Stonyford Rodeo

The grandstands at the Brother Moore Arena fill for the Friday performance at 7 p.m., under the lights. The arena stands on East Park Road in Stonyford, a hamlet in the western Colusa County foothills at 1,184 feet, less than half a mile from the post office and the Forest Service work center for the Mendocino National Forest. The stands rest on dirt that was dug from one part of the property and piled against a concrete-block wall that outlines the arena. The town built them that way in 1985 and 1986, and they are the stands in use today.

Friday night under the lights

Friday is all Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events: bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, breakaway, barrel racing, and bull riding. JJ Harrison works the arena as barrelman and clown, and Kyle Tom announces. The Wild Card Trick Riders are the specialty act, and Native dancers perform through the weekend. Seating is general admission, first come, first served, except for VIP chairs along the top row and the box seats. Ice chests, bottles, cans, and dogs stay outside the gate. Inside, the Horsemen’s own 2026 notice promised food and “a cold one.”

The rodeo queen and her court are crowned on Friday night. The contest is open to girls 14 to 25 from the surrounding counties, and it includes an interview and a horsemanship competition at the arena. The 2026 queen was Ariel Lovering, 17, of Anderson, who hopes to go into equine sports medicine. Her court was Brooklynn Ross, 16, of Los Molinos, and Ella Bradford, 16, of Redding. The list of past queens runs back to 1978, when Beulah Vanlandingham, the association’s long-time secretary, was “Queen for a Day.” The line for 2020 reads: “No Queen. Rodeo postponed due to Pandemic.”

Pancakes, a parade, and the Wild Bunch

On Saturday the B.V.I.V. Volunteer Fire Department serves breakfast at the Stonyford Fire Hall from 7 to 10 a.m. In 2022 the Saturday plate was pancakes, biscuits and gravy, sausage, and scrambled eggs. On Sunday, French toast took the place of the pancakes. The breakfast raises money for the department’s equipment. At the 2013 rodeo, Capt. John Huttman said fire season had come early that year. “I hope not, but we’ve got a pretty good fleet if we do,” he said.

The parade steps off at 10 a.m. sharp from the Indian Valley Elementary School parking lot. It runs through town and ends at the rodeo grounds. Judged entries include floats, marching bands, drill teams, vintage cars and pickups, tractors and old farm rigs, horse-drawn buggies, mounted groups, and single riders. Public service vehicles ride along unjudged. In 2025 Smokey Bear rode Engine 336 of the Grindstone Ranger District. That year the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation took first place among the floats, and the Maxwell High School Rodeo took first among the mounted groups. The 2026 parade had the theme “Happy Birthday USA,” Jill Gleason as grand marshal, and a new contest for children’s decorated bicycles.

The Corkill Wild Bunch took first in dance and drill in 2025, as it has taken the crowd for decades. In 2013 the Colusa Sun-Herald called the Wild Bunch the highlight of the parade “since it started 30 years ago.” Brother Moore named the group, and its members come from as far as North Carolina and Florida. “They are always hilarious,” said Andrea Lee Anderson of Clearlake Oaks. “We never miss the parade, even though we come for the rodeo.” Sandy Schlager of Greeley, Colorado, who had marched with the group for 16 years, said: “It’s like a big family, only without all the drama.” Jack Barrett, a Colusa glass dealer, met the members while camping at Coyote Flats. “They told me they were pretty wild, so I told them, ‘Count me in,’” he said.

The Saturday rodeo starts at 1 p.m. and mixes PRCA and amateur events. In 2026 the Indian Valley Fire Department followed it with a $30 steak dinner. After that came a free dance on the grounds with live music by Band of Brothers.

Sunday at the open rodeo

Many families never leave the grounds. A camping area spreads under the trees behind the arena, and a site costs $40 a vehicle, first come, first served. Guns, fireworks, motorcycles, and ATVs are not allowed. In 2026 the camp-decorating prize went to a group called the Swingers. There are two more campgrounds on the shore of East Park Reservoir, one 2 miles south and one 8 miles east, past Lodoga.

