St. Paul, Ore. – One of the most iconic events in Oregon kicks off Tuesday, turning the tiny town of St. Paul into an international destination, “We’re just a little town of 400-425 people in a farming community,” says St. Paul Rodeo Arena Director Todd Koch, “And we become a town of about 10,000 here, starting on the first of July and all the way through the fifth.” And, he says, the entire community gets involved, “It’s almost 360 days of preparation for five days during Fourth of July week.” He adds, “It’s just almost overwhelming, but we’ve been doing it here for 89 years, so I think we can handle it.”
Prime time events are at 7:30 each evening, plus a 1:30 matinee on July Fourth. Koch says, “We have like 750 contestants that’ll be competing.” Those competitors come from all over, “We’ll have contestants all the way from Australia, Brazil,” And of course, from across the US, “We’re a top 20 rodeo in the nation. So, all the PRCA contestants trying to compete to get to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo they almost have to come to our rodeo to try to win a paycheck.” That paycheck can be big; Koch says they have around half a million dollars to hand out this year. Another $450,000 will go to scholarships and other charitable causes…