Trapped!

Each of my right side windows is packed with snow. [And I just realized...it's because the right side windows are the only ones with screens, which catch thesnow and don't let it fall out!]

Well, the headline is a bit overdramatic, we're not really trapped here in Cheyenne. My dad's got a truck - though it doesn't have 4-wheel drive - and the wind has blown most of the snow off the roads.

In any event, we've got food here for a couple of weeks (and more importantly I have Pepsi.) But I expect things will be back to normal in a few days. The main thing about the weather is that the wind is just blowing the snow horizontally across the ground, which makes being outside in it extremely unpleasant.

Here's some photos from my house. I live on the ground floor of the two story house.

You can't really see the snow blowing across the ground, but that's what it's doing. So there's a drift of snow right in front of the house, but only a bit of snow covering our yard. I've got three sets of windows in my bedroom (this house has a lot of windows), the left side of each window is clear, the right side, as you see, has snow packed in it.


The drift just outside the front door

Difference Between the American Legion and the VFW

Sign


Merci (Thank You) Train


Horse head hitching posts




That darn sun...will go for a better photo on a cloudy day!

I was out taking photos today, hoping that on a Sunday I'd be able to take photos of various businesses without a lot of cars in front of them. And for the most part it was true, but as usual after 15 minutes of taking photos I got bored and had to do something else.

So I drove into downtown Cheyenne to buy some stuff at Barnes and Noble, with my gift card I got yesterday. However, since I was going to downtown Cheyenne I took a side trip onto East Lincolnway. On the right side of this road, at exactly a mile, is the Cheyenne Motel and the Firebird Motel.

After the Firebird Motel is a gigantic complex, American Legion Post #6. To one side of the parking lot is a fenced in box car, a Merci Train box car, one of which was sent by France in 1949 to every state then in the Union.

There's a VFW out by where I live, in what is South Cheyenne or Orchid Valley (why Orchid Valley I have no idea, since I have yet to see any orchids), but it's a teeny tiny thing...at least 3 of it could fit into this American Legion Post #6.

So what's the difference between the American Legion and the American Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)?

The American Legion

The American Legion is a congressionally chartered mutual-aid veterans organization of the United States armed forces founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by the United States Congress. The American Legion was founded in 1919 by veterans returning from Europe after World War I, and was later chartered under Title 36 of the United States Code. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and also has offices in Washington D.C. The group has nearly 3 million members in over 14,000 Posts worldwide.

In addition to organizing commemorative events and volunteer veteran support activities, the American Legion is active in U.S. politics. While its primary political activity is lobbying on behalf of the interests of veterans and service members, including support for veterans benefits such as pensions and the Veterans Affairs hospital system, it has also been involved in more general political issues.

At the state level, the American Legion is organized into "departments", which run annual civic training events for high school juniors called Boys State. Two members from each Boys State are selected for Boys Nation. The American Legion Auxiliary runs Girls State and Girls Nation. The American Legion also hosts many social events.

General Douglas MacArthur, Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush were all members of The American Legion.

Organizational structure
Posts
The Post is the basic unit of the Legion and usually represents a small geographic area such as a single town or part of a county. There are roughly 14,900 posts in the United States. The Post is used for formal business such as meetings and a coordination point for community service projects. Often the Post will host community events such as bingo, Hunter breakfasts, holiday celebrations, and available to the community, churches in time of need. It is also not uncommon for the Post to contain a bar open during limited hours. A Post member is distinguished by a navy blue garrison cap with gold piping.

Counties
Each U.S. county comprises several Posts and oversees their operations, led by a County Council of elected officers. The County Commander performs annual inspections of the Posts within their jurisdiction and reports the findings to both the District and the Department level. A County Commander is distinguished by a navy blue garrison cap with white piping.

Districts
Each Department is divided into Divisions and/or Districts. Each District oversees several Posts, generally about 20, to help each smaller group have a larger voice. Divisions are even larger groups of about four or more Districts. The main purpose of these "larger" groups (Districts — Divisions) are to allow one or two delegates to represent an area at conferences, conventions, and other gatherings, where large numbers of Legionnaires may not be able to attend. A District Commander is distinguished by a navy blue garrison cap with a white crown and gold piping.

