Ninilchik’s Shirley Cox explained her involvement and coordination with the event since it first started in 1960 and the various ways it has transitioned since then with various rodeo and horseman associations on the peninsula. The event is currently sponsored by the Alaska Equestrian Sports Club. She started by saying, “I have been involved in putting this rodeo on with my family since I was two years old…the first rodeo was held in Ninilchik, actually over where The Buzz is now. And that was in 1960. Then it moved to Happy Valley for several years until that property was sold. We had to move up here to the Fairgrounds 20 years ago. We've tried to keep up the the reputation of it's just a good family event, and we have a we call it a rodeo, because I don't know what else to call it, but we don't have access to bucking stock other than calf riding and junior bulls, but we don't have any bulls, and we don't have any broncs. They're just not in the state. So, we do what we can, and it's just fun.”
Cox explained some of the popular events that will be happening at the two day event including various spectator features as well as entry events including the rescue race, barrel races, poles and boot race. Saturday included a beach ride that started at 11 a.m. on the Ninilchik Beach without pre-entries. According to Cox, last year there were almost 60 entries. She shareds some details on some of her favorites, “probably my funnest event in the whole rodeo is called $100 the hard way. We tape $100 between the horns of a steer. And whoever wants to just comes out of the crowd and catches their $100 gets their $100 bill…we have a calf scramble too. That's kind of a kids version of the same thing, where they take a ribbon off the calf's tail.”
Morgan Carlson-Kelly and Etalin Mill were at the Ninilchik Fairgrounds on Thursday helping to prepare for the rodeo events. They talked about the annual Rodeo Queen awards that were named on Wednesday the previous week. This year’s Rodeo Queen will be Cadence Cambell, the Junior Rodeo Queen is Abigail Price and Little Miss is Isla Brown, from Homer.
Carlson-Kelly explained how the awards were determined, “So, they had a big competition where you were scored. And, they got raffle tickets for entry fees. So they were $5 from a Queen, anyone and thow many tickets you got to sell, added up in points. Then they had to do an interview, a public speech, a rating pattern and a barrel race. They all were scored on that, on their horsemanship and how well they did each and then all those scores, depending on how who got the highest score for each division, was awarded the title.”
Final day of the 2025 event was Sunday, July 6th.
