Essays From West of 98: Cowboy Town
On creating a community event that lasts through the eras
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What does it take to create a cultural event that permanently influences a community’s heritage and legacy? I often wonder whether you could intentionally create such an event, even if you tried, or if some good ideas can only become great in the most organic fashion.
In 1930, thirteen leaders of Stamford came together to establish the Texas Cowboy Reunion. Andrew John Swenson, William G. Swenson, Ray Rector, Rudolph Swenson, John Selmon, A. C. Cooper, F. Harley Goble, R. B. Bryant, W. G. Owsley, Charles E. Coombes, R. V. Colbert, Louie M. Hardy, and Roy Arledge sought to create an event that would boost community morale and provide entertainment during the tough early years of the Great Depression. I never got to speak with any of those men about it, but I doubt that their intention was to create an event that would become Stamford’s cornerstone for almost a century.
And yet, they did just that.
Photo of grandstand at an early TCR rodeo performance
A legacy begins
12,000 people attended that first Texas Cowboy Reunion. Three days of calf roping, bronc riding, steer riding, and the first known wild cow milking contest in a rodeo1 were held in a natural amphitheater on the Swenson Ranch just outside of Stamford. A 1933 newspaper article reflected on the early success of the event, observing that:
It is not a Stamford celebration, a Jones County celebration, or a Texas celebration. It is a “whosoever may come” affair. The man who is interested in the perpetuation of pioneer ranch days in Texas, whether he lives in Texas or elsewhere, makes it his reunion.
Indeed, the original mission was stated as follows:
To perpetuate the memory of the West, to entertain the pioneers of the past, to keep alive the traditions of those that wrested this country from the Indians and the buffalo is our one aim, and to this task we have pledged our time, our money, and our efforts.
Concurrent with the inaugural Texas Cowboy Reunion, the Texas Cowboy Reunion Oldtimers Association was founded to “hand down posterity, customs and traditions” of the frontier. This organization would receive acclaim in the early years when memberships were purchased by the likes of Will Rogers (more on him in a minute), famed Texas Ranger Captain Tom Hickman, and media mogul/frontier booster Amon Carter. However, the real celebrities were the 335 men who claimed membership by working as cowboys on the range prior to 1895. In 1930, Stamford (and America) were experiencing an economic depression. A World War was in the rearview mirror and another was looming. Automobiles, tractors, and electric lights were quickly replacing horses and kerosene lanterns. It was a rapidly changing world and these were actual cowboys from the Old West. These men had lived the life that the Texas Cowboy Reunion sought to promote. They were from another time and place and they were now straddling two very different eras of American life.
The Will Rogers legend
Now, about Will Rogers. It is a famous story in local lore that the legendary humorist, writer, and trick roper attended the 1935 Texas Cowboy Reunion. As the story goes, he was spotted in the grandstand quietly watching a daytime rodeo performance (this was before lights were added to the TCR arena). After some prodding, he made his way to the arena. There, he performed some roping demonstrations and served as a pickup man. It would turn out to be one of his final public appearances—he died in a plane crash in Alaska only about six weeks later. I recently heard some additional context from a local citizen whose father was a Boy Scout in 1935. The Scout troop was taking tickets that day and when Rogers came through the turnstile, her father asked if he was Will Rogers. He said that he was and the Scouts eagerly told their troop leader, who notified someone to go look for him in the grandstand!
Rogers would mention his Stamford trip in a column shortly thereafter. I’ve always heard it was his last column, but that may be apocryphal. A reader recently emailed me one of the higher-quality PDF copies of that Rogers column that I’ve seen. Other copies are available online, but the resolution is spotty. This one has a pencil notation that it was pulled from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sunday, July 14, 1935. Rogers famously described the TCR and Stamford as “a real celebration in a real cowtown by real old timers,” which is a statement that we hold dear here in Stamford, but the full context is even more interesting. Rogers’s column is all about his travels across the country and his appreciation for the sights and places of the world. He closes the column (written in 1935, mind you, a pretty tough time in America) as follows:
Just quit listening to the politicians. They have to make a noise the nearer it comes to next year. Roosevelt aint going to ruin the Country. The Constitution will remain as it is. The Russians are not going to take us. Everywhere I have been on this trip there is a fine feeling.