Departments
The Posts are grouped together into a state level organization known as a Department for the purposes of coordination and administration. There is a total of 55 Departments; one for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, and the Philippines. Canada was merged into Department of New York several years ago. The three Departments located overseas are intended to allow active duty military stationed and veterans living overseas to be actively involved with the American Legion similar to as if they were back in the states. The Department of France consists of 29 Posts located in 10 European counties, the Department of Mexico consists of 22 Posts located in Central America, and the Department of Philippines covers Asia and the Pacific Islands. A Department Officer or Department Executive Committee Representative is distinguished by a white garrison cap with gold piping.

National headquarters
The main American Legion Headquarters is located on the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza in Indianapolis. It is the primary office for the National Commander and also houses the historical archives, library, Membership, Internal Affairs, Public Relations, and the Magazine editorial offices. The Legion also owns a building in Washington D.C. that contains many of the operation offices such as Economics, Legislative, Veterans Affairs, Foreign Relations, National Security, and Media Relations, and etc. A National Officer or National Executive Committee Representative is distinguished by a red garrison cap with gold piping.

The VFW

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) is a congressionally chartered war veterans organization in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, VFW currently has 1.5 million members belonging to 7,644 posts, and is the largest American organization of combat veterans.

Members must be a US citizen or national with an honorable discharge from the US Armed Forces or currently serving in the United States Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, or Navy. Membership also requires military service overseas during an operation or conflict and decoration with an expeditionary medal, a campaign medal or ribbon. A Leave and Earnings Statement showing receipt of Hostile Fire or Imminent Danger Pay is also acceptable proof for membership eligibility.

History
Historic marker commemorating the founding of the VFW in Pittsburgh.The VFW became a government-chartered non-profit organization by an act of the United States Congress on May 28, 1936;[3] as such, it receives no funding from United States tax receipts and is supported by charitable donations.

The first VFW was founded in Denver, Colorado in 1899 and officially "VFW Post 1, John S. Stewart Post". There are two other Post, which try to claim being Post 1, however the VFW National organization recognizes VFW Post 1 (www.vfwpost1.org) in Denver, CO as the first VFW Post. The current VFW was first formed in 1914 from the merger of two prior veterans organizations which both arose in 1899: the American Veterans of Foreign Service and the National Society of the Army of the Philippines. The former was formed for veterans of the Spanish–American War, while the latter was formed for veterans of the Philippine–American War.

VFW works on behalf of American veterans by lobbying Congress for better veterans' health care and benefits. The VFW also maintains a nationwide organization of employees and volunteers to assist veterans with their VA disability claims.[5]

VFW also donates millions of dollars and millions of hours for community service.[6] One of their most popular programs, Operation Uplink, provides free phone cards to overseas service members.

The current Commander of the VFW is Richard L. Eubank.

Involvement
Direct community involvement is a VFW priority, extending beyond the realm of veterans helping veterans.

Annually, VFW and the Men's and Ladies Auxiliaries donate more than 13 million volunteer hours of community service.[8] VFW members mentor youth groups, help in community food kitchens, volunteer in blood drives and visit hospitalized veterans. Others help veterans file compensation claims.

VFW's Community Service programs are designed to encourage community service and increase civic pride, which ultimately enhances education, improves the environment and ensures the availability of health services for our nations veterans.

VFW's Citizenship Education program is designed to stimulate interest in America's history and traditions and to promote citizenship, civic responsibility and patriotism.

VFW's Youth Scholarship programs provide more than $3.5 million in scholarships to our nation's youth. They include Voice of Democracy, Patriot's Pen youth essay contest and Scout of the Year.

The VFW's partnership with the Boy Scouts of America includes the sponsoring of more than 1,200 Scouting units with 40,000 members across the nation.

VFW's Safety Program encourages VFW Posts and Auxiliaries to conduct programs in home, auto and bicycle safety, as well as programs dealing with drug awareness and substance abuse.

The VFW National Home for Children is a community development in a family-like environment that is home to orphaned or single parent children of VFW or Ladies Auxiliary members. The home, which was established in 1925 on 160 acres in Eaton Rapids, Mich., emphasizes the values of education, good work habits and sound moral character.

