Long before Chester’s big July 4, celebration, the first major special event that helped bring awareness to the fledgling community of Chester was a rodeo. In 1920, McKenzie & Stover sponsored the first rodeo in Chester at the Stover Ranch, and it was held there for the next eighteen years. Within a short time it became quite popular, initially attracting about a thousand spectators. As the word spread, by the early 1930s the crowds had swelled to between 2500 and 3000.
If the word-of-mouth advertisement was not enough to entice a person to attend, how could one not go wrong after reviewing this promotional literature of the event? “Cowboys, broncos wild steers, Indians, thrills, action and the shores of Lake Almanor takes on a scene of the old frontier. The wild west days of yore live and breathe in the 15th annual Chester Rodeo Pageant, Sunday July 28.
”Suddenly, like the roaring echo of Mount Lassen, the calm little logging hamlet, banked on either side by the tranquility of pine covered thickets of the Sierras, burst forth in gala Cowboy Rodeo Fashion almost overnight. A Cowboy’s curdling yipes-prancing cow ponies-the whirl of lariats-the snort of wild-steers careening, untamable broncos-strong wooden gates and corrals, wheezing and groaning with impending mass of animal flesh-a cloud of dust cheering grandstands; lack-a-day friends, it’s rodeo time.
”Join the throngs as they sit side by side in the tense moment, viewing the spectacle! Feel the thrills of your favorite cowboy. Give voice to your emotions as a wild bull bites the dust and is tamed to the tune of a husky cowboy’s bull-dogging yodel! Be red-blooded American and rejoice as history of the old wild west repeats itself. Plan now to have the adventure of a lifetime.”
In 1938, Stover & McKenzie held their last Chester Rodeo. It should be noted two years later saw the dissolutioon of that venerable partnership.