Big Piney Chuckwagon Days

On the morning of July 4, 2026, the towns of Big Piney and Marbleton served pancakes from 7 to 9 in the parking lot of the Big Piney Recreation Center on Piney Drive. At 7:30 the Chuckwagon Chug, a 5K, started from the same lot. The Town of Big Piney billed the race as a way to mark America’s 250th anniversary, and each registered runner received an official T-shirt. At 10 the parade came down main street. This is Chuckwagon Days, held, as one listing says, “always over the 4th of July.” Every event on the 2026 schedule was free, with donations welcome.

After the parade the crowd went north to the Sublette County Fairgrounds, on Highway 189 just north of Marbleton, for barbecue in the Event Center. Back in Big Piney a cornhole tournament began at 1 p.m. at the EnCana Picnic Shelter, and the street dance started there at 6. Three food vendors worked the dance: Pioneer Smokehouse Barbeque & Grill, Sabor Autentico and Boars Pit LLC. The two towns paid for $5 food vouchers for the first 200 people to arrive, one per person, good that night only. After dark the fireworks went up from Marbleton Hill. “We’ve had a real good crowd and real beautiful weather,” Marbleton Mayor Jim Robinson told the Pinedale Roundup.

The layout has shifted over the years. A community listing from the mid-2000s put the street dance in front of the Big Piney Library at Fish Street and Budd Avenue. It ran the Chug at both 5K and 10K from the high school parking lot, with part of the proceeds going to Multiple Sclerosis of Wyoming. The parade then came east down Budd Avenue. The same listing notes that many Big Piney High School alumni come home for the weekend, and reunion activities are sometimes scheduled.

Friday night at Buss Fear Arena

The celebration opens the evening before. On Friday, July 3, 2026, the Chuckwagon Days Jr. Rodeo started at 4 p.m. in Buss Fear Arena at the fairgrounds. A volunteer committee runs it as a registered nonprofit whose stated “sole purpose is to keep the sport of rodeo alive.” Alberta Rose Worwood sang the national anthem, and the committee wrote the next day that “it left me in tears.”

Jim and Andy Nelson announced, keeping the stands entertained for what the committee called “the whole 5 hour rodeo.” Mardy Sleight and Clairee kept time, and Colt Stone and Chase Woods judged. Phil Selby, TJ Horton, Boone Snidecor and Wade Tibbitts worked as pick-up men and judges “and all the other stuff no one sees.” The Sublette County Rodeo Royalty helped throughout. CT Rodeo supplied the stock. Jay Brower, Jaydon Burbank and Tanner Dager of the fairgrounds crew got the arena ready. Jonah Energy has paid for the contestant shirts three years running. The committee wrote that it likes seeing children, and not only local ones, wear those shirts at other rodeos all year.

Finding help is harder than it was. On the afternoon of the 2026 rodeo the committee posted a call for volunteers at the secretary building: “It’s getting harder and harder to find help. Thank you. We’ll buy you dinner!” Afterward it wrote: “weeks or nights leading up to this rodeo we all say ‘this is our last year’ then you see the excitement in the kids faces when they win an envelope full of cash it makes it all worth it.”

In the mid-2000s the children’s contest was called the Lil’ Buckaroo Rodeo. It was open to every child 12 and under, with stick-horse barrel racing, goat-tail tying, calf roping, calf riding, mutton bustin’ and mini bulls. EnCana sponsored it. Winners took buckles, every contestant got a T-shirt, and spectators came in free.

The Examiner in 1937 and the program books

The Green River Valley Museum in Big Piney occupies a building that once served as the town hall, fire station and jail. Among its displays are the presses of the Big Piney Examiner and a 1937 Examiner article. Pinedale Online, writing about the museum in 2006, said the article describes “an early gathering which ultimately evolved into Big Piney Chuckwagon Days over the 4th of July.” The rodeo counts its own years from a little earlier. The 1984 program marked the 50th anniversary, Pinedale Online called the 2009 rodeo the 75th annual, and the junior rodeo committee wrote that the 2024 rodeo would be “going on its 90th year anniversary.”

In the spring of 2026 the committee began posting pages from old souvenir rodeo books, roughly 1977 to 1982, and asked for stories about the people and businesses in them. Each book named a grand marshal and a queen. In 1977 they were James Francus Mickelson and Kathy Bray. In 1979 they were Robert O’Neil and Tina Marinvic, in 1981 Bud Slatter and Debbie Brown, and in 1982 Bert Harvey and Jennifer Seeley. Debbie Brown was queen again in 1984, the 50th year, under grand marshal George Nichols. Brenda Hetrick served as her first attendant both times.

Spencer George Nichols was born in Kemmerer in 1946 and spent his life in Big Piney. He served two tours in Vietnam and later became councilman and mayor of Marbleton. According to his 2022 obituary, he was president of the Sublette County Roping Club for six years and brought the first PRCA rodeo to Chuckwagon Days. Most summers he and his family helped put on the rodeos, and afterward they hauled the steers and bucking horses. He was in the first group that formed a committee to build the county’s indoor arena. His funeral was held at the Sublette County Fairgrounds.

A shark tank and a riderless horse

In the 2000s the adult rodeo ran on July 4 itself and charged a small admission. It was sanctioned by WRA and IMPRA, with bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback, team roping, steer wrestling, tie-down and breakaway roping, barrel racing and junior barrels. Its sponsors in 2009 were mostly oil and gas companies: EnCana, Shell, Chevron, Cimarex, Questar and BP. Greg Clark, the Big Piney district ranger, appeared in that year’s parade.

Pinedale Online photographed the 2009 rodeo, the 75th. Elkhorn Rodeo Company supplied the stock, Kenny Eggleson of Utah announced, and Mary Colton sang the national anthem. Katie King was grand marshal and Lisanne Fear was rodeo queen. A riderless horse was led out at the start in memory of those who had died during the past year. Early on, Jenna Runyan’s horse stopped short and threw her into the fence rail. The ambulance crew took her away, and it was later announced that she was all right.

Jim Hill took the saddle bronc lead with 77 points. As he walked past, children reached down from the arena fence to slap his hands. In the calf scramble, the ribbons tied to the calf were worth $20 to any child 10 and under who could catch it. One boy ran clean out of his boots and went back for them when it was over. At intermission the barrel man, Cody Miller, jumped the Flaming Shark Tank. Pinedale Online reported that the landing “wasn’t quite as spectacular.” When the last event was done, Brady Sullivan, one of the cowboy protectors, climbed onto a bull for an unscheduled ride of his own.