Merry Christmas

It's coooold here in Cheyenne, and there's supposed to be snow tomorrow, Christmas day.

I wish I could be watching some football as the day goes on, but we've got DirectTV Satellite and we don't get the local channels - NBC, ABC or CBS. Utterly ridiculous!

Relatives are supposed to be here around 1 pm.... we'll play cribbage and eat food.

The Cheyenne Connecting Point website continues to take shape.

http://cheyenneconnectingpoint.com

22 Dec, 2010, Wednesday: Food Prices at Walmart

I've decided to go about documenting the prices at Walmart on a systematic basis, starting at the very right hand rear of the store, and going through the groceries.

Purpose? Well, to document the prices at the Walmart in Cheyenne on specific days, so people around the country can compare it with the price of their Walmart. Also to document what kind of brands the Cheyenne Walmart carries. I think most of them are nationwide, and local brands take up just a little space. But, I'll cover that here.

So, here's prices as of 22 Dec 2010 on the following objects:

Sparboe Farms, the egg provider here in Cheyenne


More Sparboe Eggs.



Great Value Chocolate Chip cookie dough


Where do Spardoe eggs come from?

http://www.sparboe.com/
From their website:

Company Overview
Initially, Sparboe Foods' main focus was producing unpasteurized tankers of liquid whole eggs. After a few years, we began branching out into other egg markets and in 2000, Sparboe Foods purchased our facility in New Hampton, Iowa along with a facility in Boyden, Iowa. The expansion gave Sparboe Foods the ability to grow, expand and be more responsive to our customers' needs. Today, we offer a variety of egg solutions to our customers.

Egg Solutions
We're dedicated to providing egg products that meet your exact specifications including various blends of products, unique packaging and sound delivery mechanisms to assure you always have high quality and low cost eggs in your finished products.

Integrated Supply Chain
We rely on our own operations at Sparboe Farms to supply us with our eggs. Sparboe Farms is one of the largest egg producing companies in the U.S. and a leader in Safe Quality Food Certifications, so you know your supply of eggs from Sparboe Foods is safe and secure.

Customer Focus
At Sparboe Foods, our customers are our priority. They know they can count on their dedicated Sparboe Foods sales team to give them one-on-one attention. And it shows. Our loyal customers keep coming back because they know we excel at meeting their precise specifications with incredible service and a reliable supply of the freshest, highest quality eggs.

Stateline Oasis - HIghway 85 on the Colorado/Wyoming border

I've begun work on the Cheyenne Connecting Point website. To that end, I drove to the Wyoming/Colorado state line, turned around, then headed back toward Cheyenne. Purpose: to document all the businesses on the east side of the road. (Well, to get started doing it, as there are so many of them.)

First thing I saw, actually on the west side of the road, was the Stateline Oasis. Even though it's on the west side, I thought I'd share it here.

The state of Wyoming has no lottery, Colorado does. So if you want to get in on Powerball - that's the place to go. It's about 13 miles from Cheyenne, south on Highway 85.

Now, I don't recommend playing the lottery, it's a waste of money. But if you've got the money to spare...this is the place to go.

The Stateline Oasis is adjacent to a private home, and the sign for it isn't as big as you'd expect. Inside there are a few tables where you can have popcorn and coffee as you sit down and do scratchoffs. The proprietors, in the few minutes I was in there, were very nice.


From the road, the Stateline Oasis looks just like a normal house (indeed, it is adjaent to a home)


Pull into the driveway and you see it offers Powerball


I would have loved to have purchased a Green Hornet scratchoff - but they wanted $20 for it. I think not!

Very nearby this establishment, also on the west side of the road, and I think actually in Wyoming, was something called the Den. A "gentleman's" club, from the look of the sign - which I do not reproduce here. But in the spirit of inclusiveness - I talk about everything in Cheyenne and environs, I tell you about it here.

Regional Food: Cornbread Mixes

I come from Yorktown, Virginia, and have only been living in Cheyenne for the last month or so.

When I lived in Yorktown, I really didn't do a lot of shopping at my local Walmart for certain kinds of foods - as for example cornbread mixes.

Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that the Texas Style Cornbread mix was not available in my Walmart in Yorktown, but here it is in the Cheyenne Walmart.

As for the Marie Callender mix, Marie Callendar does seem to be a national brand, so it was probably in the Yorktown Walmart as well.

I don't remember that a "Mexican cornbread" mix was available in Yorktown, either, but it might have been.

Prices current as of Dec 13, 2010.

Recycle and Trash Outside KMart

There's a K-Mart on Dell Range Boulevard (the main drag through Cheyenne - it's got a Barnes & Noble, a Walmart, a Target, A Sams Club, etc. etc) and in their driveway there are several large blue containers for recycling - glass, plastic, cardboard and so on. Even a container for plain old trash.

It's free to deposit stuff there, so try to recycle if you can.

Yellowstone National Park

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Continuing with Lavinia Dobler's I Didnt Know That About Wymoing (1984) she continues her list of firsts with the first, and largest, national park in the US, which is located in Wyoming (with bits of it in Montana and Idaho), Yellowstone National Park.

The park consists of more than 2 million acres, comprising mountains, lakes and waterfalls, as well as therman springs and geysers, and over 260 species of animal and bird life (including bears!)

President Ulysses S. Grant sign ed the bill on March 1, 1872 to create Yellowstone National Park. (IN other words, this National Park was created before the first National Monument - the Devil's Tower.)


1938 tourist poster


A bit of history from Wikipedia:

There was considerable local opposition to the Yellowstone National Park during its early years: some locals feared that the regional economy would be unable to thrive if there remained strict federal prohibitions against resource development or settlement within park boundaries; local entrepreneurs advocated reducing the size of the park so that mining, hunting, and logging activities could be developed[23] and numerous bills were introduced into Congress by Montana representatives who sought to remove the federal land-use restrictions.

After the park's official formation, Nathaniel Langford was appointed as the park's first superintendent in 1872. He served for five years but was denied a salary, funding, and staff. Langford lacked the means to improve the land or properly protect the park, and without formal policy or regulations, he had few legal methods to enforce such protection. This left Yellowstone vulnerable to poachers, vandals, and others seeking to raid its resources. He addressed the practical problems park administrators faced in the 1872 Report to the Secretary of the Interior and correctly predicted that Yellowstone will become a major international attraction deserving the continuing stewardship of the government.

In 1875, Colonel William Ludlow, who had previously explored areas of Montana under the command of George Armstrong Custer, was assigned to organize and lead an expedition to Montana and the newly established Yellowstone Park. Observations about the lawlessness and exploitation of park resources were included in Ludlow's Report of a Reconnaissance to the Yellowstone Nation Park. The report included letters and attachments by other expedition members, including naturalist and mineralogist George Bird Grinnell. Grinnell documented the poaching of buffalo, deer, elk and antelope for hides. "It is estimated that during the winter of 1874–1875, not less than 3,000 buffalo and mule deer suffer even more severely than the elk, and the antelope nearly as much."

As a result, Langford was forced to step down in 1877. Having traveled through Yellowstone and witnessed land management problems first hand, Philetus Norris volunteered for the position following Langford's exit. Congress finally saw fit to implement a salary for the position, as well as to provide a minimal funding to operate the park. Norris used these funds to expand access to the park, building numerous crude roads and facilities.

In 1880, Harry Yount was appointed as a gamekeeper to control poaching and vandalism in the park. Yount had previously spent a number of years exploring the mountain country of present-day Wyoming, including the Grand Tetons, after joining Dr. Hayden’s Geological Survey in 1873. Today, he is considered the first national park ranger, and Younts Peak, located at the head of the Yellowstone River, was named in his honor. However, these measures still proved to be insufficient in protecting the park, as neither Norris, nor the three superintendents who followed, were given sufficient manpower or resources.

The Northern Pacific Railroad built a train station in Livingston, Montana, connecting to the northern entrance in the early 1880s, which helped to increase visitation from 300 in 1872 to 5,000 in 1883.[32] Visitors in these early years were faced with poor roads and limited services, and most access into the park was on horse or via stagecoach. By 1908 visitation increased enough to also attract a Union Pacific Railroad connection to West Yellowstone, though rail visitation fell off considerably by World War II and ceased around the 1960s. Much of the railroad line was converted to nature trails, among them the Yellowstone Branch Line Trail.

