to approval of the Rodeo Board of Directors. Sometime around 1922 a group evidently came to ask the Ferguson brothers to assist in the staging of the first annual Ellensburg Rodeo: “They [the townsmen] come out and got us to go in there [to Ellensburg] and furnish the horses.”.
If interested in becoming a member of the Top Hands please fill out the application for membership and return it to the Ticket Office at 609 N. Main Street in Ellensburg. Everyone looked forward to the next year’s rodeo. An annual rodeo, they reasoned, would enhance the quality of the Fair and increase attendance.
Each Top Hand is assigned to various committees and responsibilities i.e., merchandising, fundraising, sponsorship/awards, contestant and Visitor parking, Behind the Chutes beer garden and Trading Post Saloon, volunteer refreshment tent, children’s activity corral, Yakama Indian Village, grand parade, Xtreme Bulls, royal court, and autograph session. Business Men, Farmers Work on Fair Grounds. Started in 1923, the Ellensburg Rodeo has grown from a local competition among ranch hands to a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Event featuring over 500 contestants with prize money in excess of $300,000. The event takes place each Labor Day Weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo Fairgrounds and is the state's largest rodeo. Clovis Chartrand, a long time valley resident, remembered one of these Sunday rodeos at the “upper river bridge, which is where the Thorp Bridge is now, west of Ellensburg.” Ben Ferguson, a Kittitas Valley cowhand and rodeo competitor described his family’s promotion of an important Sunday rodeo: “[We] had all them horses and, my brother and a couple of friends put on a rodeo…. Local Indians formed the vital fourth group of the rodeo coalition. The Ellensburg Evening Record served as the voice of the field day organizers. My brother, he just wanted to have some fun. Today, the Top Hands have only two of the original members remaining in their group. The Fair is also used as a gathering for the Yakima Indians. This was a nostalgia modern townsmen and valley residents felt for a pioneer way of life that was vanishing in their world of automobiles, airplanes, moving picture shows and radio broadcasts. For the latest information and to purchase tickets for the rodeo, check the Ellensburg Rodeo's website. Ellensburg lies in the heart of a thriving central Washington cattle region.
Ferguson remembered that several townspeople saw “that we was having a big time” and began to discuss the possibility of staging an annual rodeo in the Ellensburg city limits (the Kittitas County Fair had already sponsored rodeo exhibition events). Having gathered together their herds for branding and sorting, cowboys often used the occasion to exhibit their skills in riding, roping and bulldogging.
Community work projects like the Ellensburg Rodeo field day are just as much a legacy of Western heritage as the pioneers’ individualism and independent spirit. Old-fashioned frontier traditions thus combined with nostalgia and the modern Chamber of Commerce booster spirit to produce Ellensburg’s first rodeo.
Competitions sprung up naturally among top hands as their fellow cowboys looked on. The Record reported that the “Riders are Skillful and Horses and Steers are Wild.” More importantly, the Record noted that well over 500 rodeo fans had been turned away and that “Hundreds Are in Overflow Crowd; Grandstand Filled”. The event takes place each Labor Day Weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo Fairgrounds and is the state's largest rodeo. This special fundraising project highlights all seven PRCA events. The nation's best riders, ropers, and wrestlers compete in one of the country's best rodeo arenas.
ERHOF’s website is http://www.ellensburgrodeohalloffame.com/.
They got a wagon load of poles and made the corral and made the arena [and] chutes.” During the early 1920s the Fergusons were staging rodeos “every other Sunday.” It was not unusual for 100 to 300 spectators to attend. In a very important way, the people of the Kittitas Valley relied upon their frontier heritage to create their rodeo. The fair has grown into a five–day event held each Labor Day weekend. Michael Allen, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Washington, Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg and serves on the board of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association.
At the urging of newspaper editor Clifford Kaynor, businessman Clarence Fitterer, and several others, the Kittitas County Commissioners started the ball rolling on April 1, 1923, budgeting $10,000 for the purchase of 18 acres adjacent to the fairgrounds in northeast Ellensburg. The rodeo boosters immediately faced a huge obstacle: they needed money to buy land for the grounds, construct an arena, and stage the proposed three day event. Local merchants donated coffee, “weenies on buns,” ice cream, and other foodstuffs that women volunteers prepared and served on the grounds building site. by Mike Allen, Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association. Since the land cost $6,450, the balance would be used to construct the arena and bleachers.
