Page:Patches (1928).pdf/218

 seat could view this beautiful arena from an elevation of nearly a hundred feet. Seats for twenty thousand people were made while as many more could be accommodated on the grass.

For several weeks before the great event small companies of people both in Wyanne and in the surrounding towns and cities were very busy. They were rehearsing for their parts, practising their stunts, and also making floats for the great parade which was to inaugurate the important day.

The first day of the rodeo was ushered in by as beautiful weather as could be wished for. The air was clear and not too hot, the mountains to the west of Wyanne were looking beautiful in their summer verdure.

The great parade formed on the main street of Wyanne with its many sections resting upon the side streets. Finally at one o'clock the herald and the leading band started and the machinery which was to set in motion the first American rodeo had begun to move. Immediately following the band were five hundred mounted cow-punchers upon some of the best horses that the west could produce, cow-punchers from Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Arizona. They were gay in their cow-puncher regalia with the broad Stetsons, the bright kerchiefs, the ornate chaps, and the tall, shiny riding