Meeteetse Labor Day Celebration

On Labor Day Monday in Meeteetse the parade comes down State Street in the morning, and the rest of the day follows from it. In 2026 it stepped off at 9:30 a.m. under the theme “Made in the U.S.A,” chosen in honor of America’s 250th. Street games begin downtown as soon as the parade has passed; in 2022 they were held at the Fire Hall. At 1 p.m. the rodeo opens at the Meeteetse Rodeo Grounds south of town. When it ends, the rubber ducks, bought in town beforehand, go into the river. The 2022 schedule put the duck races at 6 p.m. at the Greybull River Bridge.

The town stands at 5,922 feet in the Bighorn Basin beside the Greybull River, with the Absaroka Mountains to the west and the Bighorns to the east. The 2020 census counted 309 residents. Discover Meeteetse, the nonprofit that keeps the visitor center at 1906 State Street, hosts the celebration and says it typically draws more than 1,000 people over the weekend.

Ropings and the circuit finals

The weekend opens at the arena. In 2026, team roping began at 9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Several of the ropings carry names. A 2017 report in Northern Wyoming News described the Ab Meier Memorial Team Roping as held annually on the Saturday. The Sunday event appears on the visitor center calendar as the Chuck Perkins Memorial roping; in 2021 the Cody Enterprise called it the Chuck Perkins and Kitty Aragon Labor Day jackpot team roping. Goat roping was on the 2025 Sunday program.

The Monday rodeo runs the standard Western card: bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, team roping, tie-down roping, barrel racing, and breakaway roping. Junior and youth events vary by year. Slack is worked in the morning before the afternoon performance. Cody Yellowstone, the Park County travel council, counts it among Wyoming’s longest-standing community rodeos. It notes that since 2015 the rodeo has also been the Big Horn Rodeo Circuit Finals, where season champions are crowned after the last events.

In 2021, Destiny Webster, then assistant visitors center director, told the Cody Enterprise: “We’ve been doing this over 100 years, it has been a tradition to have a Labor Day rodeo and it’s the last rodeo for the season in this area.” She added, “We actually have people driving in to visit us for our rodeo.”

Cornhole, horseshoes, and the Elkhorn lot

Between ropings the town plays. In 2026, the cornhole tournament was set for 11 a.m. Saturday and horseshoes for the same hour Sunday. In 2021 both were played in the parking lot behind the Elkhorn Bar and Grill. The Elkhorn also carries much of the evening music. Justin Beasley has played the kickoff in several years, and in 2025 he played with After the Rodeo at a Friday street dance. Beacon Hill, the Teka Brock Band, and BuckWyOld have filled other nights. A craft fair sets up through the weekend; in 2021 it was on the boardwalk from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The meals change from year to year. In 2023 the weekend opened Friday with a prime rib dinner at the Wea Market, and Monday began with an 8 a.m. pancake breakfast at the Seniors Center. A pancake breakfast was on the 2025 Monday program as well. The 2021 Saturday had a low-country boil at the Elkhorn, and 2025 added a hot wing competition. Two food trucks, Havok BBQ and Eat All Day, were booked for the whole 2026 weekend. That year Adventure Zone also brought ten inflatables to the Oasis Motel and RV Park, and the program listed a Beer Olympics.

Other years have added a car show (its third annual showing came in 2025) and a stick horse rodeo behind Meeteetse Conservation. There have also been youth and adult ball games on the field between town and the rodeo grounds. A Cody Enterprise photograph from 2020 shows Hayes Randol, Russ Hohnhorst, and other residents pulling a rope in the tug-of-war the paper called “the annual Meeteetse versus the world game.” The Meeteetse Museums have kept extended hours over the weekend, with a live quilt exhibit in 2021. In 2017 the program included a high school football game, Chicken Drop Bingo, a quilt show, and an archaeological fair.

A free cookout in 1912

Northern Wyoming News gave the beginning in 2017: “Back in 1912, the town of Meeteetse decided to celebrate Labor Day with a free cookout and rodeo for local families.” The town was young then. Margaret B. Wilson had established the Meeteetse Post Office on Meeteetse Creek in 1883 and moved it to a new townsite platted beside the Greybull in 1896. The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1899 and as a town in 1901, and it became part of the new Park County in 1909. The 1910 census counted 207 people. The name is a Shoshone term for “nearby” or possibly “resting place.” Around 1878 Otto Franc had begun the Pitchfork Ranch near the site.

The visitor center records that the outlaw Butch Cassidy lived in Meeteetse. In 1886 he signed a petition for a new bridge, and in 1894 he was arrested in front of the Cowboy Bar.

The Labor Day rodeo continued through the century. The McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West holds photographs of the 1962 Meeteetse Labor Day Rodeo in its Jack Richard Collection. At that time the town numbered around 600.

The count of editions depends on whom one asks. The 2017 celebration was billed as the 105th, 2021 as the 109th, 2022 as the 110th, and 2024 as the 112th. Discover Meeteetse’s Facebook page called the 2026 celebration the 114th, while the events calendar on the visitor center’s website listed it as the 116th. Cody Yellowstone’s calendar gives the next Labor Day rodeo a start date of September 6, 2027.