Another Tuesday article stated optimistically that “Movie Men May Come to Field Day” and noted that one moviemaker wanted to film a “good slow action comedy of some banker or lawyer in the pick and shovel brigade.”. All Rights Reserved. Without volunteer community workers, the first bucking bronc may have never exploded out of the chutes into Ellensburg’s splendid new rodeo arena on the day the Ellensburg Rodeo was born. Today, the Top Hands have only two of the original members remaining in their group.
The membership serves a three year term at the discretion of the Rodeo Board. The Kittitas County Fair Board, which included townspeople and farmers alike, proposed the inclusion of a rodeo in the venue of the Kittitas County Fair, held annually in the early fall. Just got a neighbor boy or two up here, went out and rounded them [cattle and horses] up. The men and women who founded the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 were ranchers, farmers, Indians, and community-minded citizens working in a group effort of huge proportions. In addition to bull riding, bronco riding, and steer roping, the rodeo also features a parade, clowns, and the Miss Rodeo Washington Pageant. They were motivated not only by a desire to celebrate a vanishing frontier way of life, but also by a desire to promote their community and generate commerce. They graded a road, a racetrack and the grounds, and rerouted Wilson Creek around the site. The economic potential of all this activity did not go unnoticed. The men and women who founded the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 were ranchers, farmers, Indians, and community-minded citizens working in a group effort of huge proportions. Local cowboys, farmers, and Indians were joined by townsmen and women, businessmen, and professionals, and all looked upon the event as a good way to celebrate the past while fostering business and promoting their community around the Northwest.
Their mission is simple and straight forward, “support the Directors of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in successfully putting together the Ellensburg Rodeo and all associated Labor Day Weekend events.”.
Started in 1923 with the same volunteer spirit that still “fuels the fire” of today’s volunteers, the rodeo has grown from a local competition among ranch hands to the Professional event of today with over 600 contestants and prize money in excess of $400,000! The first organized Kittitas County Fair occurred in 1885. By the early 1920s, Kittitas Valley cowboys had taken the process one step beyond the strictly amateur category. Howard Thomas, who helped organize and competed in over ten Ellensburg rodeos, remembered that first rodeo as “a good one.” Mrs. Lillian Pope noted, “You knew pretty near everybody that was riding in it…it really made a difference [because] it was really more of a local show.” Chalmer Cobain described the contestants as “regular cowboys.
All Superintendents and Foremen Have Been Over Job and Know Work to be Done Men Unassigned Should Bring Picks and Shovels.”, In a Tuesday article entitled “Women of the Valley and Town Respond,” the Record discussed the “Feed” local women planned for Thursday noon. Some of the first rodeos were impromptu amateur affairs held in conjunction with the annual roundups in cattle country. Ellensburg’s field day was actually a series of work days held in June of 1923.
On Monday, June 11, the Record previewed the official plan: “Every Man Urged to Report to his Strawboss at 7:30 Thursday Morning.
A rodeo would draw visitors to Ellensburg, generating tourist revenue and promoting the community’s business prospects and prestige in the region. Sight of Toilers Working in Common Cause Inspiring.” After several hundred men stayed over to work on Friday, the Record’s headlines concluded, “Cooperative Work Has Astonishing Results.” The rodeo arena was ready to go. The Ellensburg Rodeo and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) does not allow for the video recording, transmission, distribution or selling of any description, account, picture, video, audio or other form or reproduction of the event without permission. Rodeo is a relatively young sport. It is true to say that Ellensburgers staged a rodeo as a celebration of their frontier heritage. Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame historian Mike Allen stands by the new display of the 2020 inductees Slim Pickens and Mable Strickland at the newly opened Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of … Officers of the Top Hands are elected by the membership for one-year terms and consist of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Member at Large – all subject to approval of the Rodeo Board of Directors. Sometime around 1922 a group evidently came to ask the Ferguson brothers to assist in the staging of the first annual Ellensburg Rodeo: “They [the townsmen] come out and got us to go in there [to Ellensburg] and furnish the horses.”.
