The World's Oldest Rodeo
Near Prescott, Arizona
Every Fourth of July weekend, Prescott holds the rodeo it has been holding for more than a century and a third, and it will tell you, with confidence, that it is the oldest rodeo in the world. The claim has real basis. On the fourth of July, eighteen eighty-eight, at a place called Forbing Park, Prescott organized what was billed as a cowboy tournament, an event with bronc riding, steer roping, and horse racing that charged admission to spectators.
Charging admission is the key detail. That made it the first commercial rodeo, the first time the competitions that working cowboys practiced among themselves were organized into a public entertainment with a paying audience and prize money on the line. Rodeo historians debate the precise definition of what constitutes a rodeo, and some towns challenge Prescott's claim, but the United States Patent Office recognized the trademark World's Oldest Rodeo in favor of Prescott in nineteen eighty-five, which is about as official as a historical argument gets.
More striking than the trademark is the streak. Prescott has hosted its rodeo every single year since eighteen eighty-eight, without exception. Through two world wars, economic depression, and global pandemics, the Prescott rodeo happened.
By the count of the twenty twenties, that is a run of well over one hundred thirty consecutive years on the same holiday weekend. The cowboys who rode at Forbing Park in eighteen eighty-eight would recognize the event on Prescott's rodeo grounds today, at least in spirit.
