Boot Hill Fiesta Collection

The Boot Hill Fiesta was a community celebration in Dodge City held during the decade of the 1950’S. There had been other events of a similar nature held at varying times of the year in the past. These past events had several different names and were sponsored by many different community and civic groups. The first Boot Hill Fiesta was held on May 20 and 21, 1950. The main scheduled activities were a parade and amateur rodeo on Saturday, and additional horsemanship competitions on Sunday. The second day (Sunday) also included games and socializing for those people not involved with horses. Moser’s Mighty Midway, a carnival, operated in Wright Park throughout the celebration weekend. The celebratory weekend was kicked off by the parade. The rodeo was the headline event. Entry fees were $5.00 per event, except for the calf roping which was $10.00. All entry fees were contributed to the purse. Attendance was free to the public for all arena activities at McCarty Stadium both days. Sunday’s focus was horse show classes. This competition attracted saddle clubs from around the region, including those from Syracuse, Ness City, Gorham, Elkhart, and Larned. The equestrian efforts were interspersed with games and socializing. After its conclusion, the first Boot Hill Fiesta was declared to be a rousing success. The celebration brought a lot of people to town, some from outside the region. The Boot Hill Saddle Club received letters from out-of-town participants praising the event. Quickly, plans were made to repeat the Fiesta again the next year. The sponsoring organizations agreed to make it an annual affair, with the mindset of making each bigger and better than the last. For the rest of the decade, the Boot Hill Fiesta followed much the same basic blueprint as the first. Over time, additions and adjustments were made. It became popular enough to attract politicians and celebrities. In 1952, Kansas Governor Ed Arn and the Lieutenant Governor Fred Hall were riding in the parade aboard a horse drawn wagon. Also in 1952, the first of a number of Hollywood celebrities began to be a part of things. These were mainly “singing cowboy” type movie stars. The genre had been popular in movie theaters for years, and interest in it became even stronger with the advent of television. The popular actors known to have attended the Fiesta included Rex Allen, Smiley Burnette, Tim Holt, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Eddie Dean, and Michael Ansara. In 1955, the Daily Globe reported that the biggest crowd yet had viewed the parade. After the close of the celebration, the Globe reported that a record crowd of 7,000 had viewed the rodeo on its second day of performance. In 1956, entries for the parade tallied to 107. Among these were 17 bands, 3 drill teams, 20 saddle clubs, and 36 floats. The parade continued to be very popular over the years. Other parts of the Fiesta grew as well. The Fiesta had become a destination event for tourists. People were having a lot of fun and the business segment of Dodge City enjoyed the financial rewards as well. Significant changes were in the air by 1958. The rodeo had grown rapidly along with the rest of the program. By 1958, the rodeo was successful enough that its organizers sought professional status from the Rodeo Cowboys Association, the governing body of the most elite rodeos in North America. The Dodge City Roundup Rodeo, as it was now known, was sanctioned by the RCA. This was a much-desired development, but it necessitated a change of date. So the dates for the rodeo were moved to late July, in effect severing its connection to the Boot Hill Fiesta. Because the rodeo had been a major part of the Fiesta, moving it to another time greatly affected attendance figures for the event as a whole. Crowd numbers were down in 1958 and 1959. In 1960, organizers of both events realized the advantages of running concurrently. Therefore, the decision was made to recombine the two, to hold the celebration in late July, and to rename the event as Dodge City Days.