This is what the vast majority of Canadian rodeos have looked like over time. Small affairs run by local volunteers in temporary buildings and grounds, these rodeos did not generate the mountains of paperwork and bank of professionally-shot photographs, and newspaper coverage that the big, professional circuit shows did. Most of the rare and valuable records community rodeos did produce are not yet in a public archive, but reside in boxes and filing cabinets in people’s attics and home offices, in people’s memories and family photo albums.
If we could create a history of rodeo only from the records of these smaller, local events, what would rodeo look like?
Photos from the grounds of the 2012 Esk’et Rodeo in Alkali Lake, British Columbia.
