Helldorado Days (Las Vegas)

Helldorado Days is an annual festival in Las Vegas, Nevada[1][2] that hosts a rodeo, parade, and carnival that began in 1934. The rodeo is a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) event.[1] The event is organized and conducted by the Las Vegas chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks as a fund raiser for local charities.[3]

This is for the festival in Las Vegas. See Helldorado Days (Tombstone) for the festival in Arizona.

History

Begun in 1934 by Clyde Zerby,[4] the event was held annually until 1998 when it was suspended. It was resumed in 2005 for the City of Las Vegas' centennial celebration.[5] The festival was originally created to draw people into Las Vegas as the workers who had been building Hoover Dam began leaving because the dam was nearing completion.[6]

Events like the parade and rodeo were not parts of the original festival but were added in later years. The first parade was in 1935,[7] and the naming of a Helldorado Queen began in 1936,[8] with the first rodeo arriving in 1944.[9]

References
  1. "About Helldorado Days". Elks Helldorado Days. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  2. "Las Vegas Helldorado Days". KNPR. 2009-05-14. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  3. "Elks Clubs Helldorado Shootout golf tournament". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  4. White, Ken (2005-05-09). "Raising Helldorado". Las Vegas Review-Journal . Retrieved May 14, 2009.
  5. Koch, Ed (2005-01-08). "A history of change". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  6. Abowitz, Richard (2008-05-19). "The Movable Buffet: Dispatches from Las Vegas by Richard Abowitz". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  7. "Annual Helldorado Parade In Downtown Las Vegas on Saturday May 17 7 PM". Uncle Jack’s Very Vintage Vegas. 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  8. "Downtown Las Vegas - 1930's". earlyvegas.com. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  9. Pope, Jeff (2009-05-14). "Helldorado Days brings out the Old West in downtown". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.