Will Rogers and Ranger Captain Tom Hickman in the TCR arena, 1935
Mr. Texas and the Johnson City Windmill
I’ve written previously about the history and development of the Texas Cowboy Reunion over the last century. It has attracted sitting Governors, future Presidents, movie stars, and more. Lyndon Johnson and his famed “Johnson City Windmill” were scheduled to make a stop at the 1948 Texas Cowboy Reunion, during the heat of the bitter and infamous 1948 U.S. Senate election.2 In the Johnson biography “Means of Ascent,” author Robert A. Caro describes how Johnson’s opponent, esteemed former Governor Coke Stevenson arrived in Stamford to find a throng of reporters eagerly awaiting Johnson’s helicopter. A Johnson sound truck drove through Stamford blaring campaign slogans and taunting Stevenson. It appeared that Johnson would have one of the great celebrity appearances in TCR history.
And then Coke Stevenson led the Grand Parade through the streets of Stamford.
It is one of the more dramatic scenes in a dramatic book, but Caro tells the story of Stevenson being given a hero’s welcome in Stamford. He did not arrive to serve as parade marshal, but Bill Swenson (president of the TCR, manager of the Swenson Ranch, and a friend of Stevenson) quietly pushed him out front. Stevenson’s welcome was not a raucous scene, mind you. It was a deeply respected man of a bygone era being recognized and honored by the cowboys, ranchers, and farmers lining the streets of Stamford. Caro describes it as a “quiet but immense outpouring of affection” down the entire parade route. This included a particular show of respect, in which men and boys alike touched their fingers to the brims of their hat to properly salute Stevenson, who was known in those days as “Mr. Texas.” Stevenson sat in the judges’ box at the rodeo performance after the parade. There, his introduction DID cause a raucous response, culminating with the crowd shouting “Coke! Coke! Coke!”
When Johnson phoned from Aspermont to check on the situation in Stamford, he heard of the welcome given to Stevenson. He canceled the stop in Stamford, using an excuse of “low fuel,” and flew his helicopter to Abilene instead.3
A legacy remains
Everyone is biased about their local event and I recognize that, but the TCR has a truly special legacy. It was borne of the Great Depression. It was built to tell the story and preserve the heritage of the open range cowboys. On the back of rural America’s peak population and prosperity, it became a sensational event. It survived World War II. It survived the post-war rural decline that has continued to this day. It survived the COVID—19 pandemic.4 94 years ago, those 13 men concocted an idea and sold 52 shares of stock at $25.00 per share to launch the organization. Today, the Texas Cowboy Reunion thrives.
There are no longer any cowboys from the open range. Professional rodeo cowboys are interspersed with the amateurs, although the number of amateur entrants at the Texas Cowboy Reunion is still second to none. A video replay board helps guide the action. Country and rock-and-roll music are used to supplement the legendary work of the Hardin-Simmons Cowboy Band. To our knowledge, Stamford has the only rodeo performance remaining in America with a live band. The rodeo performance is held in the same natural amphitheater where it all began in 1930. There is still no air conditioning in the arena, and the dirt is just as red and perilous to your clothes when it turns to mud, but the art gallery and shopping pavilion are blissfully cooled. 94 years later, the Texas Cowboy Reunion is one of the largest tourist attractions in the entire West Texas region and will draw close to 20,000 visitors over five days to a town of 3,000.
Will Rogers admonished his readers in 1935 to quit listening to the politicians and appreciate the fine feelings he saw in his travels across America. I’m not sure a man could have any better advice in 2024. Quit listening to those goons. Turn off your television and resist the urge to doomscroll on social media. There’s a real cowboy reunion happening in a real cowtown. You’re welcome to join us. That, my friends, is a legacy that I am proud to call the cornerstone of Stamford’s heritage.
Modern day scene from an evening rodeo performance of the Texas Cowboy Reunion, 2021
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found. Check out the West of 98 Bookstore with book lists for essential reads here.
Wild cow milking is only one of the events pioneered at the Texas Cowboy Reunion. Double mugging, a staple of ranch rodeos and roping events, was also invented locally. The signature cloverleaf pattern of barrel racing was first displayed in an arena at Stamford. Some say (thought I’ve never fully confirmed it) that the Grand Entry was invented here. Finally, the first American Quarter Horse Association show took place as part of the TCR in 1940.
I opined about this election at length on my first date with my now-wife in October of 2014. She sat through that monologue and even encouraged me. It was a strong early sign that she was the one.
That Johnson stole the 1948 Senate election is a historical fact and the alternate history in which Stevenson wins the Senate seate is a fascinating one, but I take pride that Stamford was on the right side of that race.
The 2020 Texas Cowboy Reunion was scaled back in some of the social events and used modified protective measures for health and safety. It was a long and arduous week to get through as Mayor, given that the Governor placed final decision-making in the hands of local mayors and county judges, and “feedback”/media coverage was directed accordingly. In hindsight, it was absolutely the right choice to hold the event.