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Frontier Day, 1910
Standing on the fourth step of the bunting bedecked gazebo-like structure immediately
in front of the grandstands is former president of the United States,
Theodore Roosevelt. In 1897 Frontier Day, the world's greatest
rodeo, was established as a result of a suggestion by Frederick W. Angier, Traveling Passenger Agent of the
Union Pacific Railroad, to the editor of the Cheyenne Daily Sun-Leader. The celebration
was inspired by Greeley, Colorado's "Potato Day."
By the following year, the town was able to attract an audience of 6,000 to Wm. F. Cody's Wild West Show and Congress of the Rough
Riders of the World, which the previous year had played for
the Queen's Jubilee. In 1903 the rodeo was attended by
the President of the United States, T. Roosevelt. President
Roosevelt and his party rode horseback to Cheyenne from Laramie. See
picture below. In 1915 the celebration's name was changed to Frontier Days. It hasn't looked back
since, outlasting the demise of popular shows such as Pawnee Bill's, Cody's Wild West Show in 1913, and
the most popular of all, the Miller Brothers 101 in 1929. |