During the 1870s and 1880s Native American tribes were effectively excluded from the national park. A number of tribes had made seasonal use of the Yellowstone area, but the only year-round residents were small bands of Western Shoshone known as "Sheepeaters". They left the area under the assurances of a treaty negotiated in 1868, under which the Sheepeaters ceded their lands but retained the right to hunt in Yellowstone.

The United States never ratified the treaty and refused to recognize the claims of the Sheepeaters or any other tribe that had made use of Yellowstone. The Nez Perce band associated with Chief Joseph, numbering about 750 people, passed through Yellowstone National Park in thirteen days during late August, 1877. They were being pursued by the U.S. Army and entered the national park about two weeks after the Battle of the Big Hole. Some of the Nez Perce were friendly to the tourists and other people they encountered in the park, some were not. Nine park visitors were briefly taken captive. Despite Joseph and other chiefs ordering that no one should be harmed, at least two people were killed and several wounded.[34][35] One of the areas where encounters occurred was in Lower Geyser Basin and east along a branch of the Firehole River to Marys Mountain and beyond.

That stream is still known as Nez Perce Creek.[36] A group of Bannocks entered the park in 1878, alarming park Superintendent Philetus Norris. In the aftermath of the Sheepeater Indian War of 1889, Norris built a fort for the purpose of preventing Native Americans from entering the national park.

Devil's Tower

This photo taken in 1900.

If you've seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you've seen Devil's Tower. I'll be visiting it next year, but for now I include it here because it's part of Lavinia Dobler's I Didn't Know That About Wyoming (1984).

If you're planning a trip, you can wait until I give you full details, hopefully in spring of next year, or check out their website at:
http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm

From Wikipedia:

Recent history
Fur trappers may have visited Devils Tower, but they left no written evidence of having done so. The first documented visitors were several members of Captain W. F. Raynold's 1859 Yellowstone Expedition. Sixteen years later, Colonel Richard I. Dodge led a U.S. Geological Survey party to the massive rock formation and coined the name Devils Tower. Recognizing its unique characteristics, Congress designated the area a U.S. forest reserve in 1892 and in 1906 Devil's Tower became the nation's first National Monument.

The 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind used the formation as a plot element and as a location for its contact scene and climactic scenes.

Climbing
In recent years, climbing Devils Tower National Monument has increased in popularity. The first known ascent of Devils Tower by any method occurred on July 4, 1893, and is accredited to William Rogers and Willard Ripley, local ranchers in the area. They completed this first ascent after constructing a ladder of wooden pegs driven into cracks in the rock face. A few of these wooden pegs are still intact and are visible on the tower when hiking along the 1.3-mile (2.1 km) Tower Trail at Devils Tower National Monument.

Over the following thirty years many climbs were made using this method before the ladder fell into disrepair. The man most famous for climbing the tower is Fritz Wiessner who summited with William P. House and Lawrence Coveney in 1937. This was the first ascent using modern climbing techniques. Wiessner led the entire climb free, placing only a single piece of fixed gear (piton) which he later regretted, deeming it unnecessary.

Today hundreds of climbers scale the sheer rock walls of Devils Tower each summer. The most common route is the Durrance Route which was the second free route established in 1938. Today there are many established and documented climbing routes covering every side of the tower, ascending the various vertical cracks and columns of the rock. The difficulty of these routes range from relatively easy to some of the hardest in the world. All climbers are required to register with a park ranger before and after attempting a climb.

The Tower is sacred to several Native American Plains tribes, including the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Kiowa. Because of this, many Indian leaders objected to climbers ascending the monument, considering this to be a desecration. The climbers argued that they had a right to climb the Tower, since it is on federal land. A compromise was eventually reached with a voluntary climbing ban during the month of June when the tribes are conducting ceremonies around the monument. Climbers are asked, but not required, to stay off the Tower in June.

According to the PBS documentary In the Light of Reverence, approximately 85% of climbers honor the ban and voluntarily choose not to climb the Tower during the month of June. However, several climbers along with the Mountain States Legal Foundation sued the Park Service, claiming an inappropriate government entanglement with religion.

