Willits Frontier Days

The rodeo grounds lie on East Commercial Street in Willits, across from the Mendocino County Museum and Roots of Motive Power and just past Recreation Grove Park. The arena is named for Jack Tharp. In September 2026 Northern Aggregates hauled 13 loads of sand into it, and Fred Barry worked the dirt with a grader lent by Sparetime Supply Distribution. The ground was being readied for the 15th annual Ranch Rodeo, set for October 10, 2026, with gates opening at 10 a.m.

That day’s program lists ranch rodeo teams, bronc and bull riding, breakaway roping, a barbecue cook-off, open branding, dummy roping, and cornhole. Vendors announced for the day include Rust By Silvie, with vintage jewelry, buckles and clothing. Rebel Out West Co. runs a patch bar for custom trucker hats and bags. S & J Designs sells western purses and handmade candles, Spicy Mare Vintage sells collectibles and western decor, and Isabel’s Creations makes handmade clothing for dogs.

The Ranch Rodeo closes the year for the Willits Frontier Days Association. This nonprofit bills its summer celebration as California’s longest continuously running rodeo. Between seasons the grounds hold a junior barrel and pole series. In 2026 Stella Aleman won the first division in barrels on Ice Baby and in poles on Shasta. Team roping ended early that year. On September 3, 2026, the association posted that the stock contractor had canceled the last roping: “SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR.”

The hundredth summer

The association called 2026 “the 100th Annual Celebration & The Year of the Sweetheart.” The program ran more than five weeks. It opened on June 19 with the Hometown Celebration in the downtown blocks of Main Street. Shops stayed open from 5 to 9 p.m. with specials, and businesses set up booths in the parking lots. Service clubs ran games and raffles for children, and local restaurants served food that could be eaten while walking. Ned LeDoux played the arena the next evening.

On June 26 the truck and tractor pulls ran in the arena. Afterward the Brody Stewart Band played a free street dance at the tennis courts, and a carnival opened at the old ball field. A Western art show ran at the Willits Community Center from June 27 through July 5. The Sweetheart Dinner was served at the rodeo grounds on June 28, and its tickets were limited. A Whiskerina contest ran from May to July.

The holiday itself filled three days. On July 3 the first night of professional rodeo was followed by a Western dance at the tennis courts with Chad Bushnell. On July 4 a horseshoe competition began at Recreation Grove at 10 a.m., and the parade followed at 11. At noon came the Country Music Rodeola and a Western barbecue, also at Recreation Grove. The Visit Willits page says the beef barbecue serves 5,000. Water fights were held at the firehouse at 4 p.m., and the second rodeo began at 7. On July 5 the Lions Club served a cowboy breakfast at 7 a.m. The Junior Rodeo began at 8, and Bulls and Broncs filled the arena at 6 that evening.

The 2026 horse show was held on July 26. Its high-point winners were Danielle Barry, over 18; Kaydence Lopez, 13 to 18; and Carolyn Pinon, 12 and under. Madison Lawrence won the ranch horse class.

Main Street on the Fourth

The parade runs along Main Street between Commercial Street and East Valley Street. That stretch is ordinarily Highway 101, and the 2011 program says the parade closes the highway for several hours. People from across the county line the sidewalks of the old downtown. According to the association, many stake out the shady spots in the early morning. The procession includes horses, dancers, floats, balloons, gunfighters, bands, flags and tractors, “and usually a surprise or two.”

Some entries return every year. The Sweetheart contestants ride, along with the year’s Grand Marshal and Heritage Award winners. Roots of Motive Power brings antique logging equipment, and the Willits Horsemen’s Association rides. The Willits Police Department, the Little Lake and Brooktrails fire departments, and Cal Fire come through “with sirens and lights blazing, of course.” The association says some families have ridden since their members were “little buckaroos,” and it names the Standleys and the Persicos. The 2011 program describes people who rode in the parade as children and now ride as grandparents.

An announcer’s stand stands at the corner of East Mendocino Avenue and Main Street and introduces each entry. The winner of the National Anthem contest sings from it to open the parade. The theme in 2026 was “Year of the Sweethearts.” In 2011 it was “Preserving Our Heritage.”

