BRONC RIDERS

This year, as it should be, will be one of the biggest years in the history of the rodeo business. Over 250 major shows, all the way from Salinas to Boston, will provide entertainment for many, many thousands. Whoever you are, whereever you are, you should try to take in a rodeo this year.

The first rodeo held in America was held in Prescott in 1888, and that too is as it should be. After all this is a cattle state and the cowpuncher since the very beginning has always been one of our most important citizens as well as one of our most colorful. La Fiesta de los Vaqueros held in Tucson in February and the World's Championship Rodeo in Phoenix in April are two of the major shows of the nation. Prescott's Frontier Days, staged annually during the Fourth of July holidays, is a fine show. In fact hardly a week goes by in this state when you can't find somewhere a bunch of young men risking life and limb, for fun, in trying to solve a problem in bucking horseflesh or vie with the speed and caginess of a young steer. Some of these minor shows haven't the professional slickness of the big shows, but we have always contended that two of the most colorful western cow shows we know are the shows at Springerville on the Fourth and the show at Payson, Gila County, late in August. Here you will find, despite conflicting rumors, that the old west still lives.

The rodeo is a colorful, exciting spectacle. It is a drama of courage and combat and conflict, a study in skill and steel nerves. It has speed and dash and timing. It is a glorification of the horse and it pays a high premium for expert horsemanship. It even adds a personality to a calf and a steer and it makes the Brahma something to people a nightmare. All of this wrapped in careful staging, amid the blare of trumpets, make it one of America's most exciting sporting events. It is a picture of pomp and pageantry! And all on a sunny afternoon.

Most of the top notchers in the game started out as old cowhands. It is a tough business and not particularly lucrative but it has all the appeal of show business. The idea is to "put on a show", to strut a little bit, to add just a bit of cockiness to the way you wear your hat. The rodeo champion is part cowhand, part John Barrymore. His business is to entertain. He may break a leg in trying, but he'll try to give you your money's worth. You will find all the dramatic elements in a rodeo, and they'll be just as real to the spectator in the rodeo arena as if they were put on a stage. So someplace near where you are there will be a rodeo this year. Take an afternoon or an evening off and go see for yourself what the hurrahing is all about. You, too, will learn to shout "Yippee!" the way it should be shouted.

The Call of the West and the Open Road

Arrival of spring means summer will not be far behind. About this time of the year summer travelers begin to search out camping outfits and travel folders. With what zest and what fun can one plan the summer vacation trip this year, and with what keen anticipation can one answer the call of the west and the open road.

This will be the first summer of peace. People can travel now with hearts that are young and gay, giving themselves wholly and completely to the joys of travel in summer with gay horizons ahead seeking out the charm and mystery and beauty and color and surprise to be found only in this westernland.

We hope we do not sound too commercial when we ask you to consider northern Arizona and other Arizona vacation places in your summer travel plans. Boulder Dam, Grand Canyon, the Kaibab, Monument Valley, Navajo country, Rainbow Bridge, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, White Mountains, Chiricahua, The Coronado Trail the list is endless, a visit to each a travel adventure that will live with you and sustain you long afterward when what you are doing may not be so interesting as answering the call of the west and the open road.