In anticipation of the great 1921 event, Grace Sparkes wrote: “Oh boy! Can’t you hear the grinding of the old chute doors, the smell of clean horse flesh and the general atmosphere of the town just percolating with Frontier Days?"
However, just the year before, it was thought that the World’s Oldest Rodeo had run its course. There wasn’t enough profit in 1920 to hold the show in '21, but a group of businessmen and townspeople started a new fraternal organization which would be called the Smoki (Smoke-eye) People. They held a fundraising fair called the Way Out West Show May 26, 1921 to raise money for the rodeo.
Not only did the rodeo go on, but it was able to upgrade. This was the first rodeo to utilize a public address system. The “electric announcer…carried [one’s voice] to every part of the grounds,” the Weekly Journal-Miner revealed. It involved the latest technology of the day costing “several hundred dollars,” and the same style was being utilized by US President Wilson.
Anticipation for the event grew in June: “The Prescott Frontier Day show is rapidly coming to be known as the best advertised thing of its kind in the country," the newspaper trumpeted. "Posters announcing the show are…[even] found in New York and other eastern cities.”
“One of the most striking announcements of [1921’s] show is to be seen at the Sam Hill hardware company store.” They erected an arch over the front counter, decorated in red, white and blue that was adorned with the welcoming slogan, “Stay Cowboy” and “Prescott Frontier Days.”
Many storefronts spruced up their exteriors in anticipation of the crowds. “Throughout the city, the business firms generally are repainting and remodeling their display windows,” the Journal-Miner observed. TH Bates, the exclusive photographer of the event that year, declared: “There is more improvement going on in Prescott today than I have seen in ten years.”
“All the beautiful flags used by the state fair [were] hung around the business district,” the paper detailed.
Spectators got a free program, void of advertising, courtesy of the Journal-Miner. The paper used all-caps to point out that it was the “ONLY OFFICIAL PROGRAM” and it was “PRINTED IN PRESCOTT.”
The world championship of bronco-busting wasn't confined to Arizona cowboys only; New Mexico and Texas also sent contestants.
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| Ad for 1921 Frontier Days in the Arizona Republican. |
The rodeo of a century ago featured events no longer held today. One of these was the Wild Horse race. For the 1921 rodeo, the unbroken equines were captured at a place surprising to us today: “From the remote reaches of Mingus mountain,” the paper detailed, “there have been snarled, enticed, and finally corralled, the meanest, orneryest [sic] lot of wild outlaw [horses] that have ever trod the range.” Thirty feral horses were captured by the same cowboys who would be competing upon them. These races were held daily and were described as "one of the most sensational events of the program and is sufficiently interesting and exciting [enough] to keep the grandstand crowds on their feet, busting first with laughter, and then excitement, until the last man comes across the home-stretch.”
Contestants had two helpers to hold the wild horse in place (by the reins only,) at the start of the race. When the gun sounded, the cowboys first had to get their saddle on the savage equine (which produced the laughter.) They then had to race it over a half-mile circuit.
“It took 20 minutes to get the wild horses out on the track for the final feature event,” the paper described. They finally entered the arena, "protesting vehemently.” A few of the horses seemed to calm down—until the gun was fired to start the race. Immediately, “the race turned into a riot… Some of the horses started too soon. Some didn’t start at all. Some went one way and some another. Nobody in the audience knew who won the race, but the judges did,” and they awarded first prize to Cheyenne Kiser. Kiser was one of the cowboys that brought the wild horses in.
Kiser, who was also the defending bronco busting champ, “chucked in his five bucks with nine others toward the purchase price of a cow and won the critter in the informal warming up roping contest,” the paper described. After selling it for $60 to a butcher, he entered every contest that required an entry fee.
Unfortunately for him, one of the broncos got the best of him, threw him off, and he was disqualified from the coveted diamond studded medal and the $1200 first-prize money. However, Kiser did make history that year by being the only cowboy to win the bareback title three years in a row. No other cowboy had ever won it even twice in a row.
The Journal-Miner sponsored a six-mile bicycle race which started at “the top of Fire Box hill” and finished at the fairgrounds. “Bill Brown, the demon messenger boy of the Western Union,” finished first with a time of 19 minutes, 46 seconds—averaging a speed of nearly 20 MPH! “The car carrying the officials never did catch up to him,” the paper quipped. Bob Gonzales lead at the 2 mile post, but a flat tire knocked him out of the prizes. Another rider, Fortino Lopez suffered a head-on collision with a car two miles shy of the finish. “He got bruised badly,” the paper reported, “but hobbled to the south gate of the fairgrounds and finished on foot, using the bike as a crutch.”
