Plateau Valley Heritage Days

At four in the afternoon on the third and fourth of July, cowboys drive the saddle bronc and bareback horses of the rodeo string down Collbran’s Main Street toward the rodeo grounds on the north end of town. Melonie Matarozzo, the town administrator, put the herd at twenty when she spoke to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel before the 2023 celebration. “It is very cool to see 20 horses running down Main Street,” she said. The organizers call the Running of the Horses the kick-off for Plateau Valley Heritage Days, and it comes twice, once before each night of rodeo.

The celebration fills three days around the Fourth. The Town of Collbran listed the 2026 edition from 8 a.m. on July 2 through 11:45 p.m. on July 4. Most of it happens in three places. One is Main Street. Another is the Collbran Rodeo Grounds and Arena, reached by following Rodeo Road around to the north end of town. The third is Terrell Park on the east side. Collbran is a statutory town of 369 people at the 2020 census, in Mesa County, set along Plateau Creek at the upper, eastern end of the small cattle-ranching valley that takes its name from the creek. Matarozzo said the temperatures there are usually ten degrees cooler than down valley. “That’s always nice.”

The arena on Rodeo Road

The first day belongs to the Locals Only Calcutta, a set of games on horseback at the arena. In 2023 the Sentinel gave its start as 4 p.m. A 2024 listing from the radio station KEKB put it at 6 p.m. and added sorting to the games.

On the next two evenings, a Colorado Pro Rodeo Association rodeo starts at 7. The first night is Tough Enough To Wear Pink night, when added money goes to any competitor wearing pink. “It’s a fundraiser for our local cancer fund,” Matarozzo said. The 2026 rodeo also carried a ranch bronc event with $1,000 added and five slots each night. The organizer’s site advertises a meet-and-greet with the Clydesdales of Shades of Blue Ranch. Children six and under can sign up for mutton busting at the secretary’s office.

When the first night’s rodeo lets out, Main Street is blocked off for a street dance at 9 p.m. “We have two flat-bed trailers set up for a stage and put the band up there and we go until 11 o’clock,” Matarozzo said. The Lost Junction Band played in 2023. In 2026 the committee’s thanks went to the Hugh Phillips band and High Desert Sky, and to Sammi White and Casey for the flatbed.

The Fourth on Main Street

“There’s no sleeping in on the Fourth of July,” the Sentinel wrote. A pancake breakfast runs from 7 to 10 a.m. The 2026 listing calls it the 4-H pancake breakfast, and KEKB’s 2024 schedule called it the Fireman’s Pancake Breakfast. Cowboy church followed at 8 that year.

The parade steps off at 10. “It’s a good hour long,” Matarozzo said. It carries the rodeo royalty, many locals on horseback, and tractors. Community groups build floats for it. The winners of the Collbran Cutie Calf Contest ride in it, along with older muscle cars and antique automobiles.

Afterward many families walk to Terrell Park for a Kids Party. It has a Bump ‘n’ Jump, a water slide, games, and horse-and-cart and horse-and-wagon rides. Those who stay on Main Street find the American Legion Post 86 fish fry, which started at 11 a.m. in 2024. The Plateau Valley Historical Preservation Society gives presentations in the Collbran Auditorium and the old meat locker. Uncover Colorado also lists a kids’ carnival, Main Street games, merchant and food vendors, and a horseshoe tournament.

At 1 p.m. the junior roughstock begins at the arena. The younger children ride sheep and calves, and the older ones ride steers and young bulls. Then the horses run down Main Street a second time, the last CPRA performance goes at 7, and fireworks close the night.

A committee and its volunteers

The Plateau Valley Heritage Days Rodeo Committee, a nonprofit, describes itself as “proudly carrying on America’s western heritage through the sport of rodeo.” On July 8, 2026, it posted its accounting of the holiday: “Another 4th of July in the books!” The writer had worked the weekend on a broken ankle and thanked Wendy Nichols: “thank you for being my legs!” Missy Wallace was named “the backbone of everything.” Jenni Adams and Brandi Wiltse ran the Main Street events.

The contract staff were Jake Jacobson, Tonka Baj, and Houston Stuart. Of Stuart the post said he “kept the crowd more than entertained -the deputy may never see his vehicle the same again.” Cauy Etcheverry served as chute boss. Rebecca Lynn Schowalter cooked: “I truly don’t know how you manage to feed everyone so well!” A woman named Monica closed her own business to work the concession stand. Of the volunteers, the post said, “You were few, but indispensable!”

Harrison Creek, 1922

Collbran’s post office opened on January 9, 1892, and the town was incorporated on July 22, 1908. According to the organizers, the first rodeo in the Plateau Valley was held at Harrison Creek on July 4, 1922. They say the present rodeo grounds have been in use since the 1920s and host local rodeos through the summer as well as the Heritage Days rodeo.

The Sentinel dates the celebration in town to the 1920s, and its 2023 headline called it “more than a century old.” Uncover Colorado also counts it at more than 100 years. In the Sentinel’s account, the holiday gives the valley a breather from summer work, a chance to see the neighbors and welcome people from out of town. “We hit every event, honestly,” Matarozzo said. “It brings our community together.”

The organizer’s homepage names Bill and Naomi Morse as grand marshals. Below their names runs a strip of old photographs under a single caption: “Collbran Rodeo July 4, 1922. First rodeo in Plateau Valley at Harrison Creek.”