1976 and watch the entire film. assignment washington sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on reel america. >> what is your vision in 2020? student cam 2020 is asking students what issue do you most want to see the president rble candidates address during the campaign? student cam is crmp span's nationwide video documentary competition for middle and high school students with $100,000 in total cash prizes at stake, including a $5,000 grand prize. students are asked to produce a short video documentary, include c-span video and reflect differing points of view. information to help you get started is on our website, studentcam .org. >> this weekend american history tv is joining our spectrum cable partners to showcase the history of sheridan, wyoming. to watch more video from the

cities on our current tour, visit c-span .org/citiestour. we continue now with a look at the history of sheridan. the national finals of the rodeo. [applause] >> ♪ >> there's no place better to be the second week of july than sheridan, wyoming. we put on a world-class event and we invite you to heridan. >> ♪ o say can you see by the dawn's early light hat so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ >> i tell you what. this week is the biggest week in

sheridan, economically and entertainment-wise. we feel good about that because 89 years ago, sheridan was dead as a doornail. there was absolutely nothing going on. some citizens decided we needed to have a rodeo to provide some economic opportunity and entertainment. that was the charter and it still is. so here we are 89 years later, we are still doing the same thing. we hope the founding fathers ould be proud of that. 1928 and 1929, a wealthy finance -- by j.p. ught morgan bought the ranch outside of town. for two years, they had a big rodeo out in the field. it was such a big deal. i think there were cars from 23 states. this was in 1928. people in sheridan said if they can do it, why can't we do it here? a group of concerned citizens got together and formed a committee. they decided we will have a rodeo.

it didn't start out on a small scale. big wanted to have a professional rodeo from the get-go. they put it all together. in 1931, they had their first professional rodeo in sheridan, wyoming. here we are today. a rodeo is eight different stock events from bucking horses, livestock roping, steer wrestling. the old cowboy skills brought to the modern-day era. it all started out somewhere in some ranch, they had some contests in bucking horses. >> we are one of the top 30 rodeos in america and that is determined by the amount of prize money you have. our rodeo competitors come from all over the united states. it was interesting. we had people from louisiana, michigan, wisconsin. a lot of the rodeo contestants are from texas, oklahoma, wyoming has a lot of rodeo contestants. last year in terms of our rodeo,

we had people registered for our rodeo to watch our rodeo from 49 of the 50 states in america. we will get delaware this year, i'm just pretty sure. we had people from all over the u.s. here, 49 of 50. our rodeo stock come from a rodeo in montana and they subcontract some of the other stock too. they have been with our rodeo for about 23 years. some of the best in the business. >> our job, we provide all the livestock for rodeos across the country. that includes anything from the cattle to the bucking horses to the bull. we have 64 horses we brought. we lease 15 horses out of canada. for the tie-down roping, we have 100 head of animals for the steer wrestling and team roping, we have 100 head of

those animals as well. >> the animals that are involved in the rodeo, that is what they are born to do. these are not animals that are trained to do that, it is what they are born to do. if you think about it, they spend most of the lives in a pasture, eating hay. they actually work eight seconds a day, 20 times a year. that's their job. very truthfully, the prca and us, we put animal welfare first and foremost. we really believe in the welfare of the animals and we take the best care of them that we can. >> these guys are bred to be animal athletes. it is not like a dairy cow, a beef animal. they are bred totally different. they are bred to be an athlete, no different from horses. they are bred to be athletes. it is a totally different deal. their nutrition is totally different. their care is totally different. i would tell people if you go on a really good bucking bull, it is like winning the bovine lottery.

you get fed the best, cared for the best, everything from acupuncture to electric post therapy, whatever they need we will give them an nutrition wise is for what they are bred to do. they're going to do there. -- their career. and not want for anything. at the end of it, they raise some cows and maybe die of old age underneath a tree out in the pastture. >> one thing different about the sheridan rodeo is we like to keep a smalltime feel to it. we don't want it to become some big economic thing. we wanted to be a community event. we don't want to get too big for our britches, if you know what i ean. another thing that makes us unique is our world championship relay races. we started here in 1997.

it has become a premier event of the rodeo. it is not a prca event. we start off the rodeo with it. you would be able to see just how exciting it is. and it brings a lot of people here that may not be that interested in the rest of the rodeo events. they come to see the indian relay. we have a great partnership with the indian relay team. we've had indian relationships since the very first rodeo. they decided in 1931 that they wanted to have the indians. they just did. in those days, the indians would walk down from the cheyenne reservation to be part of the show. in those days -- this was before television, before anything else - they would have huge night shows, things called cowboy days

and indian nights where they staged these big pageants. campfires and bonfires because they didn't have lights necessarily then. it's always been an integral part of it. that has ebbed and flowed over the years. we've really brought it back. with the indian relay races, it has become a thing of beauty. >> it is the first event. everybody wants to get in their seats early and find a great spot to watch. if you have never seen indian relay racing, it is pretty spectacular. and i think that is the event that most of the people talk bout at our rodeo. >> there have been many challenges. shortly after the first rodeo, not many more years later, it became financially challenged. making it go. making a profit so we can carry on the next year. that has been a continuous problem throughout the years. they did not have the rodeo for two years during the war, 1942 and 1943. then in 1944, they started up

again, but in a modest manner. it was not professional like it was before. it got to the point in 1951 when the rodeo said to the community, ok, do you folks want to have a rodeo or not? they took a poll. they said yes, we want to have a rodeo so we were alive again and had more of a community support. over the decades, community upport from sponsors and businessmen and some of the public has ebbed and flowed. since the 1990's, it has flowed. >> typically, we end up around 22,000 over a four-day event. our facility seats about 6,000. we will be sold out for sure on friday and saturday. wednesday and thursday are down a little, but we're hoping to have between 20,000 and 22,000 during the course of the week.

that is actually attending the rodeo. not to mention the other events that go on in town, how many people will attend those. >> we are pretty sure the sheridan rodeo brings about $5 million to the community in one way or another. motels, hotels, restaurants, bars, businesses. the economic impact is pretty good. the dollars get turned over several times. it is the biggest economic event in sheridan, wyoming. that's for sure. >> it was started by citizens. it has been carried on by citizens. there was a lot of trials and tribulations but it held true to the tradition of the west and our western culture. it has become an integral part of the community and nobody can imagine sheridan, wyoming ithout the sheridan rodeo. in 150 years saying the same

thing, that is totally fine. our staff recently traveled to sheridan, wyoming, to learn about its rich history. to watch more individual free throw sheridan and other stops our tour, visit c-span.org/spezztour. you're watching "american history tv," all weekend, every weekend, on espn23. >> this year more than 5,000 students competed in national history day at the local level. just 3,000 students advance to the finals at university of maryland in june. the 2019 theme was tritry dump tragedy. the categories included exhibits, web sites, documentary, paper, and performance. up next, a 10-minute performance by three middle school students from mills river, north carolina.