Frontier Days Rodeo

Pickups on the tiers

The parking at the Culbertson Saddle Club grounds north of town is built in tiers, so a spectator can stay in a car or pickup and watch the rodeo from the driver’s seat. Others watch from the hill. During the 2026 rodeo, burgers and beer were sold on the hill and in the barn, and gate admission was $10 for ages 10 and up and $5 for ages 9 and under.

The 63rd Frontier Days Rodeo ran Friday and Saturday, June 12–13, 2026, at the Culbertson Saddle Club Arena. The North Dakota Rodeo Association, which co-sanctioned the rodeo, lists the arena at 5796 Highway 16. Frontier Days is a Northern Rodeo Association rodeo. The Friday performance began at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday’s at 7. Slack started at 9 a.m. Saturday, and anyone who wished could watch.

The Northern Plains Independent reported an estimated $20,000 purse for the featured events: bull riding, calf roping, bareback, saddle bronc, steer wrestling, barrel racing, team roping, ladies breakaway, junior barrels, junior breakaway, senior men’s breakaway, and women’s ranch bronc riding. Big Circle Rodeo Company is named as stock contractor in the NDRA program for 2026, and The Roundup reported in 2023 that it supplied the bucking stock that year. Women’s ranch bronc riding was new in 2023, when at least ten women entered. Both nights also include a wild calf race for the kids.

Saturday on Broadway

On Saturday the event moves into town. The Culbertson Women’s Club serves its annual meal on Broadway Avenue starting at 11 a.m., which The Roundup called the Main Street Meal in 2023. The parade steps off at noon. The Saddle Club leads it, carrying the American flag on horseback, and local businesses and area groups follow with floats. A Missouri River Country listing says there is a parade at noon on both days. The newspaper schedule for 2026 lists only Saturday’s. That listing also describes the weekend as parades, rodeo, “community follies and other entertainment.”

From noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, root beer floats are served at the Culbertson Museum. Museum volunteers come back Sunday morning, from 7 to 10, to serve breakfast. In 2023 the Culbertson Fire Department served a Saturday breakfast at the school, and a beer garden next to the Old Armory sold beef and cheddar sandwiches and hot dogs.

Each night ends with a dance. In 2026 Ashlee Anderson & the Richland County Playboys played the Stagecoach Bar on Friday after the rodeo and the barn dance at the Saddle Club on Saturday. The Friday dance has moved over the years. In 2023 it was held at the Montana Bar.

The Saddle Club

The Culbertson Saddle Club describes itself as “a nonprofit volunteer organization located in Culbertson, striving to keep western traditions alive for future generations.” It received its federal tax exemption in August 1994. Its filings list Ken Arneson as president, Pamela Arneson as treasurer, and Bridgette Featherston as secretary. Lloyd Aspenleider served as vice president in the filings through 2021, and Kody Featherston holds that office in later years. None of the officers is paid.

Frontier Days marked 60 years in 2023, held June 9–10 that year. The Roundup credited local businesses and Saddle Club members for spending their own time and money to keep the event going “through rodeo association changes, floods, and maintenance challenges.” The 2024 edition followed on June 7 and 8.

The club runs more than this rodeo. Its 26th Annual Ranch Rodeo was held August 8, 2026. Over Labor Day weekend that year it ran its 58th wagon train, crossing land whose owners allowed riders through and gave them a place for night camp. The club reported that the trail passed wagon tracks and many teepee rings, and that many riders that weekend had never seen teepee rings before.

A red barn on the highway

Saturday’s dance is held in what The Roundup calls the Saddle Club’s famous barn. It was renovated in 2014 and 2015 and now hosts weddings and other events in addition to the annual dance. The structure came from the area between Bainville and Culbertson and was moved to the grounds in the ‘50s. For several years afterward it was used to store safflower to pay for it.

Older members of the community still tell a story about the move. An officer cited the men moving the big red barn down the highway for not putting a red flag on so large a building. The movers answered that a red flag would do little to make a large red barn more visible to other vehicles.