Snowmass Rodeo celebrates 50 years 

It has been 50 years since the rodeo grounds in Snowmass Village hosted its first weekly rodeo. Now, a half-century later, the Snowmass Rodeo remains a staple summer event in the Roaring  Fork Valley.

Many people who have been a part of the rodeo say the beauty of it is how little it has changed since its inception. And it’s true — not much has changed. Roping events, bronc riding, bull riding, and more still fill the arena with action.

But for its 50th anniversary, the Snowmass Rodeo debuted its new grounds, re-oriented to highlight Snowmass’ mountain environment.

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“This year is going to be a big change because we’ve completely torn down the arena,” said Jim Snyder, president of the Snowmass Western Heritage Association. “We’ve completely moved all the bleachers, moved the arena, and now they will be elevated to look right at Snowmass Mountain. It’s going to be great views, and I anticipate it being a wonderful venue.”

Rounding up a rodeo

Doug McLain, the father of the Snowmass Rodeo, launched the event in 1973. He leased 1,000 acres of land on what is now the Horse Ranch and Snowmass Club Golf Course to start an outfitting operation. The land where he first operated horseback rides in the summer and sleigh rides in the winter turned into what we now know as the Snowmass Rodeo grounds. 

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The Cody Stampede Rodeo in Wyoming originally inspired McLain. During the summer of 1972, he promised a group of friends that they could participate in roping competitions in the rodeo if they helped set up the grounds. As a result, he and his friends built the arena and the bleachers for the Snowmass Rodeo.

“I went to Bill Martin, the head of the Snowmass Corporation, and asked him if they would be interested in supporting something like that, and his answer was no,” he said. “The more I thought about it, the more I thought it might work, and so I had a meeting with him and asked if I could build the arena myself. It was really successful.”

On Wednesday, June 13, 1973, the Snowmass Rodeo charged out of the gate.

The first rodeo drew 1,400 attendees. It became a staple in the valley, where spectators watched events of all kinds. The roping events were some of the most popular, and McLain himself competed in a roping competition at the initial Snowmass Rodeo. Other popular events included bull and bronc riding, calf scrambles, wild horse races, and sheep hooking, which people came all the way from Meeker to watch. 

The Snowmass Rodeo quickly became a tradition for locals, providing a great gathering place on a summer Wednesday evening. The Snowmass Rodeo also saw its fair share of celebrities, attracting the likes of Ed McMahon, John Denver, and Jimmy Buffett.

The weekly event trained many competitors who would go on to achieve the highest accolades in the rodeo world. Professional bull rider Glen Younger was just one: he started at the Snowmass Rodeo and went on to win the Mountain States Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Bull Riding Championship three times.

Evolution of the rodeo

The reins of the Snowmass Rodeo have been in several hands since McLain launched it in 1973. He left the rodeo in 1978, and his wife, Arlyce, took over before handing leadership over to Patsy Teague and Roger Smith in 1982. 

The landowners decided to find a new outfitter for the Snowmass Stables in 1982, wrangling in Christ Christopher, who ran an outfitting business near Paonia. He leased the Snowmass Stables, which included the rodeo grounds, with a stipulation in the lease that committed to a Wednesday evening rodeo all summer long.

At the time, the rodeo grounds held 1,200 people. Christopher told the Snowmass Western Heritage Association that he often had to turn people away on Wednesday nights.

The rodeo began to shift in 1995 when Bill Burwell took over with his brother, Rod. Burwell was an active member of the Snowmass Resort Association at the time and realized that the rodeo was as important for Snowmass tourism as anything else. He leaned on his family’s experience in the hospitality industry to transform the rodeo, making it a permanent fixture in Snowmass.

He began by introducing food and beverage services to the rodeo. The original rodeo lasted about three hours and was often referred to as a “ranch rodeo,” which featured full-time ranch hands who compete in annual ranch rodeos for fun, as opposed to professional rodeo cowboys. He wanted to transform it into more of a professional performance that lasted no longer than an hour and a half. Burwell required all participants in the rodeo to follow a “cowboy” dress code: Western hat, long-sleeved collared shirt, and boots. 

During his tenure, he hired Snyder as the arena director of the Snowmass Rodeo. Snyder has been with the rodeo ever since and is now the president of the Snowmass Western Heritage Association.

In 1996, Burwell brought in the Vold Rodeo Company as stock contractors. Darce Vold, daughter of Harry Vold, who owned the contracting business, now serves as the executive director of the Snowmass Western Heritage Association.

