CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The “Daddy of ’em All” isn’t made possible because of the work of just one person.
Though Cheyenne Frontier Days is what Wyoming’s capital city is most known for, becoming ingrained in the city’s culture through over a century of celebrating everything Western, it doesn’t just spring up out of the ground naturally.
The event takes an army to put on, one that’s at least 2,500 people strong in volunteer labor. That year-round work builds connections in the meantime, and there’s one way in particular that many members of the volunteer committees each responsible for various roles around Frontier Park describe that relationship.
Family.
Through problems big and small, the committees are there for each other. Only with that teamwork and commitment to producing the world’s largest outdoor rodeo can it even be put on in the first place.
And Friday, for the 126th time thanks largely to the countless volunteer hours put in across the festival, the party can officially begin. After all, as Frontier Days Hall of Famer Bill Dubois notably put it after more than four decades of volunteering, “It’s the Cheyenne thing to do.”
“CFD is basically a second family to most of us,” Brian Wilson, a volunteer with the Parades Committee, said. “We all spend a lot of hours together during the year. … I have the luxury that my wife and daughter both volunteer with me, so I get to take my home family to my CFD family. And so it’s just another extension of your family is what it is, really.”
Much of the behind-the-scenes work is overseen by the General Committee, which has a general chairman (currently longtime volunteer Jimmy Dean Siler) and heads of nine different subcommittees that focus on particular lines of work across the event. There are several groups outside of that realm that function toward helping put on the show — such as The Buckle Club, Heels and Dandies — but the vast majority of the everyday volunteers fall under the direction of the General Committee.
The largest committee by size is Wilson’s group, the Parades Committee. As the name suggests, those involved there help put on the several Grand Parades that will draw thousands to downtown Cheyenne across the 10-day festival, doing everything from maintenance work on the many wagons that will roll down Capitol Avenue to hanging celebratory signage that welcomes the many tourists to the area.
Wilson said that the Parades Committee’s preparation for a show essentially begins right when the previous Frontier Days ends, especially if major repairs are required for parade equipment. But about a month out from the show, the committee will actually plan out the parades lineup spot by spot, ensuring that everyone involved is in order when showtime hits.
Those who have volunteered for longer periods of time often show the ropes to newer volunteers, Wilson said, creating an environment that he likened to a “well-oiled machine.”
“It’s kind of hard to describe, really,” Wilson said. “We’ve all been doing this for so many years that when we do get somebody new, we stick them with a veteran that has been doing it so that they learn how to do it. I’ve been doing this for so many years [that] I know where I need to be, what time I need to be there and what my roles and responsibilities are. So to explain how we organize all of this and come together as one, it’s difficult to do. It’s almost something you’ve got to see, really.”
In contrast to the massive amount of manpower that’s demanded within the Parades Committee, the smallest committee of the festival, the Indians Committee, is largely bound to the Indian Village located in Frontier Park. This doesn’t mean that its work lacks in importance, however — far from it.
Physical work on prepping the village begins in April, committee lead Sue Fermelia said, but monthly meetings to discuss business happen throughout the year to ensure everyone is on the same page. Because of the committee’s size, fewer ideas and suggestions tend to get lost in the shuffle, Fermelia noted, and when contracted performers from Native American tribes come into the mix closer to the show, the Indians Committee wants them to feel welcome.
“For the most part, it’s kind of a cohesive group,” Fermelia said. “We enjoy each other’s company and everybody’s families; if you’re any committee member, your family is always welcome. Everybody’s ideas are solicited, [though] whether they end up coming to fruition or not depends on a lot of factors. But yeah, we’re willing to listen to anybody’s idea and there’s a lot of good ideas out there.”
Though the Indian Village will likely be one extra stop for many Frontier Park visitors sometime during the next 10 days, at one time or another most attendees will stop by Frontier Park Arena for a rodeo. That’s where the Rodeo Committee comes in.
It’s a massive task to get the arena ready for the rodeos, volunteer Jason Bain said, whether that’s by physically preparing the grounds as early as 4:30 a.m. on performance days or by handling some of the other logistical hurdles involved, such as reaching deals with stock contractors and calculating winning payouts to rodeo contestants.
The sheer time required to make sure everything is up to speed is what Bain believes is the hardest part of the whole ordeal, but it’s that commitment to getting what he called the “little things” right that makes Frontier Days rodeos the spectacle they are. For many on the committee, there’s a genuine love and devotion for the sport as well.
“I think that most of the people on our committee, they wanted to be on the Rodeo Committee for a reason,” Bain said when asked how the group stays motivated throughout the hours of hard work. “Like myself, I think the rest of the committee has the same values. We have a passion for rodeo and this rodeo in particular. So we’re lucky to be a part of it and say that we contributed. … Our attitudes stay great.”
There are, of course, many other obligations across the show that require attention to detail beyond the committees mentioned, but throughout the work days that increase in frequency as opening day of the festival approaches, there are literally hundreds of tasks going on simultaneously. It’s impossible to wrangle all of them together, but there is one value that is shared by almost everyone working: a passion to keep Frontier Days a sight to behold.
Frontier Days is Cheyenne’s exhibition to the world, and it’s a distinction that many who work across the park don’t take lightly. But when everything comes together, the volunteers find it all worth the work.
“Let’s go, let’s show, let’s rodeo,” Bain said. “Let’s have a good time.”
