Cheyenne Frontier Days canceled for 1st time in 124 years

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Cheyenne Frontier Days, billed as the world's largest outdoor rodeo, has been canceled for the first time in its 124-year history due to the coronavirus, the city's mayor told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Event organizers decided the risk of spreading the virus was too great for the more than 140,000 people who visit the city for Frontier Days over the last two weeks in July, Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr said in an interview.

“What this pandemic means is we just can’t come together,” Orr said. "We really have to stay apart so we can come together again sooner rather than later. It’s clear that we just aren’t going to be ready for this.”

Frontier Days carried on through both world wars and the Great Depression, when tough finances prompted it to become a mostly volunteer-run event.

To this day, a small army of local volunteers runs the Western heritage festival of rodeo, music concerts, carnival rides, parades and downtown pancake breakfasts that feed thousands of people at a time.

Bars all over Cheyenne are typically standing-room-only during Frontier Days as people try line dancing and mechanical bull-riding.

The rodeo is also a big draw for top rodeo athletes. A Frontier Days belt buckle is among the sport's most coveted prizes and the event's payouts of more $1 million in payouts are lucrative in the rodeo circuit.

Frontier Days pumps up to $28 million into the local economy and some shops get by largely for the year on those two weeks of booming business.

Wyoming is the least-populated U.S. state, has had relatively few cases of the coronavirus and its 13 deaths as of Wednesday ranked near the bottom of U.S. states in COVID-19 deaths overall and per capita.

Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, has gradually lifted restrictions on...