Eight events and an engraved buckle

The two evening rodeos are sanctioned by the California Cowboys Pro Rodeo Association, a circuit of professional contestants who work rodeos across the state. The 2026 schedule listed them as the Rockin’ M Rodeo. Contestants enter eight events: bareback, saddle bronc, team roping, calf roping, steer wrestling, breakaway roping, barrel racing and bull riding. The cowgirl and cowboy with the highest combined points take the All-Around title. The association’s rodeo page says the prize is an engraved buckle from Outlaw Saddlery, “a wad of cold hard cash and bragging rights for the duration of the year.”

The same page credits the bulls, broncs and steers to Lou Bugenig of West Coast Rodeos in Humboldt County. Ropers from Lake, Mendocino and Humboldt counties can also enter a local team roping, and the top Header and Heeler win trophy buckles. The 2011 program notes that the state association began requiring a veterinarian on site in 1996. It says Willits had already been bringing a local large-animal veterinarian to its performances for years before that.

A rodeo for a hospital

The celebration began with a plan to build a hospital. In 1926 the Willits Development Association proposed a community event to pay for the hospital the town needed. Dr. Raymond Babcock, Frank Taft, Judge E. M. Whitney, Judge Fred Foord, Deed Wimmer and others worked with the American Legion Post on the plan. The first Willits Frontier Days Rodeo was held in July 1927.

According to the association’s account, at about the same time young Frank R. Howard was fatally injured in an automobile accident at Ridgewood Ranch. He was the son of Charles S. Howard, the ranch’s owner and the owner of Seabiscuit. Dr. Babcock had been the boy’s doctor, and he approached the father about building a hospital in Willits in his son’s memory. Charles Howard agreed, and he built the Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital soon afterward. The rodeo was no longer needed to fund a hospital, but the Legion held it anyway.

The association says the event was an instant success. The Legion ran it until 1932, when the Willits Volunteer Fire Department took it over. The firemen borrowed money to improve the grounds, and individual volunteers signed the promissory notes. In 1950 a group of local businessmen and ranchers incorporated the Willits Frontier Days Association. The association counts its run as unbroken since 1926. That is the year it counts as its first, although its own account dates the first rodeo to 1927. Under that count the 2011 celebration was the 85th.

The association says no person or organization takes a financial reward from the event. Residents and clubs stage the events and decide together how to spend each show’s profits. In 2026 the association was raising money to replace its aging grandstands. It was also funding a scholarship for a student entering the medical field, named for Tracy LeGris, a longtime supporter who died in January 2025. Frank Howard Memorial Hospital appears among the sponsors listed in the 2011 program.

Chutes from Petaluma, pipe from a bottling works

The arena’s name comes from a rebuilding. In a 2011 tribute, former president Lee Persico recalled bringing Jack Tharp into the organization. In those years the volunteers built the wooden chutes, arena and grandstand themselves every year. Then the City of Willits contracted with a race promoter for a dirt track for hardtop car racing. The wooden chutes, corrals and arena were torn out, and dirt was hauled in for steep banked turns. That left the rodeo committee with no arena before the Fourth.

Tharp arranged the loan of a portable arena from the fairground in Petaluma. He found donated trucks and drivers to haul it north and return it after the holiday. The committee had money enough for eight bucking chutes and a roping chute. For the rest, its members cut several thousand feet of iron pipe out of a defunct local bottling company. They hauled the pipe to the grounds and made it into panels and holding pens. Everything was built to be portable so it could be moved for the racing season. After a couple of years the racing association found the track unprofitable and quit. Tharp then found a donated loader to clear the dirt and a grader to rebuild the arena.

Tharp sat on the board for many years and served as president. He was married on the evening of July 4, 1985. Persico recalled that when someone asked whether a job could be done, Tharp’s answer was “not to worry.”

Other people have stayed with the event for decades. The Heritage Award has gone each year since 1977, when Leandro “Dink” Persico received it. In 2011 it went to John and Bobbie Tilley. Bobbie Tilley had kept the books for the Junior Rodeo since its first running, forty years before. “She’s the steam behind the engine,” Lee Persico said. Her husband John rode the arena during the timed events and, in the program’s words, sometimes herded “a chicken or two” in the Mystery Scramble. In 2026 Bobbie Tilley was still the contact for the locals’ team roping.

Marcy Barry was president in 2011. She wrote that she had started in 1992, serving beverages with Richard Huddle and her father, Cecil Dalton, and later pulled weeds and planted flowers on the grounds. Her name heads the association’s list of past presidents, and in 2026 she was the contact for the Junior Rodeo.

The association’s records include a book, Willits Frontier Days 1926–1976. On its website the association asks visitors to “Help us fill in the next 50 years.”