Gunnison Cattlemen’s Days

Gunnison Cattlemen’s Days: The Oldest Continuous Rodeo in the Nation

BY KRYSTA PAFFRATH

• The Gunnison (Colo.) Cattlemen’s Days rodeo started in the 1800s.

• Cattlemen’s Days is the fourth-oldest professional rodeo in the nation.

• Gunnison Valley celebrates its Western way of life with annual demonstrations of roping, racing and riding skills.

The Gunnison (Colo.) Cattlemen’s Days rodeo started in the 1800s between spring calving and summer haying, a time when area ranchers took a break to test their skills with riding and roping contests on Main Street. In the early years, the event added horse races and tried out various names such as Pioneer Days and the Helldorado Stampede. By 1901, the celebration came under the sponsorship of the Gunnison Valley Stockgrowers Association and the rodeo officially adopted the name “Cattlemen’s Days.”

Between 1913 and 1928, the rodeo and race events moved to the campus of Colorado Normal School, now Western State Colorado University, using the school’s track and stands. The celebration moved back downtown from 1929 to 1936. When the Cattlemen’s Days Association was created, it built facilities at the current site.

Cattlemen’s Days is now the oldest continuous rodeo and the fourth-oldest professional rodeo in the nation. The celebration persevered during World War I, the 1918 Pandemic, World War II, the Great Depression, and most recently, the 2020 Pandemic.

The 2020 Cattlemen’s Days celebration took place as a three-day event over Labor Day weekend. The event was

held with a cap of 350 fans and was nationally televised on the Cowboy Channel for the whole cowboy nation to enjoy.

The celebration of the cowboy lifestyle offered a record payout ($90,636, in total). It was a “who’s-who” of professional cowboys and cowgirls, unlike any other in the long and illustrious 120-year history of Gunnison’s signature local event.

While the event lacked the crowd that’s crammed into the county fairgrounds in recent years, it did play host to a record number of contestants. Cattlemen’s Days Committee President Kevin Coblentz said the event went off without a hitch.

For more than a century, the Gunnison Valley has celebrated its Western way of life with annual demonstrations of roping, racing and riding skills. This annual gettogether of local cowboys and cowgirls is a PRCA event that attracts the world’s top cowboys, the best livestock from across the country, and much more.

Cattlemen’s Days features a county fair, parade, carnival, live music and dancing, horse shows, horse races, and of course rodeo events sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).