The Black-footed Ferret

It was a sunshiney day today in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and more importantly, there was no wind. No wind! Stranger still, this is the second day in a row that there has been no wind! I am so happy I can't tell you!

This happiness caused me to forget to bring my camera with me, on the 15 mile/15 minute drive into Cheyenne, so no photos today. What I did do was go to the library and check out some books on Wyoming history.

And thus I start with The Black-Fotted Ferret. According to I Didn't Know That About Wyoming, by Lavinia Dobler, published in 1984, the Black-footed Ferret is the rarest animal in North America.

"The only known black-footed ferret colony is located west of Meeteetse in Park County."

The creature was first noted down in a book by James Audobon in 1851.

This ferret's chief food is the prairie dog.

Now, let's move to 26 years later and see the fate of the black footed ferret.

From Wikipedia:

The last known wild population was taken into captivity in 1985, a few years after its accidental discovery in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Release of captive animals has successfully re-introduced the species to parts of its former habitat, and currently these populations have made what has been called an "astonishing comeback.

They are nocturnal and primarily hunt for sleeping prairie dogs in their burrows. Though they will also eat mice and other small mammals, birds, and insects, a single Black-footed ferret eats about 100 prairie dogs a year and cannot survive without access to large colonies of them. Typically a prairie dog colony 125 acres in size will provide a sufficiently stable prey population for one adult ferret. The ferrets are mainly dependent on the prairie dogs for their survival, and even shelter in prairie dog burrows during the day. In the wild, black-footed ferrets spend about 99 percent of their time underground. Ferret mating seasons last from March–April. Gestation of the kits commonly lasts 41–43 days. The number of kits born ranges from 1 to 7, but most commonly only 3 or 4 are born.

The loss of their prairie grassland habitat, the drastic reduction of prairie dog numbers (through both habitat loss and poisoning), and the effects of canine distemper and sylvatic plague (similar to bubonic plague) have all contributed to the near-extinction of the species during the 19th and 20th centuries. Even before their numbers declined, Black-footed Ferrets were rarely seen: they weren't officially recognized as a species by scientists until 1851, following publication of a book by naturalist John James Audubon and Rev. John Bachman. Even then, their existence was questioned since no other Black-footed Ferrets were reported for over twenty years.

Black-footed Ferret kitsIn 1981, a very small population of about 130 animals was discovered near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Soon after discovery, the population began a rapid decline due to disease. By 1986, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department led a cooperative program to capture the 12 remaining animals (which would be added to an existing 6 already in captivity) and begin an intensive captive breeding program. At that time, the entire world population amounted to about 50 individuals in captivity.

As of 2007, the total wild population of Black-footed Ferrets was well over 750 individuals (plus 250 in captivity) in the US.

The recovery plan calls for the establishment of ten or more separate, self-sustaining wild populations. Biologists hope to have 1500 Black-footed Ferrets established in the wild by 2010, with at least 30 breeding adults in each population. Meeting this objective would allow the conservation status of the species to be downgraded to threatened.

Gear Up For Cheyenne Frontier Days

Cheyenne Frontier Days for 2011 stars on Tuesday, July 19 and lasts until Sunday, July 31

There's a rodeo, Western entertainment and museum displays, and lots of fun.

http://www.cfdrodeo.com/events/index.aspx

According to Trib.com:
Cheyenne Frontier Days, Wyoming bullfighter win major PRCA awards
LAS VEGAS -- Cheyenne Frontier Days has received the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year award while Meeteetse's Dusty Tuckness has been named Bullfighter of the Year.

Cheyenne Frontier Days won for the seventh consecutive year and 12th time overall.

Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Pendleton Round-Up tied for the award, according to a PRCA media release issued today.

Tuckness also works the College National Finals Rodeo each June at the Casper Events Center.

The awards were presented Wednesday night at the National Finals Rodeo awards banquet in Las Vegas.

PRCA rodeo contract personnel, judges, clowns, stock contractors and contestants vote in October on the finalists for the awards.

Cheyenne Frontier Days previously received the Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year award from 1993-96, 2000 and 2004-09.