Why Is Prescott Home to the World's Oldest Rodeo?

If you've seen the World's Oldest Rodeo signs around town and wondered how a mountain town in Arizona ended up with that title, you're asking a great question. Prescott holds it because on July 4, 1888, a committee of local merchants and professional men organized a formal cowboy tournament. They invited cowboys to compete, charged admission, gave prizes and a trophy, and the newspapers wrote it all down. Those were the five tests a real rodeo had to meet, the 1888 contest met every one, and the rodeo has run every year since.

Let's walk through how it started, how the name became official, and where you can go to see a piece of that first day for yourself.

Prescott was founded in 1864, and it grew as miners and cattlemen moved into the area. Ranches held roundups twice a year, and those roundups were long, hard work for the cowboys. Horse racing became part of the town's holiday celebrations as early as 1866.

By 1888, a committee of townsfolk and businesspeople decided to make the Fourth of July festivities bigger, with real contests open to cowboys from far and wide. The events that first year were bronco riding, steer roping, and a cow horse race. The first competition was held in Miller Valley, in the area that later became Forbing Park, in the northwest part of Prescott.

Here's a detail we love: the rules were built to keep things fair. Each cowboy had to bring his own horse for the bronco riding, and then, right before the event started, the judge had the cowboys trade horses. Local, well-known men served as the judges.

The star of that first day was a young cowboy named Juan Leivas, from the Date Creek Ranch southwest of Prescott. The 1888 newspaper spelled his name "Libas," but the museum's historians have since set the record straight.

In the steer roping, the steer got a 100-yard head start, and Leivas still roped and tied it in one minute and 17 seconds. He won a prize saddle for that event. In the bronco riding he tied with Charlie Meadows, a cowboy from Gila County, and the two shared the $50 purse. The committee named Leivas "Best Cowboy" of the tournament and awarded him an engraved sterling silver trophy shaped like a shield. He came back the next year, in 1889, and won the saddle bronco riding contest outright.

Other towns held cowboy contests too, so why does Prescott get the title? It comes down to proof. When the rodeo committee did its research, it measured the 1888 event against five tests for a formal rodeo:

Other towns have made claims of their own over the years. The museum's Days Past history explains the difference plainly: Prescott could document its first contest, and it kept going. Pecos, Texas pointed to an earlier contest, but even some Texans agree that contest wasn't repeated for decades, and Payson, Arizona has no documentation of when its rodeo really began.

The event went by different names in its early years. In 1913 it became known as "Prescott Frontier Day" and moved to the grounds where it's still held today, just west of Miller Valley Road. In 1914 the name changed again, to Prescott Frontier Days. Fun fact: according to the rodeo's own history, the word "rodeo" itself wasn't used in Prescott until 1924.

The committee applied to the U.S. Patent Office to register "World's Oldest Rodeo," and the service mark was issued on August 6, 1985. A few years later, in 1988, the rodeo celebrated its 100th anniversary. Today the nonprofit Prescott Frontier Days, Inc. puts it on, and the organization notes that the rodeo has never missed a year since 1888. It even ran during the 2020 pandemic, at 25% capacity.

Here's the best part: you can stand in front of a piece of that very first day. The silver trophy Juan Leivas won in 1888 is on display in the Sharlot Hall Building at the Sharlot Hall Museum, according to a 2026 Days Past article. It has quite a story of its own. It turned up in a 1918 scrap metal drive, was presented to the Prescott Frontier Days Association on July 4, 1919, and was later donated to the museum in 1986.

The museum sits at 415 West Gurley Street, just two blocks west of Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott. Its Days Past archive is also where you'll find these rodeo stories in full, if you'd like to keep reading.

Then you can visit the place where the rodeo happens: the Prescott Rodeo Grounds on Rodeo Drive, the same grounds the event moved to in 1913.

If you're planning ahead, the rodeo's official site lists the 2027 dates as Monday, June 28 through Sunday, July 4, 2027, seven days of rodeo that mark 140 years of tradition. If you'd like to come for it, it helps to plan your visit and your stay well ahead. Check the official World's Oldest Rodeo site for tickets and the full schedule before you go.

We think a big part of what makes the Quad Cities feel like home is that the traditions are real and they're still going. A Fourth of July contest that a group of local business owners put together in 1888 is still drawing people to Prescott every summer, more than a century later. For a lot of the people we help who are moving here for their next chapter, that sense of history and community is a big part of the draw.

If you're starting to picture a move, you don't have to figure it all out at once. We'll help you build a timeline that fits your life, from your first visits to the day you get the keys, so nothing feels overwhelming. And if you'd like your first visit to land on rodeo week, we can plan around that too.

When was the first rodeo in Prescott, Arizona?
The first rodeo in Prescott was held on July 4, 1888, as a cowboy tournament organized by local merchants and professional men. It has been held every year since, which is why it's known as the World's Oldest Rodeo.

Why is Prescott called the World's Oldest Rodeo?
Prescott's 1888 contest met five tests for a formal rodeo: a planning committee, invited cowboys, paid admission, prizes and trophies, and documented results. The name "World's Oldest Rodeo" was registered as a service mark on August 6, 1985.

Who won the first rodeo in Prescott?
Juan Leivas, a cowboy from the Date Creek Ranch southwest of Prescott, was named "Best Cowboy" in 1888. His sterling silver trophy is on display at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.

Where is the World's Oldest Rodeo held?
It's held at the Prescott Rodeo Grounds on Rodeo Drive in Prescott, where the event has been staged since 1913. The rodeo runs over the week of the Fourth of July.

If the rodeo's story has you curious about living in the Prescott area, start with our guide to relocating to the Prescott area. It gives you a clear look at the lifestyle, the communities, and the local differences, with no pressure, just a clear picture.