The Rodeo Parade

On Saturday, June 30, the day before we left to go to the Grand Canyon, we attended the Prescott Rodeo Parade. We had to get up before breakfast to get there early enough to get a roadside seat.

We got set up about an hour and a half before the parade actually started. We were right at the last corner of the last block of the parade and right around the corner from some of the staging area so we got to see some of the participants as they arrived. There were also the usual hawkers out selling souvenirs. Some elected to get noisemakers.

While others elected the big floppy hats to help with the sun.

The parade celebrates the Prescott Frontier Days, an event which dates back to 1913. But Prescott has been celebrating long before then. What evolved into today's professional rodeo circuit began in Prescott on July 4, 1888 at the first organised "Cowboy Contest" that awarded cash prizes. And rodeo is still going strong with a four day event staged along with the parade. It looked like handicap seating was going to be difficult to navigate so we settled on just seeing the parade.

There were several teams of big horses.

And also teams of miniature horses.

Hauling all kinds of products from stages coaches to milk wagons.

And, of course, there were cowgirls.

And cowboys.

The guy in red was asking if the two gun rig made his hips look wide!

I wanted to get this guy shooting his gun but he ran out of ammo just as he got to us. The rule was if you are going to shoot a weapon, no live ammo was allowed!

There was even one float featuring Indians.

The parade was arranged to show the chronological development of the area, so the oldest units were in the front and the more modern followed further back. We saw old fire apparatus.

And old cars.

There was also this mule hitch and wagon. He was traveling through the area on his way from Kentucky to California and had been camping locally for a few days.

The military was well represented and two units had striking models of ships including this U.S.S. Arizona.

Every parade seems to have the local Shriners contingent and this was no exception. What was different is that, this being Arizona, they were mounted on horses instead of the usual mini-bikes.

There were commercial entries and political entries but, with the exception of a Highland Pipe Band, there were no bands. No drums pounding out a beat. No school marching bands. All the music came from boom boxes powered by Honda generators or a very few live musicians on some of the floats. I assume from the numbers of young people we saw on horses that the riding associations are the focus of the youth and school bands are not.

The parade ran for a little over two hours. The restaurant across the way from us was open so we ran over to go to the potty and to get eats. Our setup let us sit in shade the whole time and we only had two blocks to walk back to the car. Probably the most comfortable I've ever been at a parade. It was a fun time and very interesting to see and contrast with the big parades back home.