Frontier Days

With the old Yippee! of the cowpunching West, Cheyenne last week held its 35th annual celebration of Frontier Days, at its big park sentimentally dedicated to the era when Cheyenne was a way stop for the Pony Express.* The original U. S. rodeo, Frontier Days drew all the West's best cowhands for five days of hard competition. Governor William Adams, onetime cowboy, went up from Colorado to watch the fun. Publisher Frederick Bonfils of the Denver Post, last great frontier pub publisher, took 400 guests to Cheyenne in a special train. There were pep and parades, noise and nonsense, music and merrymaking.

Bronco riding was the big event and an outlaw horse of the meanest breed was Five Minutes to Midnight. Earl Thode of Belvidere, S. Dak. won the most coveted prize among cowmen when he rode the bucking beast against all comers without changing hands on the rein, losing a stirrup or pulling leather. In the "bulldogging" contest Mike Hastings of Lobo, Tex. took 22 1/10 sec. to overtake a Texas longhorn. In bulldogging the steer gets a 30 ft. start, the 'dogger leaps from his horse to the steer's head, throws it on its side, bites its lip and raises his hands in victory. For the first time in the show's history one cowboy, Fred Meyers of Okmulgee, Okla., won both the calf (20 8/10 sec.) and steer (24 1/10 sec.) roping contests. Rival of Cheyenne's Frontier Days is the Pendleton, Ore. Roundup, to be held this year Aug. 27-29. Queen of that rodeo will be brown-haired, blue-eyed Betty Bond, 18, junior at the University of Oregon.

"This Is The Place." In Utah last week there was another frontier show commemorating not broncos and steers but covered wagons and the arrival of Brigham Young with his 148 Mormon pioneers in Salt Lake valley in 1847. Under a searing sun which killed one man, dropped a score of others, a three-hour historical parade filed through the streets of Salt Lake City. Queen of the celebration was Margaret Young, 20, a great-great-granddaughter of old Brigham through the line of eldest sons.* On her float which won first prize in the parade, Miss Young, garbed all in white, represented "Miss Pioneer." Present also were ten old codgers, querulous in the heat, who had crossed the plains during the first decade (1847-57) of the Mormon migration.

Climax of the Salt Lake celebration was a pageant, witnessed by 20,000 in the stadium of the University of Utah where Miss Young is a junior. Here she emerged from a hive as the Queen Bee of Deseret (the honey bee of the Book of Mormon, symbol of industry). Other features of the pageant included Indian dances, Brigham Young's declaration "This is the place!" as he led his followers down into the valley, the seagulls which ate the crickets and saved the settlers' first crop, the driving of the gold spike at Promontory Point marking the juncture of the first transcontinental railroad (May 10, 1869).

Cadillac. Quietly and without display last week Detroit observed its 230th birthday. On a hot July morning Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac beached his canoe there, built Fort Pontchartrain commanding the river, planted a pear tree which some say is the one still standing on the old Descharme lawn.

Eruption. Only volcano in the continental U. S. is Mount Lassen, Calif. Its last real eruption occurred in 1914. But last week its crater was stuffed with smoke bombs, pyrotechnics and red fire which were set off before a large throng to simulate another eruption and mark the dedication of Lassen National Park. Chief speaker: Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur.

1932, 1933. Next year will see a great national celebration led by President Hoover to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. The next year Chicago will stage its Century of Progress. During his vacation last month Ambassador Charles Gates Dawes, in charge of the 1933 World's Fair finances, announced that of the $10,000,000 land issue authorized, $6,555,000 had been sold without corporate guarantees. About $1,000,000 more have been sold with such guarantees. Already constructed are the Administration and Travel & Transportation Buildings and a replica of Fort Dearborn. The Mayan Temple and the General Motors building will probably be started this year.

*Also last week Cheyenne reported forest fires raging through dry Wyoming. Dude ranchers turned out to fight the flames. Two fire fighters: Junius Spencer Morgan, son of Banker John Pierpont Morgan; Daniel Roosevelt, nephew of Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

*The Young Family Association, all direct descendants of polygamous Brigham, today numbers more than 600.

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