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Welcome to the Rowell Ranch Rodeo

Due to the wishes, planning and generosity of the late Harry and Maggie Rowell and through the efforts of the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, future professional Rowell Ranch Rodeos and Rowell Ranch Junior Rodeos are assured of a permanent home in the Rowell Ranch Rodeo Park.

More about the history of Rowell Ranch Rodeo here >

Rowell Ranch Rodeo celebrates its 90th Annual Rodeo
May 15 - 16, 2010

What's happening? Where to be? When to be there? How much will it cost? Did you say there are things to do for FREE?
Find out more>


Are you Tough Enough To Wear Pink?

Wear pink on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at the Rowell Ranch Rodeo to help raise awareness and funds for the fight against breast cancer. 


2009 Rowell Ranch Rodeo Queen - Brittany Voss

"Hello Rodeo Fans and Welcome to one of the most exciting Rodeo's in the Bay Area.

 It is an honor and privilege to serve as your 2009 Queen.  I am a Clements, California Cowgirl and currently in my 2nd Year at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, studying animal science with a pre-veterinarian concentration.  I am looking to transfer to UC Davis for veterinary school to pursue my goal of becoming an equine orthopedic surgeon. 

Where my heart and soul lies is in the horse industry and the sport of Rodeo.  I have been riding and competing in many disciplines throughout my high school and college career on my Palomino Quarter Horse - Falcon.  We have traveled up and down this great state of California promoting many aspects of our sport, our youth and the cowboy traditions. 

It is incredible to be part of an amazing legacy like the Rowell Ranch Rodeo.  From the Cowboy Experience, where the public can meet cowboys, cowgirls and livestock of rodeo, the high-paced Grand Entry that "WOW"s the crowd every year and the amazing athlete's both two and four legged who compete for top awards and prize money and put on a show that all spectators can enjoy.

 Thank you to all the folks who have put this event together, in particular the Rowell Ranch Rodeo Committee, the Hayward Area Recreation Department, our sponsors and volunteers.  It takes all of us to keep this American tradition alive.

 Be sure to stop and say Hi.  I look forward to meeting all of you at this year's events."

     ~Brittany Voss

2009 Miss Rowell Ranch Rodeo


2009 Rowell Ranch Rodeo Top Hand - Joe Field

Every year the Rowell Ranch Advisory Committee honors one of its members with the “Top Hand” Award. In 1978, a group of local businessmen, ranchers, professionals and rodeo enthusiasts came together to form the Rowell Ranch Advisory Committee.
Guided by the Rowell Ranch Rodeo Board of Directors, this group works to produce and promote the Annual Rowell Ranch Pro Rodeo, as a tribute to its founders, the late Harry and Maggie Rowell.

Outstanding character, active participation and dedication to the Rowell Ranch Pro Rodeo are just some of the qualities The Rowell Ranch Rodeo Committee look for when honoring one of its own for this award.  Joe is a classic example of this honor.  ....
More here >


Cecil and Fannie Ruth Jones moved up to Garden Valley in the Sierra Foothills in 1979 on 10 acres. He continued to be involved with the RRR as well as other PRCA rodeos and judged several rodeos. he still worked at the NFR Rodeo Gold Card Room as a Host. He still attends the Finals and has done so since 1959.

In 1979 he met Ed Bacchi of Bacchi Land & Cattle Co. and helped him yearly with his cattle here at his Lotus, Ca and For Klamath, Oregon ranches. He also schooled a few horses for them to use.
More here>


When the West called for "men to match our mountains," a sailor on horseback answered. Some called him "Horatio Alger in a Stetson." He blazed trails in the business world and was crowned "The Rodeo King of the West" for his contributions to the sport. His name was Harry Rowell and he came to the Bay Area in 1912, at 21 years of age, a penniless young Englishman. He went on to live out the American dream.

He was a successful business man, operating a world famous saddlery, and was the stock provider and Rodeo Arena Director for the first Grand National Exhibition at the San Francisco Cow Palace in 1941, a role he continued until he left the business in 1952. He was a cattleman and a rancher, who raised some of his own stock, which were then showcased at some 25 rodeos which he produced and promoted throughout the West. And, he put on an annual rodeo at his own ranch in Dublin Canyon, that helped to set the standards for what rodeo is today.

He took the rodeo business seriously, striving to give it the respect and the recognition he thought it deserved as a true American sport. He only wanted to be known for one thing: as the best rodeo stock provider in the business, the man who supplied the best bucking horses and the best bulls. Over his 25-year career, he earned the reputation as someone who knew how to put on rodeos, and to this day, he is still referred to as "Harry Rowell, The Rodeo King of the West." Many people believe rodeo is partly what it is now because of the influence of Harry Rowell.

We hope you will join us the third weekend in May to enjoy Harry's spectacle as we have a rider gallop off Harry's hills carrying the American flag, and become part of the long tradition and heritage of the Rowell Ranch Rodeo.

For more information on the history of Harry Rowell and the Rowell Ranch Rodeo, you can purchase the book "Here's A Go!" -- see our Souvenir section.




Like most things American, rodeo began as a conglomerate of traditions gleaned from other peoples and other cultures.  It saw its beginnings in the traditions of the vaqueros first brought from Spain to Mexico and South America, then to what is now the American Southwest and California.

These traditions included the various skills used at work by the vaqueros and were exhibited at fiestas as a form of entertainment and friendly rivalry.

As the Americanos migrated west, they adopted the practice of rodeo and slowly modified it into a truly American tradition which continues to develop today.

The first rodeos in the Hayward area were the result of the festivities associated with the annual ritual of branding and cutting the longhorn cattle belonging to land grant holder Don Guillermo Castro.  These fiestas took place on what is now the Hayward Library Plaza in the early 1800's.  Neighboring rancheros and their families gathered to enjoy the spectacle.  The Indian and Mexican vaqueros used the opportunity to show off their skills.

American rodeo truly became a sport early in the twentieth century, as the daily use of horses was supplanted by mechanized transportation and cattle ranching came to rely less on vast open spaces worked by men and horse and more on highly intensive use of smaller plots of land.

Harry Rowell staged his first rodeo in 1921 at the site of Burbank School in Hayward.  The Rowell Ranch Rodeo, held every year in May, is a continuation of that tradition.  The Rowell Ranch Rodeo Board of Directors and the 80 member strong Rowell Ranch Rodeo Advisory Board are dedicated to Harry and Maggie Rowell's ideals and are determined that the rodeo will be a "real show for real hands."


 




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


PRCA Rodeo Tickets
& Pro Queen Contest Info
Rowell's Saddlery
(510) 581-2577
RowellRanchRodeo@aol.com
Jr. Rodeo Contestants
Ashley Strasburg
(510) 453-4794
boogerrokstar@aol.com
Jr. Rodeo Queen Contest
Nicole Baldridge
(925) 642-1544
victorys_jewel@yahoo.com
Jr. Rodeo Benefit Buckle Roping
Kim Fisher
(925) 785-7480
RRJR-Roping@hotmail.com


Copyright © 2008 Rowell Ranch Rodeo

 

This website last updated July 28, 2009
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