If interested in becoming a member of the Top Hands please fill out the application for membership and return it to the Ticket Office at 609 N. Main Street in Ellensburg. Everyone looked forward to the next year’s rodeo. An annual rodeo, they reasoned, would enhance the quality of the Fair and increase attendance.
Each Top Hand is assigned to various committees and responsibilities i.e., merchandising, fundraising, sponsorship/awards, contestant and Visitor parking, Behind the Chutes beer garden and Trading Post Saloon, volunteer refreshment tent, children’s activity corral, Yakama Indian Village, grand parade, Xtreme Bulls, royal court, and autograph session. Business Men, Farmers Work on Fair Grounds. Started in 1923, the Ellensburg Rodeo has grown from a local competition among ranch hands to a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Event featuring over 500 contestants with prize money in excess of $300,000. The event takes place each Labor Day Weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo Fairgrounds and is the state's largest rodeo. Clovis Chartrand, a long time valley resident, remembered one of these Sunday rodeos at the “upper river bridge, which is where the Thorp Bridge is now, west of Ellensburg.” Ben Ferguson, a Kittitas Valley cowhand and rodeo competitor described his family’s promotion of an important Sunday rodeo: “[We] had all them horses and, my brother and a couple of friends put on a rodeo…. Local Indians formed the vital fourth group of the rodeo coalition. The Ellensburg Evening Record served as the voice of the field day organizers. My brother, he just wanted to have some fun. Today, the Top Hands have only two of the original members remaining in their group. The Fair is also used as a gathering for the Yakima Indians. This was a nostalgia modern townsmen and valley residents felt for a pioneer way of life that was vanishing in their world of automobiles, airplanes, moving picture shows and radio broadcasts. For the latest information and to purchase tickets for the rodeo, check the Ellensburg Rodeo's website. Ellensburg lies in the heart of a thriving central Washington cattle region.
Ferguson remembered that several townspeople saw “that we was having a big time” and began to discuss the possibility of staging an annual rodeo in the Ellensburg city limits (the Kittitas County Fair had already sponsored rodeo exhibition events). Having gathered together their herds for branding and sorting, cowboys often used the occasion to exhibit their skills in riding, roping and bulldogging.
Kittitas County Fair and Rodeo Board members, townspeople, ranchers, farmers, and Indians spent the remainder of the summer planning the first Ellensburg Rodeo. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Westerners flocked by the tens of thousands to enjoy the new sport of rodeo. Get more information from the Kittitas County Fair's website. Pfenning and his committee began by inviting the entire Yakama Indian nation to attend and participate in the rodeo. Ellensburg Rodeo - 609 N Main St, Ellensburg, WA 98926 - Rated 4.8 based on 128 Reviews "One of the best rodeos I have ever been too. In a bold move, the Fair Board called upon valley residents to donate materials and labor for the construction of the rodeo grounds, and they set Thursday, June 14, as the date of a “field day” to build the new arena. Cameras with removable lenses, recording devices or digital video are prohibited. Regular meetings are held on the first Monday of each month. The Top Hands were instrumental in creation of the Ellensburg Rodeo Commemorative Bronze and Print series. They saw a fall rodeo as an opportunity to continue their dancing and horse racing traditions in the modern age. Local farmers and ranchers showcased the fruits of their labors. The Ellensburg Rodeo also hosts the World Finale of PRCA’s Xtreme Bulls Tour. Dr. H. F. Pfenning served as “superintendent” for a three day show that was slated for September 13-15. They scheduled 18 major events and advertised the rodeo as the “greatest Wildest Roundup in the State.” By early September, Kittitas Valley residents waited anxiously to see if the upcoming rodeo would be as successful as its creators hoped. Still, this was not nearly enough money to pay for the lumber, tools, horse teams and huge labor force necessary to construct the grounds.
