The story
La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Tucson Rodeo in Tucson
La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, the Tucson Rodeo, began in February 1925 when Leighton Kramer of the Arizona Polo Association organized it to draw winter visitors, offering a $6,650 purse across steer wrestling, calf roping, and saddle bronc riding. Now past its hundredth year and held every February, it is billed as the largest outdoor winter rodeo in the country, paired with the world's longest non-motorized parade.
Leighton Kramer, then president of the Arizona Polo Association, conceived La Fiesta de los Vaqueros in 1925 specifically as a way to draw winter visitors to Tucson, and the first rodeo ran that February at Kramer Field, the site now occupied by the Catalina Vista neighborhood.