Saddle Up for the Tucson Rodeo

When the first cowboys trotted through downtown for the Tucson Rodeo Parade in 1925, no one needed to manufacture the Wild West.

Frederick Leighton Kramer's proposal for La Fiesta de los Vaqueros caused locals to react skeptically. A frontier town with its share of ranches and true-blooded cowboys, Tucson hardly needed an injection of yee-haw.

"No one knew what to expect in 1925," said Bob Stewart, chairman of the Development Committee of the Tucson Rodeo Parade. "It was a huge gamble. Outside the city limits, you were at places where rodeos were going on everyday."

Kramer wanted to extend the tourist season and help out local dude-ranchers, said Gary Williams, the Tucson Rodeo general manager.

"The very first year, the railroad ran special trains from Los Angeles and El Paso to bring people specially for the rodeo," Williams said. "To advertise, they printed ink blotters with ads and shipped them everywhere."

The success of that first, three-day celebration overwhelmed Tucson.

"[The city] ran out of restaurant and bed space," Stewart said. "They brought sleeper cars into town, and people had to eat in local homes."

(Image below is of Cowgirl/"trick rider" Tad Lucas at Tucson's Rodeo, 1925. Image courtesy Tucson Rodeo)

 Now, La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros has grown into a nine-day festival that draws competitors from as far as Australia. It has appeared in films and entertained celebrities. In the 1950s, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor stopped by, Williams said.

 "I think everyone wanted to be a cowboy," Williams said. "Not everyone could go out and chase cattle on a ranch, but anyone could go to a rodeo and pretend they were a cowboy for at least a couple of hours."

 The first rodeo created publicity and got contestants from their hotels to the rodeo grounds at Kramer Field, a polo field east of Campbell Avenue and between Grant and Elm Streets. The parade, however, was downtown on Congress Street. It started promptly at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 21, 1925.

 In 1990, the parade moved from its downtown route to ease congestion, Stewart said. Still non-motorized, it begins on Ajo Way, tracing Park Avenue and Irvington Road to reach the Tucson Rodeo Grounds.

Though the parade has grown, crowd pleasers like a 1850s stagecoach have been around for over 50 years, Stewart said.

On Feb. 18, Tucson will kick off the 87th celebration of its cowboy heritage.

"Once rodeo gets in your blood, it's really hard to get out," Williams said. "Tucson was a western town, and people like to recapture that. Rodeo takes us back to our roots."

Swing by La Fiesta de los Vaqueros from Feb. 18-26 at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds at 4823 S. 6th Ave. Watch the parade on Thursday, Feb. 23. Parking opens at 4 a.m. at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds, and the parade begins at 9 a.m. For more information, go to TucsonRodeo.com.