DUANE
Duane's take
Well, friends, I'm gonna tell this one just the way the official marker lays it out — every word of it earned. It's July the fourth, 1883, and the town of Pecos, Texas, is fixing to do something nobody had ever done before. A block south of the Pecos Courthouse, on a day when settlers had already gathered for a Fourth of July picnic, three cattle outfits decided they had a bone to pick with each other.
The Lazy Y, the Na, and the W Ranch — each one of them convinced, down to the last hand, that they had the fastest steer roper alive. Now that kind of talk has a way of demanding proof. So proof is what they set out to get.
The settlers in town for the picnic became the spectators, and just like that, the world's first rodeo was underway. No grandstand. No entrance gate.
No announcer in a big hat with a microphone. Just cowboys, cattle, and pride. And what were they competing for, you ask?
A blue ribbon. A blue ribbon cut — by pocket knife, the marker is specific about this — from the new dress of a four-year-old girl standing there in the crowd. That little girl gave up a piece of her finest outfit so the best roper in Texas could have something to show for it.
Now that is a prize with a story stitched right into it. When the dust settled, the man who rode away with that ribbon was Morg Livingston, riding for the Na outfit. Second place went to Trav Windham of the Lazy Y.
And the rest of the men who took their shot that day — the marker remembers every one of them: Fate Beard, Geo. Brookshire, John Chalk, Jeff Chism, Howard Collier, Jim Livingston, Jim Mannin, Henry Miller, Brawley Oates, Jim and Henry Slack, and E. P.
Stuckler. Twelve other men who showed up on the Fourth of July, roped as hard as they knew how, and became part of something history would keep. One day.
One courthouse block. One little girl's dress. And a rope thrown fast enough to start it all.
What the marker says
Held a block south of Pecos Courthouse, July 4, 1883. Started with claims of cattle outfits -- Lazy, Na and W Ranch -- that each had fastest steer ropers. Settlers in town for Fourth of July picnic were spectators. The prizes were blue ribbons cut by pocket knife from new dress of a 4-year-old girl in crowd. Best roper was Morg Livingston, of the Na. Trav Windham, Lazy Y was second. Other contestants: Fate Beard, Geo. Brookshire, John Chalk, Jeff Chism, Howard Collier, Jim Livingston, Jim Mannin, Henry Miller, Brawley Oates, Jim and Henry Slack, E. P. Stuckler. (1965)