Parades and Rodeos and Cowboys, Oh My!

Deadwood, South Dakota

The Days of '76 celebration began in 1924 as a way to honor Deadwood's first pioneers - the prospectors, miners, muleskinners, and madams who poured into the Black Hills in 1876 to settle the gold-filled gulches of the Dakota Territory. Needless to say, it is a BIG deal in the area. Think Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Westminster Dog Show, Miss America Competition, and the World's Series all rolled into one! The event even has its own museum. It is an annual five day event, and 2022 just happened to be its 100th anniversary.

The original plan was to do Wyoming and Rushmore during the day and then do the Days of '76 rodeo finals in the evening. Peelee had always wanted to do the Days of '76; I had never heard of it, but am always willing to sign on to something involving cowboys! True confession, I had a terrible crush on Cowboy Curtis from the 1980's Pee-wee Herman Show. (Okay, I still do.) And the day the World Rodeo Finals rolled into Vegas while I was there for Cirque Week, I thought that I had died and gone to heaven! 

Alas, our plan was thwarted when we found out tickets to the rodeo that evening were sold out! It was after all the finals of the event, so those tickets were likely gone months before. So we flipped our plan and decided to do the morning parade instead. Cowboys on parade works too. 

We showed up in Deadwood at the perfect time to snag a sweet parking spot and then parked ourselves in a prime shady spot on the parade route in front of the Silverado Gaming Establishment across from the Franklin Hotel on Main Street. While Peelee went off scavenging for huckleberry ice cream, I chatted up the nice older couple sitting next to us. When I mentioned that we had wound up at the parade because we couldn't get rodeo tickets for that night, she said, "I've got two extra tickets for the 1pm rodeo pre-finals today if you want them."

Peelee came back with his huckleberry ice cream to the good news of our good fortune. We enjoyed the best parade ever with horses and cowboys, mules and cowboys, wagons and cowboys, marching bands and cowboys, pickup trucks and cowboys, motorcycles and cowboys, saloon girls and cowboys, and pageant cowgirls. At one point Peelee looked at me and proclaimed, "this is a legit parade, like legit legit."

After the parade, we killed a little time in Deadwood (more on that another time), and then enjoyed the best rodeo ever with horses and cowboys, bucking broncos and cowboys, steers and cowboys, yada yada yada. You get it.

It was a perfect day. And that was even BEFORE we headed off to Devil's Tower.

If you came to this first through the blog, know that there are lots more photos on the Facebook post. 

Google Album of these photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EH4kaNwC2PtX9fFKA