After years of running the Snowmass Rodeo, Burwell listed the 20-acre rodeo grounds for sale in 2000. While he and the Snowmass Town Council quarreled over costs for running the rodeo, the Snowmass Resort Association stepped in and gave him the $70,000 he requested to operate the rodeo for another summer. In November 2000, voters approved a $3.5 million ballot initiative for the town to purchase the rodeo grounds.

Burwell conducted his final rodeo as director in 2001, and a Snowmass council member at the time took over during the 2002 season after the town spent $5 million purchasing the rodeo grounds. But after a less-than-desirable 2003 season, the Snowmass Rodeo found itself in disarray.

“There was little advertising or promotion for the 2003 rodeo, and crowds that summer were small. The town hired Roger Frahm of Fruita to produce the rodeo, and he made big changes that degraded the rodeo’s quality, like not rehiring Vole or Snyder,” according to the Snowmass Western Heritage Association.

Snyder began to meet with community leaders to discuss revitalizing the rodeo. He worked as the ranch manager of the Owl Creek Ranch at the time, and he asked two of his good friends, Larry Mahan and Archer Bishop, if he should take over the rodeo.

“If it wasn’t for Archer Bishop and Larry Mahan, the rodeo would’ve been a gas station and a carwash way back when,” Snyder said. “Larry and Archer said they would help me, so it was two great friends who helped me get it all going, get it started, and kept me in it for all these years.”

Mahan was an eight-time rodeo world champion and a member of the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. In his obituary, The New York Times called him the “Elvis of Rodeo.”

Snyder was instrumental in forming the nonprofit Snowmass Western Heritage Association, which has run the Snowmass Rodeo ever since. The organization is filled to the brim with generations of people who have helped or attended the Snowmass Rodeo.

Current board member Michelle Dillard Hobbs has attended the rodeo for over 30 years. Her first memory of the rodeo was going with her father and sisters. She doesn’t remember exactly how old she was when she went to her first rodeo, but she was “little enough to be doing the calf scramble,” she said.

Now Dillard Hobbs brings her kids to the rodeo every year and hopes one day her grandchildren will also get to experience the Snowmass Rodeo.

Preserving a rich tradition

Despite all of the changes the Snowmass Rodeo has endured, Dillard Hobbs says the beauty of the rodeo is how much it has remained the same.

“My earliest memories of summers in Snowmass have always included the rodeo. Not a ton has changed, and I think that’s what we have always loved about it … in the midst of so much change in technology and all the things pulling at our attention, this is a tangible, family-friendly, happy affair on a Wednesday night that just feels like good old values,” she said. “No one’s fussing with their ski boots or anything. It’s just generally kind of a happy gathering place, where you sit next to people you don’t know and strike up a conversation.”

The Snowmass Rodeo has run every year since 1973, except in 2020, when the pandemic forced the rodeo to cancel its summer slate. In May 2020, the Snowmass Western Heritage Association announced it would cancel its 47th rodeo season, but assured spectators it would return in 2021.

In skipping 2020, the Snowmass Rodeo celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Spectators will watch the rodeo from improved grounds, including new grandstands and fencing. In August 2023, construction began on the long-awaited $6.3 million Town Park project, which expanded the rodeo grounds by nearly 3,000 square feet.

The Snowmass Rodeo kicked off its 50th anniversary season on Wednesday, June 19. On Wednesday, July 3, the rodeo will host a special evening to commemorate 50 years. Tickets are available at SnowmassRodeo.org and cost $10 for children and $25 for adults. The rodeo begins at 7 p.m. every Wednesday, rain or shine. 

What began as a 1,200-person capacity “ranch rodeo” has turned into a summer staple for residents in the Roaring Fork Valley. Now, the rodeo can hold over 2,000 people, but Snyder said they still have to turn folks away.

It is also now nationally recognized as a top-10 rodeo in the country, Snyder said.

McLain’s venture to give Snowmass residents a rodeo experience has reached new heights in its 50 years, but Vold says it’s the tradition that has kept it going for this long.

“People always say, ‘Well what’s new, what’s different, what’s better?’ But the reality of it is, when you stand back, it’s the tradition that draws the people to it, and we love tradition there, and we’ve very proud of our heritage,” Vold said. “I’ve been in this business, my family business, for many, many years, and it’s just a good, honest lifestyle that people admire.”

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the 2024 Summer in Aspen and Snowmass magazine.