The Sandhills summer air is sticky on a late July evening as the sun sinks behind the grandstands at Nebraska’s Big Rodeo in Burwell.

Bull riders from across Nebraska and as far away as California settle onto 2,000-pound beasts, cinch the rope tight on their riding hand and dig in their heels. Free hands lunge skyward, and prayers are whispered as bucking chutes fly open. They’ve come to the Outdoor Rodeo Capital of Nebraska for points, prize money and eight-second rides to be remembered for lifetimes. 

Some riders land on their feet and triumphantly fling their hats into the stands. Others are unceremoniously ejected from the slobbering bovines. The cowboys appreciate the enthusiastic applause from the crowd, but it is little consolation for rides that end with contestants laying in what they hoped would be paydirt.

Community members don’t just fill the grandstands. Descendants of the event’s original founders paint buildings, muck out barns, mow the grounds, take tickets and judge events. Others compete or man the ambulance. They’ve been doing it that way in Burwell for the last 100 years, creating a small-town entertainment experience known in rodeo circles as Nebraska’s Big Rodeo.

The event is not a novelty. This is Nebraska ranch country.

The Burwell High School sports teams’ mascot is a longhorn bull. The local Dry Creek Western Wear store sells clothing for cowboys and people who want to look like one. When area ranchers walk into filling stations, veterinary clinics or the hardware store wearing sweat-stained Stetson hats, weathered boots and worn spurs, none of it is for show.

Ten more inches of rain fall in the eastern Sandhills near Burwell than on Western Nebraska ranches. Ogallala Aquifer springs fill wet meadows, creeks and the Calamus and Middle Loup rivers. The life-giving moisture fuels the growth of a lush grass-fed haven for cattle – mostly Herefords and black and red Angus.

Burwell is a farm town, too, with pivot circles of corn and alfalfa thriving where the sand meets fertile soil. Ranch family cowboys and hired hands drive fat heifers home to bulk up to sale weight before being sold. Burwell Livestock Market has drawn buyers and sellers to Garfield County since 1935. The market’s year-round Friday sales cease only at Christmas and during rodeo week.

Burwell area ranchers supplied livestock for saddle bronc riding, roping and horse races for the celebration that began in 1921 as the Garfield County Fair and Rodeo. Rancher Clarence Bolli saddled the first bronc. Farmer/rancher Mel Gideon rode it out of the chute.

A century after Gideon’s inaugural ride, his granddaughter, Jean Klanecky, saddles herself with running the rodeo office. She inherited the job from her mother, Erma Hoover, in 1995. Klanecky’s granddaughters, Grace and Gentry Racek – the fifth generation of her family to work at the rodeo – answer visitor questions and point the way to restrooms, concession stands and 4-H exhibits.

The volunteer crew of 400 area residents tends to sellout crowds of 10,000 fans, workers, contestants and vendors. Klanecky spends most of the rodeo selling programs and souvenirs, sometimes sneaking out to catch a little bull riding action, walk through the stands to make sure that everyone is smiling or to grab a snack from one of the church-run concession trailers.

The aromas of popcorn, barbecue and funnel cakes mix with that of Sandhills hay and adrenaline as loudspeakers announce that the grand entry parade is about to begin. Sponsors ride in on their horses. Then trotting in are the Burwell High School Rodeo Team and rodeo queens from other counties. A sputtering Model T Ford and a stagecoach roll by before things get serious – chatter halts and seed corn caps and cowboy hats come off when Miss Burwell Rodeo rides in with the U.S. Flag. A Burwell high schooler belts out the national anthem.

Dust billows into golden sunset rays as pickups pulling gooseneck trailers speed into the arena for the Wild Horse Race. A shotgun blast shatters the cooling air. Trailer doors swing open in a cacophony of clanging steel and hollering that would startle even the most seasoned Sandhills cattle dog. Twelve three-man teams dodge flailing razor-sharp hooves as equines burst out. Craig Klug is his team’s mugger.

He grabs onto one horse’s headstall, using all his weight to keep it from rearing up. The nervous animal rears anyway, its huge head and muscular neck easily lifting Klug’s 270 pounds. The anchor tries to keep from getting run over while pulling the rope tight so the rider can saddle the animal. The first team to mount a rider and cross the finish line is the winner.

