Please share your Arcadia rodeo memorabilia for the DeSoto County Historical Society’s exhibit “The Arcadia Rodeo: A July 4th Tradition” at the Arcadia Main Street Office, 17 N. Polk Ave., from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on July 4. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Memorabilia may be brought to the Main street office between 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, July 3, or between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 4. Memorabilia may be picked up between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. on July 4, or between 9:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Monday, July 6.
The Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo actually began with a July 4th Celebration organized by the Arcadia American Legion K-Post 11 on July 4, 1929. The exhibition and demonstration of the everyday skills and techniques used by our local cattlemen was such a success, that K-Post 11 started the first Arcadia Rodeo held on November 11-12, 1929. And the rest of the story, as they say, is history.

The July 11, 1929, “Arcadian” reported that “The program of sports during the day was an interesting and varied lot. The amount and quality of new talent in the numerous events came as a surprise to those in charge, and out of this has come a proposition to put on a real rodeo
exhibition here some time later in the year, probably next fall.”

The July 4th Rodeo continued as as an Arcadia tradition until 2012.