Boots, Bulls, and the Real West: The Etna Rodeo

Seventy-five years of rodeo in California's true north — and still the most genuine Western tradition in the state.‍

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In 1947, three teenagers in Etna, California asked the local polo players if they could put a rodeo on between matches. Jim Johnson, Jasper Landi, and Tom Webster wanted to ride rodeo events. The adults organized it. The crowd enjoyed the rodeo more than the polo. And that, more or less, is how it started — a kid's idea in a small valley town that became one of the longest-running rodeo traditions in Northern California.

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Seventy-five years and counting

Scott Valley Pleasure Park was formally incorporated in April 1948. The founding board was all local — Mathews, Browne, Gepford, Dillman, Mason, Bryan — and the mission has never changed: promote horsemanship and outdoor recreation, and give the community a place to gather. George Dillman, the Etna Town Marshal who dreamed up the park, had noticed a dozen teenage girls racing horses on Main Street and thought there ought to be somewhere proper for it. He bought twelve acres next to Etna Creek, got his friends behind the idea, and built something that has outlasted everything else he might have been remembered for.

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The rodeo now runs twice a year — May and July — and the July event is the one that draws competitors and spectators from across the West. This summer marks the 75th year of rodeo in Etna, and the 48th running of the Old Timers Rodeo in July. The name still means something here: the Old Timers Rodeo was originally created to give non-professional local cowboys a chance to compete — ranchers and working riders who knew the events from actual ranch life, not the professional circuit. That spirit is still in the arena.

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"For 77 years, Etna has been a favorite destination for rodeo contestants and fans."
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— Scott Valley Pleasure Park

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What makes it special

The Etna Rodeo is not a stadium event. Scott Valley Pleasure Park has open bench grandstands and a close-to-the-action arena where you can hear the horses breathing and the chutes clang. Kids watch from the lawn. Families gather under the trees. Generations sit in the same seats year after year. The sponsors on the arena fence are local businesses and ranching families, many of them with deep roots in the valley — Jenner Cattle Company, Five Marys, Hanna Brothers Ranch, names that have been part of Scott Valley for a very long time.

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The event lineup covers the full range: barrel racing, bull dogging, ranch bronc riding, open roping, mixed roping, breakaway, bull riding, and the Saddle Cow events that have a flavor all their own. The youth events — Mutton Bustin for the 4-to-7 crowd, Calf Riding for 8-to-12, Junior Steer Riding for teenagers — run in the afternoon before the main performance. The Packer's Scramble, with mules and horses in the arena, is a nod to the working mountain life of the valley that no professional circuit bothers to include. Live music from the PCT Band closes the evening.

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48th Annual Old Timers Rodeo · Saturday, July 26, 2026

Scott Valley Pleasure Park, Etna, California · etnarodeo.com

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9:00 a.m. · Slack — Barrels, Ribbon Roping, Breakaway, Open Roping, Mixed Roping 3:00 p.m. · Mutton Bustin (ages 4–7)

3:30 p.m. · Calf Riding (ages 8–12)

4:00 p.m. · Junior Steer Riding (ages 13–17)

4:15 p.m. · Packer's Scramble

5:00 p.m. · Main Performance — Barrels, Bull Dogging, Saddle Cow, Ribbon Roping,

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Ranch Bronc, Bull Riding, and more 8:00 p.m. · Live Music — PCT Band

A reason to spend the whole weekend

The rodeo is on Saturday, but Scott Valley rewards the visitor who arrives a day early and stays a day late. Denny Bar Company's distillery and wood-fired kitchen is three blocks from the arena. Etna Brewing Company — founded the same year as the rodeo, 1872, at the other end of the brewery's history — pours cold ales at outdoor tables looking at the Marble Mountains. Five Marys Burgerhouse in nearby Fort Jones is serving beef raised on the same land whose families sponsor the buckles at the arena. The valley fits together like it was designed to be seen in one weekend.

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The Etna Rodeo Escape — July 24–26, 2026

Mount Shasta Escapes is running a guided three-day tour to the Etna Rodeo departing July 24 from San Francisco and Sacramento. The coach heads north on Friday, settling guests into the Mount Shasta region for the first night. Saturday is the drive over Highway 3 into Scott Valley — time to explore Etna's downtown, have lunch, visit Denny Bar Company or Etna Brewing before the afternoon youth events — then the 5 p.m. main performance and live music under the summer sky. Sunday the group returns south through the mountains at a pace that lets the weekend breathe. No car, no designated driver at the distillery, no navigating an unfamiliar mountain road in the dark after a rodeo. Just the West, as it still is in Scott Valley.

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