The origin and early history of the Smoki people of Prescott, AZ.
There were several events that have since been retired, including bareback bronco riding, and bull roping. “Cow Pony Races” required “neck-reigned cow ponies which [were] actually used for rough cow work and have not been worked out as races horses.” The “Cowboys' Pony Express Race” covered one and a half laps on the fair's half mile track.
An event which premiered at the 1921 rodeo (and according to the Arizona Republican, the first time it appeared in all the Southwest,) was the “Orojana race.” A bull was escorted into the arena, where cowboys were lined-up on horseback, ready to lasso it. “Walter Cline won a good start and as he shot past the bull, his rope dropped surely over its horns and he had won the prize,” the Journal-Miner explained.
One light-hearted event was a complete surprise when Arena Director Lester Ruffner brought out seven chickens and shooed them around the arena in a race. The crowd cried fowl (foul) and was disappointed that the event, (and the chickens,) were not introduced, robbing them of the chance to wager on the race among themselves.
Sen. Ralph H Cameron arranged for a US Air Force airplane to do a fly over on the last day of the event. A true spectacle back then, it flew about downtown and the fairgrounds for two and a half hours.
Then there were the parades (plural,) for one was held each day of the event. The parades were “under the direction of Gail Gardner, one of the prominent young stockmen of Yavapai County,” the paper remarked.
Prizes were awarded for parade entries. “The most attractive prize to be given in the parade is the cowboy’s high-class, hand-stamped, silver mounted saddle” for “the horseman appearing in all four days parades having the most handsome and best outfit and horse and displaying the best horsemanship,” the paper related. It was made by the Arizona Saddlery Co. and was displayed in the Biles-Lockhart store window. “The award of prizes will be made on July 5th, and the winners will parade and be photographed before the central grandstand.” That year:
- J Van Dickson of Skull Valley won the saddle. (More about that in a moment.)
- The Prettiest Girl in the parade, Estelle Robinson, was awarded a pair of silk hose.
- The oldest cowpuncher, Harry Morris, won a case of Budweiser.
- The ugliest cowpuncher, Logan Morris, was given a brand new, (and apparently much needed) silk shirt.
- The contestant who came the longest way, Homer Squyers, won a new pair of shoes.
A Stetson hat was the prize for the cowboy who entered the most contests. Lee Robinson and Cheyenne Kiser tied for first and evidently had to arrive at a deal on their own. Two “baby bonds” were given; one for "best fancy girl outfit" and the other for “Pioneer cowgirl.”
A box of chocolates was awarded to the youngest cowgirl, while the youngest cowboy in the parade, Jurrie Dendy, "will now proceed to light up,” the newspaper deduced. The 10 year-old was awarded a carton of 200 cigarettes.
As for the saddle won by J Van Dickson; he did not keep it long. Instead he traded it to Frank Stephen’s father who lost his cherished saddle in a fire in Oatman. In return, Dickson received a horse. Both were described as being satisfied and it was thought that the beautiful saddle, and the story behind it, would be great advertising for Frontier Days in Mohave County.
As popular as the 1921 rodeo was, it still did not make enough profit to cover the start up costs for 1922, and the Way Out West program would have to be repeated.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/22/1921; Pg. 3, Col. 2
Weekly Journal-Miner, 7/6/21; Pg. 5, Col. 6
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/22/21; Pg. 5, Col. 3
Weekly Journal-Miner, 7/6/21; Pg. 5, Col. 7
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/22/21; Pg. 5, Col. 2
IBID. Col. 5
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/29/21; Pg. 3 C6
IBID. Pg. 1, Cols.1-2
IBID. Pg. 3, Col. 4
Weekly Journal-Miner, 7/6/21; Pg. 3, Col. 6
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/22/21; Pg. 5, Col. 4
Weekly Journal-Miner, 7/6/21; Pg. 1, Cols. 1-3
IBID. Pg. 3, Col. 2
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/29/21; Pg. 2, Col. 6
IBID. Pg. 3, Col. 6
Arizona Republican 7/3/1921; Pg. 7, Cols.4-5.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 7/13/21; Pg. 2, Col. 1
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