Community work projects like the Ellensburg Rodeo field day are just as much a legacy of Western heritage as the pioneers’ individualism and independent spirit. Old-fashioned frontier traditions thus combined with nostalgia and the modern Chamber of Commerce booster spirit to produce Ellensburg’s first rodeo.
Competitions sprung up naturally among top hands as their fellow cowboys looked on. The Record reported that the “Riders are Skillful and Horses and Steers are Wild.” More importantly, the Record noted that well over 500 rodeo fans had been turned away and that “Hundreds Are in Overflow Crowd; Grandstand Filled”. The event takes place each Labor Day Weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo Fairgrounds and is the state's largest rodeo. This special fundraising project highlights all seven PRCA events. The nation's best riders, ropers, and wrestlers compete in one of the country's best rodeo arenas.
ERHOF’s website is http://www.ellensburgrodeohalloffame.com/.
They got a wagon load of poles and made the corral and made the arena [and] chutes.” During the early 1920s the Fergusons were staging rodeos “every other Sunday.” It was not unusual for 100 to 300 spectators to attend. In a very important way, the people of the Kittitas Valley relied upon their frontier heritage to create their rodeo. The fair has grown into a five–day event held each Labor Day weekend. Michael Allen, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Washington, Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg and serves on the board of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association.
At the urging of newspaper editor Clifford Kaynor, businessman Clarence Fitterer, and several others, the Kittitas County Commissioners started the ball rolling on April 1, 1923, budgeting $10,000 for the purchase of 18 acres adjacent to the fairgrounds in northeast Ellensburg. The rodeo boosters immediately faced a huge obstacle: they needed money to buy land for the grounds, construct an arena, and stage the proposed three day event. Local merchants donated coffee, “weenies on buns,” ice cream, and other foodstuffs that women volunteers prepared and served on the grounds building site. by Mike Allen, Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association. Since the land cost $6,450, the balance would be used to construct the arena and bleachers.
Another Tuesday article stated optimistically that “Movie Men May Come to Field Day” and noted that one moviemaker wanted to film a “good slow action comedy of some banker or lawyer in the pick and shovel brigade.”. All Rights Reserved. Without volunteer community workers, the first bucking bronc may have never exploded out of the chutes into Ellensburg’s splendid new rodeo arena on the day the Ellensburg Rodeo was born. Today, the Top Hands have only two of the original members remaining in their group.
The membership serves a three year term at the discretion of the Rodeo Board. The Kittitas County Fair Board, which included townspeople and farmers alike, proposed the inclusion of a rodeo in the venue of the Kittitas County Fair, held annually in the early fall. Just got a neighbor boy or two up here, went out and rounded them [cattle and horses] up. The men and women who founded the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 were ranchers, farmers, Indians, and community-minded citizens working in a group effort of huge proportions. In addition to bull riding, bronco riding, and steer roping, the rodeo also features a parade, clowns, and the Miss Rodeo Washington Pageant. They were motivated not only by a desire to celebrate a vanishing frontier way of life, but also by a desire to promote their community and generate commerce. They graded a road, a racetrack and the grounds, and rerouted Wilson Creek around the site. The economic potential of all this activity did not go unnoticed. The men and women who founded the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1923 were ranchers, farmers, Indians, and community-minded citizens working in a group effort of huge proportions. Local cowboys, farmers, and Indians were joined by townsmen and women, businessmen, and professionals, and all looked upon the event as a good way to celebrate the past while fostering business and promoting their community around the Northwest.
Their mission is simple and straight forward, “support the Directors of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board in successfully putting together the Ellensburg Rodeo and all associated Labor Day Weekend events.”.
Started in 1923 with the same volunteer spirit that still “fuels the fire” of today’s volunteers, the rodeo has grown from a local competition among ranch hands to the Professional event of today with over 600 contestants and prize money in excess of $400,000! The first organized Kittitas County Fair occurred in 1885. By the early 1920s, Kittitas Valley cowboys had taken the process one step beyond the strictly amateur category. Howard Thomas, who helped organize and competed in over ten Ellensburg rodeos, remembered that first rodeo as “a good one.” Mrs. Lillian Pope noted, “You knew pretty near everybody that was riding in it…it really made a difference [because] it was really more of a local show.” Chalmer Cobain described the contestants as “regular cowboys.
