Lund Pioneer Days

At 11:30 on Saturday, July 25, 2026, the Lund Pioneer Program began at the square on Main Street, with barbecue and water games to follow. “BBQ starts in 45 minutes! Come get the best brisket in the valley!” the Lund Rodeo Association posted that morning. At 1:00 a horseshoe tournament got under way at the bottom corner of the square. The rodeo opened at 5:00 that evening, and spectators had been asked to wear purple. Fireworks followed the last event.

Lund is a ranching and farming town of 282 people on Nevada State Highway 318. The White Pine Chamber of Commerce puts it about 32 miles southwest of Ely. A 2022-era article by Kurt Gensheimer for Ely’s tourism office places it in the White River Valley, 35 miles south of Ely. Pioneer Days is held on the July 24th weekend and marks the founding of the town. In 2026 the Lund Rodeo Association and the Ely tourism office gave the dates as Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25. White Pine County’s calendar listed July 25 and 26.

Brisket, horseshoes, and a parade through downtown

In 2025 The Ely Times printed the full Saturday schedule. A 5K run left the community center at 7 a.m. The parade followed at 9:30, under the title “To Reach Any Goal, Some Must Push and Some Must Pull.” The Pioneer Program came at 11:30 and a barbecue dinner at noon, with water games on the square, adult horseshoes, and vendor booths nearby. The tourism office’s listing describes the parade as floats, antique cars, horses, and a variety of entertainers moving through downtown, followed by a Special Presentation at 11:00. The same listing announces a Western Family Dance at 9:00 on Friday night. According to Gensheimer, the Pioneer Program features skits and performances by the children of Lund.

The rodeo’s royalty is crowned in June. For 2026 the association named Madison Carter queen and Riata Young princess. McKaylee Davis was first attendant and Jessica Jenson second. Amelia Jenson was Lil Miss, and Davis was also named Miss Congeniality. The 2026 raffle prize was a Henry Golden Boy .22 rifle, with tickets at $5 apiece or five for $20. They were sold at Carter Ag in Lund and Sports World in Ely, and winners did not need to be present. The association also ordered a limited run of shirts in sand and heather navy.

Laser-leveled ground

Two days before the 2026 rodeo, the association reported that the arena “has been laser leveled & has been watered & worked for weeks now.” The post said a man named Gilbert had been working the ground every day, and that the barrel pattern would get a quick drag before the barrel racers rode. The Friday performance began at 6:00 p.m. and the Saturday performance at 5:00. Admission was $10, and children 6 and under got in free.

The 2025 card, as The Ely Times listed it, ran to bull riding, open breakaway, steer riding, senior and junior barrels, team roping, and calf roping. It also included WSRRA ladies’ steer stopping and a WSRRA-sanctioned ranch bronc. For the youngest riders there was mutton bustin’ and mini bull riding, in classes for ages 6 to 8, 9 to 11, and 12 to 14. Prize money is paid out each night once the places are announced. In 2026 the association opened team roping to three entries a day instead of two.

Ron Horsley explained what draws the riders. “What makes the Lund Rodeo special is that there’s less pressure for riders to perform here, and more opportunity for riders who aren’t professional grade,” he told Gensheimer. “It’s a place where they can have fun and have a chance at winning some money.”

Cars parked in a circle

According to The Ely Times, the first Lund Pioneers Day celebration was held on July 24, 1898. Gensheimer writes that the rodeo has kept its amateur status from that first year. It began as entertainment and bragging rights for the founding ranching families and now draws amateur riders from across the West. The grounds have moved a few times. The first arena was nothing more than a bunch of cars parked in a circle, and riders went out into the flats, rounded up wild mustangs, and used them for bucking horses. With the exception of 2020, the rodeo has been held every year since 1898. The tourism office and the association call it the oldest amateur rodeo in Nevada. The chamber of commerce calls it the oldest and longest running rodeo in the state.

The town around it is older than the rodeo by a quarter century. In 1873 a ranch was established along the Hamilton-Pioche stage line; Nevada Expeditions spells it Tom Plane Ranch and the chamber Tome Plane. Mormon settlers followed, among the first John L. Whipple and Anthon H. Lund, for whom the town was named. A flour mill went up in 1881. In 1898 a township was platted, and the post office opened on October 1 of that year.

Accounts of how the land came to the settlers differ. The chamber says the United States government gave it to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in place of land confiscated under the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Gensheimer writes that it went to LDS families after their original lands in the Parowan and St. George regions of Utah were annexed.

An old bunkhouse became Lund’s first schoolhouse, and stores opened to serve the ranches, the most successful being the Lund Mercantile Company. A log church followed in 1903. The Lund School District was bonded in 1915 for a concrete school, which a new high school replaced in 1931. A few of the original buildings and homes still stand.

The Horsley brothers and “one more year”

Most of the families that settled Lund are still there, Gensheimer reports, among them the Horsleys. When he wrote, the brothers Roy, Ron, Richard, and Roger were well into their 70s and still running the rodeo. Their father, Lynn, was its longtime announcer. When Richard was 12, Lynn handed him the microphone and went to the bathroom. “I had never announced before, and right then two cowboys started fighting each other in front of the chutes,” Richard said. “One had a horseshoe nail between his fingers and was raking the other guy’s face. I was scared to death, and all I remember announcing was ‘hey, we need the police in here!’”

The brothers tell other stories. Ron recalled the local rancher Carl Bradshaw and his saddle horse: “Carl would bring his horse into the chute, challenging anyone to ride it, but nobody could. It was one heck of a buckin’ horse, and nobody could ride that horse but Carl.”

One year a man in black clothes arrived in an old pickup with a black camper and said he wanted to ride a bronc, though he had never ridden one. “He was in his late 60s, but he looked like he was in his mid 80s,” Richard said. The bronc threw him at the gate and kicked him in the forehead. “He was helicoptered to a hospital in Salt Lake,” Roy said. “We tried following up to check in, but never heard anything from him again.”

Mini bull riding was added in 2022 to hold the interest of children. “We need to keep kids interested in livestock activities because there’s less participation from the youth these days in ranching,” Roy said. As boys the brothers bucked hay bales for money, work that a machine now does.

By Gensheimer’s account, the rodeo has never made a dime. It runs on sponsors such as Carter Agriculture Equipment, B&W Trucking, and the Robinson Mine, along with nearby ranches and volunteers who prepare for 11 months of the year. Roy calls the place “a long way from nowhere.” There are few local accommodations, so contestants drive in from Ely or camp. Most of the crowd has family or friends in Lund. “A lot of families that were born and raised here come back,” Ron said. “At least one of the founding families has a reunion here every year.”

“The expense to put on a high quality event is getting difficult, and there’s nobody young to take over the reins of running the rodeo,” Roy said. “Every time we get tired and want to throw in our hats, we just say ‘one more year’. We don’t want the rodeo to die off any quicker than we do.”