Rodeo Week In Tucson Arizona

When we are young children a vacation from school is always welcome. Well in Tucson Arizona the last week of February is always Rodeo Vacation! How cool is that? Tucson Unified School district schedules Thursday and Friday as "Rodeo Vacation" When I was young, I thought all schools had Rodeo Vacation! I rode in our Rodeo Parade "La Fiesta de los Vaqueros" (The Fiest of the Cowboy's) I rode once as Old Fashion Fire Engines! On a budget of about $0 dollars, we died the sheets red and made ladders out of scrap wood and painted them black! Once I rode representing the 3 styles of horseback riding; English, Western and Bareback. I also rode with my 4-H group.... don't remember much about that except I needed "kelly green" pants. My mom shopped for those pants without much luck. We rode through the downtown area and it was really great fun!

First Rodeo Parade 1925 Tucson

Headline in the Arizona Daily Star in 1925 reads:
"Cowboys are asked not to shoot up the town"

Tucson in 1925 was a frontier town: The first Tucson Rodeo was held in the middle of Prohibition. With so many visitors expected, decisions were made to clean up the town. Arizona State Prohibition Director Frank Pool led a force of federal officials to town two weeks prior to the rodeo. The Arizona Daily Star reported that 25 stills were captured and an estimated 300 gallons of moonshine destroyed. T-bone steaks sold for .27 a pound. A Stetson hat cost $8. Prizes at the 1925 Rodeo Parade included a 750-lb. block of ice, 100 lbs. of potatoes and a "Big Cactusî" ham.