All Superintendents and Foremen Have Been Over Job and Know Work to be Done Men Unassigned Should Bring Picks and Shovels.”, In a Tuesday article entitled “Women of the Valley and Town Respond,” the Record discussed the “Feed” local women planned for Thursday noon. Some of the first rodeos were impromptu amateur affairs held in conjunction with the annual roundups in cattle country. Ellensburg’s field day was actually a series of work days held in June of 1923.
On Monday, June 11, the Record previewed the official plan: “Every Man Urged to Report to his Strawboss at 7:30 Thursday Morning.
A rodeo would draw visitors to Ellensburg, generating tourist revenue and promoting the community’s business prospects and prestige in the region. Sight of Toilers Working in Common Cause Inspiring.” After several hundred men stayed over to work on Friday, the Record’s headlines concluded, “Cooperative Work Has Astonishing Results.” The rodeo arena was ready to go. The Ellensburg Rodeo and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) does not allow for the video recording, transmission, distribution or selling of any description, account, picture, video, audio or other form or reproduction of the event without permission. Rodeo is a relatively young sport. It is true to say that Ellensburgers staged a rodeo as a celebration of their frontier heritage. Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame historian Mike Allen stands by the new display of the 2020 inductees Slim Pickens and Mable Strickland at the newly opened Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of … Officers of the Top Hands are elected by the membership for one-year terms and consist of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Member at Large – all subject to approval of the Rodeo Board of Directors. Sometime around 1922 a group evidently came to ask the Ferguson brothers to assist in the staging of the first annual Ellensburg Rodeo: “They [the townsmen] come out and got us to go in there [to Ellensburg] and furnish the horses.”.
If interested in becoming a member of the Top Hands please fill out the application for membership and return it to the Ticket Office at 609 N. Main Street in Ellensburg. Everyone looked forward to the next year’s rodeo. An annual rodeo, they reasoned, would enhance the quality of the Fair and increase attendance.
Each Top Hand is assigned to various committees and responsibilities i.e., merchandising, fundraising, sponsorship/awards, contestant and Visitor parking, Behind the Chutes beer garden and Trading Post Saloon, volunteer refreshment tent, children’s activity corral, Yakama Indian Village, grand parade, Xtreme Bulls, royal court, and autograph session. Business Men, Farmers Work on Fair Grounds. Started in 1923, the Ellensburg Rodeo has grown from a local competition among ranch hands to a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Event featuring over 500 contestants with prize money in excess of $300,000. The event takes place each Labor Day Weekend at the Ellensburg Rodeo Fairgrounds and is the state's largest rodeo. Clovis Chartrand, a long time valley resident, remembered one of these Sunday rodeos at the “upper river bridge, which is where the Thorp Bridge is now, west of Ellensburg.” Ben Ferguson, a Kittitas Valley cowhand and rodeo competitor described his family’s promotion of an important Sunday rodeo: “[We] had all them horses and, my brother and a couple of friends put on a rodeo…. Local Indians formed the vital fourth group of the rodeo coalition. The Ellensburg Evening Record served as the voice of the field day organizers. My brother, he just wanted to have some fun. Today, the Top Hands have only two of the original members remaining in their group. The Fair is also used as a gathering for the Yakima Indians. This was a nostalgia modern townsmen and valley residents felt for a pioneer way of life that was vanishing in their world of automobiles, airplanes, moving picture shows and radio broadcasts. For the latest information and to purchase tickets for the rodeo, check the Ellensburg Rodeo's website. Ellensburg lies in the heart of a thriving central Washington cattle region.
Ferguson remembered that several townspeople saw “that we was having a big time” and began to discuss the possibility of staging an annual rodeo in the Ellensburg city limits (the Kittitas County Fair had already sponsored rodeo exhibition events). Having gathered together their herds for branding and sorting, cowboys often used the occasion to exhibit their skills in riding, roping and bulldogging.