Harlowton NRA Rodeo

The rodeo performances at Harlowton are held in Howard Holloway Arena on the evenings of July 2 and 3. The town sits on the banks of the Musselshell River in Wheatland County, at 4,185 feet, east of the Crazy and Castle Mountains and south of the Little Belts and the Snowies. The tourism office gives its population as 945. The 2026 rodeo was the 74th annual. The Harlowton Rodeo committee runs it under the sanction of the National Rodeo Association, and the Wheatland County Chamber of Commerce is the contact. The arena program runs from bronc riding and bull riding to barrel racing and team roping. Children take part in mutton busting and a calf scramble. A Mini Broncs event has limited spots, booked by calling Kayleen.

Four days around the Fourth

The rodeo is two nights long, but the weekend around it runs four days. It opens on July 1 with a street dance in Two Dot. Listings for the 2026 weekend put the start at 5:00 p.m. that day and the close at 11:00 p.m. on July 4. Between those times there are parades on the 3rd and 4th, a car show, a barbecue cook-off, live music, and fireworks. In 2026 the weekend fell on the nation’s 250th birthday. The committee’s poster announcement read: “Nothing more American than Rodeo and our small-town communities coming together to celebrate!”

The rodeo royalty for the 74th annual were Queen Hayden Murnion and Princess Mesa Valle. They were chosen at a contest held June 13 in the arena, open to cowgirls from Wheatland, Sweet Grass, Meagher and Golden Valley counties. Kayleen Jones Photography took their pictures and donated prints, which the two signed at the parades. Earlier that June the committee auctioned the crow’s nest, “the best view in the house,” at Gally’s Brewing. The O Bar U Barbecue food truck and Ben Larson & the Moondocks were there that night. Fans also claim numbered “calf nuts” and “bull balls” for a chance to win money at the rodeo, and past holders may keep their same numbers. The same grounds host the Harlowton High School Rodeo in May and a Little Spurs Rodeo.

Ole and the summer of cancellations

One summer the coronavirus pandemic shut down rodeos across the state and country, and the Harlowton committee kept its show on the calendar. Mitch Pavlovick, the committee president, told MontanaSports: “We talked to our county commissioners, city council, chamber, and we were always going to try to have this.” Canceled shows elsewhere freed up talent. PRCA announcer Ray Champ had been booked for the Calgary Stampede, and he called Harlowton instead. Whistle-Nut and Ole came after the Livingston Roundup was canceled. Ole was a former bucking bull, broke so that children could ride him or play tug of war with him. “We really tried to kind of knock it out of the park,” Pavlovick said.

That year the committee added a performance on July 4 to its usual 2nd and 3rd. Pavlovick said the extra night was meant to help contestants headed for the Roundup rodeo during Cowboy Christmas, the holiday stretch when riders chase paychecks from show to show. The bleachers at Chief Joseph Park were marked off for distancing, and hand sanitizer was set out. A local trick rider performed, and fireworks followed the July 4 show. In April 2026 the rodeo’s page posted: “Its a sad day in the rodeo world, especially here in Harlowton. Our thoughts are with Jason. Ole is going to be missed by people across the country.”

Roundup Sundays on the Musselshell

A program printed for the 1989 Harlowton Rodeo, later digitized as Origin and History of Harlowton, Montana, traces the rodeo back to the early 1880s. At first it was a Sunday event, put on by the roundup crews as entertainment for the cowboys. The first rodeos of record were held in the Harlowton–Merino area by the Musselshell Roundup Association, whose roundup captain from 1882 to 1885 was John H. Freeser. Merino was the town’s earlier name. It became Harlowton on November 9, 1900, after Richard Harlow, father of the “Jawbone” Railroad.

The first Harlowton Rodeo at the present location was held in 1910, together with the Meagher County Fair Association. In those years rodeos were also held at Two Dot, Big Elk, Martinsdale, the Brannin and Bower ranches, and other ranches in the area. American Legion Post 15 sponsored the Harlowton rodeos of the 1920s. The Fourth of July celebration of 1922 had horse races, foot races, baseball, and a bear roping contest, followed by a grand ball at Liberty Hall, now the Moose Hall. Admission was 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children.

In 1923 the town held a full-fledged rodeo, its first to run three days, on July 3, 4 and 5. John Christensen of Two Dot won the saddle bronc riding and Jack Tracy won the bareback. A photograph from Dr. Howard Holloway’s collection shows Johnny Christensen taking first place on July 4, 1923, riding a horse the caption names “Bue Elephant.” Another photograph, from 1923 or 1924, was taken in front of the original grandstand, which A. C. Graves built. The contests continued through the twenties. In the depression and drought years of the thirties, only a few ranch rodeos were held. The Legion sponsored the Harlowton Rodeo again in 1947 and 1948, this time as an RCA show, with Greenough and Orr of Red Lodge furnishing the stock.

Holloway and Kalberg

The annual Chamber of Commerce Rodeo began in 1952, the program says, largely through the efforts of Frank Holloway and Louis Kalberg, both early-day contestants. Local ranchers furnished the livestock, and most of the contestants were local cowboys. It started as a one-day event with 30 to 40 cowboys. Lights went up in 1961, making it an afternoon and evening show. In 1968 the rodeo began contracting all its livestock, and by 1989 it had used Dale Small Rodeo Co. stock for 21 years. By then it ran two days plus one day of slack, with about 400 cowboys and cowgirls from all over the Northwest.

After their fathers died, Howard Holloway and Stan Kalberg took over the show. In 1989 they had guided it for 26 years, Holloway as chairman and Kalberg as secretary-treasurer. Their note in that year’s program reads: “This year we have endeavored to put together a rodeo program which will reflect some of our Harlowton and Musselshell heritage. We hope you will enjoy the celebration and get to meet old friends and classmates.”