July 4, 1888, became the birthday of professional rodeo when a group of Prescott, Arizona, merchants and professional businessmen organized the first formalized “cowboy tournament” and offered cash prizes. A cowboy named Juan Leivas walked off with rodeo’s first professional title and was documented in the subsequent edition of the Arizona Journal-Miner. These “Cowboy Contests” continued and were planned, promoted and carried out by a committee of local merchants. From then on, rodeo has grown into a multimillion dollar enterprise with more than 700 professional rodeos in 50 states.

This Rodeo has much more history posted on it at Website

This is an interview with J.C. Trujillo, General Manager about this years rodeo and a little history. The rodeo runs from Tuesday June 28th through July 4th and is the largest event in Northern Arizona.