Back in the Saddle Again: A History of Rowell Ranch Rodeo
The Rowell Ranch Rodeo is returning to Castro Valley the weekend of May 20 to 23 after a two-year delay, just in time to celebrate its 100th birthday.
Events kick off with the rodeo parade down Castro Valley Boulevard on Saturday, May 14, and finish on Monday, May 22, with the rodeo itself running from May 19 to 21.
The theme this year is “Back in the Saddle Again.” It’s a call back to the long history and legacy of Harry Rowell, who together with his wife Maggie ran the ranch from the 1920s through his passing in 1969. She turned over management of the ranch to his longtime friend, and rodeo great, Cecil Jones, and then sold the ranch at half-price to the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD). Maggie Rowell passed away in 1975.
Harry Rowell came here from England in 1912. He ran several other businesses before taking over a saddlery in 1918 that became world-famous.
He began running his own rodeo and was soon supplying stock to many others, leading to the nickname the “Rodeo King of the West.”
The rodeo’s early years looked very different from today’s rodeo. In fact, the first rodeo, in 1921, wasn’t even held at Rowell Ranch. It was held at the old Burbank School in Hayward, according to Janet Lemmons, who runs the Rowell’s Saddlery & Western Wear store in downtown Castro Valley.
It moved to the ranch in 1925. Local roads were sparse back then, and participants and their horses had to take the railroad to downtown Pleasanton. They then rode up trails to the ranch.
According to participant and later rodeo secretary Cindy Rosser, the last horse would be leaving the train in Pleasanton as the first one was arriving at the ranch, about eight miles away.
The ranch then also looked quite different from the ranch today, Rosser said. For one thing, there were no bleachers yet; people sat on the hillside.
“We used to have big old wooden chutes,” she said. “Now they’re metal. And they were on the other side of the arena. The patio wasn’t there then, and the trail up the hill went almost straight up and down.”
It was down that trail that Rosser first charged, waving an American flag, in a rodeo kickoff that soon became legendary, as well as unique among American rodeos.
“You had to be a pretty good cowgirl to ride a trail that steep, that fast,” Rosser conceded.
Years later, Rosser ranches and helps her family run the Flying U Rodeo Co., which competes in rodeos in California, Nevada, and Utah.
Her father, Rodeo Hall of Famer Cotton Rosser, just competed a few weeks ago at age 93.
Rosser said that rodeos face many challenges today, but it’s still important to have them.
“City kids need to get out and see animals and nature,” she said.
Cotton Rosser was one of many rodeo greats who rode in the Rowell Ranch Rodeo over the years. He was joined by, among others, ProRodeo Hall of Famers Fritz Truan, Johnny and Frankie Schneider, Pete Knight, Gene Rambo, Bud, and Bill Linderman, Earl Thode, and Burel Mulkey.
Cindy Rosser said Rowell Ranch’s rodeo was special.
“Rowell Ranch has that great setting, in that canyon. And there’s when the girl comes off the hill with the American flag,” she said.
Even the famed movie actor Slim Pickens got his start competing at the Rowell Ranch Rodeo. Born Louis Burton Lindley Jr., the actor was starting out in rodeo when he asked a Rowell ranch hand to give him a nickname.
“Kid, why don't you sign up as Slim Pickens, ‘cause that's what it's gonna be!” the hand said.
Joe Paulo, a rodeo star starting in the 60s who still ranches, said the family feel of the Rowell Ranch rodeo made it stand out.
He said, “After the rodeo, all the participants joined their Rowells at their house for a party. At other rodeos, people come and go, but at Rowell’s, you got to meet the rodeo owner and hang out with him and his family at his house.”
Joe Paulo also thinks rodeos are important to keep.
“The true roots of rodeo are being lost,” he said, with the rise of the commercial rodeo circuit.
“You just don’t find the old family rodeo. But the true heritage of rodeo can be seen at Rowell Ranch,” Paulo said.
“Anything I can do so the kids of today have it to look forward to, I’m going to do,” said Joe Paulo.
To see the full list of events this month, visit rowellranchrodeo.com.