Amidst thousands of attendees, the smell of barbeque and the sound of hooves on the ground, Jacob Welker, a bullfighter, stood in the Abbyville arena with a bright red shirt and face paint, ready to help mutton busters remain safe during the annual competition.
Mutton busting kicked off the 60th Abbyville Frontier Days PRCA, or Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, Rodeo, with hundreds of contestants and multiple days of entertainment.
Welker lives five miles north of Abbyville, where he grew up. His family still lives on their homestead. He and his family visit the Abbyville Rodeo every year to help with the events.
“It’s a small town, there are only about 100 people, but for two days, that 100 people grows into 1,000 people,” Welker said.
In 1962, Floyd Rumford and a few other Abbyville residents created the Abbyville Rodeo, where the community celebrated the end of the school year before the local school closed in 1975. Since then, the residents have continued the rodeo to bring the community together. The three-day event continues to draw those who grew up in the town back home. 
Welker remembered attending the rodeo as a child, helping at the ticket or concession stand, and sitting in the arena’s announcement booth.
“I’ve grown up around this rodeo, and I told my dad, I’m going to be a bullfighter,” he said. “This gave me my first pro rodeo, and in 2018 when I got my PRCA permit, I was able to fulfill that childhood dream.”
Jimmy Lawson, a Hutchinson resident, grew up in Pretty Prairie and visited the rodeo each year throughout his childhood. This year, he brought his family and his son, River Lawson, 6, competed in the mutton busting competition.
Last year, River received a top three spot at the Abbyville Rodeo and went on to compete at the Kansas State Fair mutton busting competition. This year, he earned second place at Abbyville, and will return to the Kansas State Fair to compete again.
“It was fun, I was kind of nervous but I rode well, and it was a good sheep,” River said.
Melynn Cannon, her son and daughter-in-law, help at the rodeo at the concession stand every year, which Cannon said she has attended since it began.
“I love it, it’s rewarding and I get to see tons of people,” Cannon said. “We know that when we put a rodeo on in Abbyville, they will go home having had lots of fun.”
Cannon said that past and current residents of Abbyville help or work at the rodeo, allowing the community to reconnect.
At the concession stand, Cannon, her family and other staff sell more than 1,000 slices of pie made by community volunteers to raise money for multiple scholarships for students in the community.
At the mutton busting competition and throughout the rodeo, Miss Rodeo America, Hailey Fredrickson and nine Miss Rodeo 2022 winners from Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, Arkansas, Iowa and Florida helped with the activities.
On Friday evening, half of the PRCA Prairie Circuit contestants came from all throughout the country and earned points toward their careers.
Susie Bergkamp, the director of the Abbyville Rodeo, grew up with the rodeo, helping out with the various stations throughout her childhood and eventually helping to organize it today.
Bergkamp said she hopes to teach her children and the next generation of Abbyville residents how to organize the large rodeo, hoping to continue the 60-year tradition.
“We want to keep it going,” Bergkamp said. “We’re up there in years, and so we want to get these younger kids involved and keeping this going.”
As reported in The Hutchinson News