On Sunday the fire hall serves breakfast again. In 2022, Pastor Daniel Reagan of the Stonyford Community Church held a Cowboy Church in the grandstands at 9 a.m. At noon the open rodeo begins, and admission falls to $5 for anyone 13 or older. Sunday events are all amateur, open to riders who hold no PRCA or WPRA card: barrel racing, bull riding, steer riding, team roping, and mutton busting. Mutton busting has run every year since 1979. In 2026 Cade Campbell won the buckle in junior steer riding, Kaydin Gleason in breakaway roping, and Sandra Corbin in barrel racing.

From the Gay Nineties to the Dick Moore Ranch

According to Joyce Bond, director and historian of the Stonyford Museum, the town took its name from a rocky creek crossing where travelers forded on large stones. The rodeo began with costume and parade. Its earliest events were amateur rodeos called Gay Nineties celebrations, held at ranches in the area starting in 1939. The Red Bluff Daily News also dates the rodeo’s start to 1939. Roy Stewart’s history of the association begins with the 1939 Gay Nineties Parade and has the rodeos beginning in 1943 at the Dick Moore Ranch. Dick Moore was the father of Lawrence “Sharky” Moore. The association’s own account says the first amateur outing proved popular, so the town decided to hold a rodeo every year and formed the Stony Creek Horsemen’s Association in 1943 to run it.

In 1945 the rodeo came under the California Cowboy Association and took on a professional tone. The move to the present grounds in Stonyford is dated 1948 in one account and 1949 in another.

Two fires and a grandstand on piled dirt

In October 1950 a fire destroyed practically every building and business in Stonyford, the rodeo grounds among them. All of the association’s records burned. In July 1960 a second fire burned every structure on the grounds except a corral or two. Stewart writes that the members nearly threw in the towel. Instead, volunteers rebuilt with donated labor: an elevated announcing stand, two grandstands, concession stands, corrals, and chutes and gates for the bucking stock and the timed events. The 1961 rodeo “shattered previous attendance marks.”

Nearly every year since then has brought another volunteer project. The first barrel race was held in 1962. Fire hydrants and drinking water for spectators were added in 1964. In 1970 Sharky Moore, president of the Horsemen for eighteen years, was honored before a record crowd. The association joined the PRCA in 1976, and the Red Bluff paper marks that as the point when Stonyford became a name event. A log announcer’s stand went up in 1978. Two log cabins were finished in 1980: a bar dedicated to the late Max Griffin and an office dedicated to Beulah Vanlandingham. The Kool Aid Corral for the Stonyford 4-H Club followed in 1983. In 1984 the wooded ground behind the animal chutes became the campground.

The largest job came in 1985 and 1986. Crews tore down the old, rotting grandstands. They dug dirt from one part of the property, piled it for a foundation, and raised the block wall to hold it. Then they spread a two-inch blanket of concrete over the fill and poured walkways and floors for the reserved seats. Stewart’s account says most of the town’s men did the heavy lifting while the women brought food to keep them fed. A new arena, press box, and pond came with the work. In 1985 Webster “Web” Rodes and his wife, Mary, also revived the rodeo parade, which had been discontinued in 1958.

In 1988 the rodeo fell on Mother’s Day, and Congressman Wally Herger presented the association with an American flag that had flown over the State Capitol. The baseball field beside the arena was named Sharky’s Field in 1989. In 1992 the arena was named for Lawrence J. Moore, called Brother, Sharky’s son and the rodeo’s long-time benefactor. Just before the 50th anniversary in 1993, volunteers replaced the wooden bucking-chute gates with metal ones in a single weekend.

The Moore line still runs through the association. Zoe Brandenberger is the daughter of Brother and Sharon Moore. She was president of the Horsemen in 2013, when she and her husband, David, served as grand marshals. In 2022 the rodeo was dedicated to Phil and Jacque Ray. Phil was a rancher who once owned the bar and restaurant in Stonyford and worked on the arena ground crew for many years. He worked his last rodeo in 2021 and died that July. Jacque rode as grand marshal in 2022. She paints the lettering on the fence signs.

For the 75th rodeo in 2018, Stewart wrote his history from scrapbooks that Joyce Bond had kept for each decade from 1939 through 1993. On parade morning in 2026, the Horsemen wished her a happy 96th birthday and asked anyone who saw her on the grounds to “show her some love.”