In his research for a book on the history of the Rooftop Rodeo, Howell Wright discovered that five silver belt buckles that belong to the Estes Park Rooftop Rodeo Committee are missing.
The one-of-a-kind trophy buckles were presented to the Town and the Committee in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010 by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association for the Best Small Rodeo Committee of the Year.
“To be selected as the best committee is truly an extraordinary achievement,” said Wright who explained that the Town was in competition with some 500 other small rodeos for the honor. “To make it even more special, it is the competitors themselves that vote on who the winner should be. To the Town and to all the volunteer committee members, these buckles are treasures in every sense of the word.”
The buckles were last seen when staff at the fairgrounds packed records and furniture that were going to be moved to the new Estes Park Events Center which opened in June 2014, said Wright in an interview with the Estes Valley Voice.
According to Wright, Bo Winslow, who served as the Town’s director of community services and oversaw the Events Center Complex and operations at the fairgrounds remembered the buckles being placed in a box along with their individual wooden display cases. They were supposed to be delivered to Estes Park Town Hall for public display, but they never arrived.
Winslow, who had recounted the story of the buckles’ disappearance to Wright, died last year in August after a lengthy illness with multiple sclerosis.
While the story has the mystique of an unsolved western whodunit, Rick Life, an Estes Park police captain who has been a long time Rooftop Rodeo committee member, suggested that the box of lost buckles may have simply wound up in a steering committee member’s attic or garage for safe keeping and the person who has them may not even realize that the artifacts are missing from the public archives.
Wright, who was one of the announcers for today’s Rooftop Rodeo Parade, is hopeful that the buckles will be located and returned so they can be placed on public display and enjoyed as part of the community’s heritage.
The word rodeo originates from the Spanish word “rodear,” which means to round up or surround. The term was used in reference to the rounding up of cattle or horses on ranches which involved the skills of riding and roping. Over time, competitions developed from informal events to larger community and regional exhibitions.
In the late 1800s, William Frederick Cody, an American frontiersman and showman known as Buffalo Bill who incorporated rodeo-style events into his Wild West shows, helped to popularize what would evolve into today’s classic American rodeo which showcases bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, and team, tie down, and break away roping. Amateurs and professionals compete for prize money and belt buckle trophies.
The earliest reference to a rodeo type event in Estes dates to 1908 but the term rodeo was not in use in the United States until 1912 and the earliest use of the term rodeo in Estes Park dates to 1923.
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, which awarded the Estes Park Rooftop Rodeo Committee with the five missing trophy buckles, was established in 1975. Its roots trace back to 1936 when a group of cowboys formed the Cowboys’ Turtle Association to protest unfair practices by a promoter at a rodeo at the Boston Gardens who refused to add the contestants’ entry fees to the rodeo’s total purse. The promoter gave in to the contestants’’ demands, but the walkout led to the first formal rodeo organization of those who were willing to “stick their necks out” to be treated fairly.
The group was later renamed the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1945, and then the PRCA in 1975. The association is the largest rodeo sanctioning body with more than 9,000 members. It overseeing more than 650 rodeos, three quarters of which are classified as small rodeos.
At 7,500 feet, the annual Estes Park event, known since 1941 as the Rooftop Rodeo, is recognized as the highest altitude rodeo in the country. This year’s rodeo, which began Saturday night and runs through July 10, has more than 850 contestants.
Wright will be the featured speaker at a presentation on the history of the Estes rodeo and his upcoming book, tentatively titled, “The History of the Rooftop Rodeo” on July 12 at the 1 p.m. the Estes Park Museum.
Perhaps by then, the missing trophy buckles will be found and returned.
If anyone has any knowledge about what might have become of the missing trophy buckles, they are asked to email Howell Wright or Estes Park Police Captain Rick Life or call 970-577-3872.
A $100 reward for the return of each buckle is being offered by the Estes Valley Voice. If the buckles are returned to the Town anonymously, the reward money will be made to the Estes Park Western Heritage Foundation.