The wide-eyed horses thrash and bite, sometimes flipping over in the mayhem. One year, a horse jumped into the north grandstand. Quick-thinking cowboys roped and pulled it back into the arena. Nobody was injured. The same cannot be said of Klug.

Taking a horse hoof to the chin once split his bottom lip. Even the kick that turned his right leg black and left him in perpetual pain can’t keep the local truck driver from competing in the event. His team has finished second at Burwell six times. To say the race is in his blood is a given considering how often he’s been bloodied in the chaotic competition. Going up against wild horses is a bigger adrenaline rush for Klug than riding unbreakable bulls.

The eastern Sandhills were not an untamed frontier in the early 1920s. That didn’t stop a band of Sioux Indians from attacking the celebration in 1923.

Withing sight of the grandstand, farmer George Evans and his oxen were surrounded by 30 fierce braves wearing war paint and eagle feather headdresses. The crowd reacted with horror seeing one of the savages approach with a dull blade, kneel down and grab a fistful of the man’s hair.

The attack was staged, of course, part of the show. With Evans playing a starring role, he was seemingly scalped each day. The farmer from nearby Loup County was no worse for wear since he was wearing a wig. Still, there was bloodshed.

On the last day of the rodeo, Old Chief Scout – who learned how to entertain while touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West – ordered his braves to kill one of the oxen.

“For the benefit of those in the stand that could not follow the act through to the finish, we would say that we have it on pretty good authority that ‘they ate ’em all,’ ”
The Burwell Tribune reported.

The Natives camped at the northwest corner of the rodeo grounds each summer into the late 1960s. Visitors joined in their tribal dances. After a hiatus of more than half a century, the old ways become new as Native American dancers will perform again at Nebraska’s Big Rodeo.

Four days of horsemanship contests, livestock shows, beer gardens and live music lead up to championship rides on Saturday night. Steer wrestlers, saddle bronc and bareback riders, ropers and other competitors from 33 states are here for a shot at Nebraska rodeo glory – only the best will compete tonight under the lights.

Champion barrel racer Jamie Chaffin has been in the rodeo spotlight since she was younger than she can remember. A picture showing her chasing the cloverleaf pattern at age 2 proves it. Mastering those close, tight turns that were once so close that a barrel lacerated her knee, led to her being named the Great Plains Region All-Around Cowgirl in 1999 and 2000.

She studied animal science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Becoming a chiropractor instead comes in handy at her hometown clinic and while making quick work of dislocated shoulders at the rodeo grounds, but she is there to race. And win. The competition is stiff: the top 30 barrel racers in the world saddle up at Burwell. Random drawings ensure that even local riders could face off against the best professionals in the main event.

Chaffin stops brushing her horse, Bernadette, to survey the arena. The ground is worked up, not too hard, not deep. “Looks like a fast track,” she said. “I’ve always been pretty proud that my hometown rodeo attracts the world’s best cowboys and cowgirls and that it hasn’t changed much over the last 100 years.”

Jim Svoboda has photographed most of those rodeos. He started shooting at Burwell in 1950 at the age of 16, competing in bareback, steer wrestling and bull riding before dusting himself off and photographing the rest of the rodeo events.

The Ord resident documented the thrills and spills at Nebraska’s Big Rodeo for 70 years until retiring in 2020, with his wife, Marilyn, by his side for 62 of those rodeos. He also photographed every National Finals Rodeo bronc and bull sale, 50 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit finals and 25 National Little Britches Rodeo Association Finals events.

Along the way he accumulated 3 million images, 1,000 pounds of film negatives and an award for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Photo of the Year. His secret to getting the most exciting shots: “Find the best place to get runover and then stand somewhere else,” Svoboda said. Half a century ago he co-wrote a book chronicling the first 50 years of the Burwell Rodeo.

“This rodeo is special because of the genuine cowboy culture of Burwell and the Sandhills. Caring people working family cattle herds with horses – the very beginnings of rodeo – continues on local ranches yet today,” Svoboda said.

Winning rides last only eight seconds. Each summer in Burwell, Nebraska’s Big Rodeo kicks, bucks and stampedes with memories that will last a lifetime, and then some.