Rodeo event draws hundreds over two nights
Crowds packed the stands both nights at the Lost in the Mountains Bulls and Barrels Rodeo over the weekend, the first local rodeo in decades.
Despite the threat of rain both nights, the weather stayed dry and event producer Chase Lancaster of Graham County estimated attendance at about 1,500 over the two nights. Lancaster has been involved with rodeos for around 15 years, but the weekend event was the first that he produced under his new company, Lancaster Rodeo Productions. He partnered with rodeo professionals from around the country to bring bull riding back to Graham County.
Lancaster said he hopes to bring more rodeo events to Graham County. He has already started plans for a bigger rodeo with more events in Stecoah in the fall, with another rodeo in Robbinsville sometime after that.
The two-night event was held behind the Graham County Solid Waste facility off Snowbird Road.
Lancaster spent the two weeks prior to the event prepping the site, bush-hogging brush and installing a rodeo corral, spectator stands, holding pens, and sound and lighting systems.
Crowds quickly overflowed four large spectator stands and included enough people with lawn chairs to make a respectable audience all by themselves.
Eleven bulls were trucked in by Wesley Buckner, a professional bull rider out of Alexander, N.C., and participants came from throughout North Carolina, including Robbinsville, with some event participants coming in as far as Mississippi.
The main events included bull riding and barrel racing.
Riders included professionals, but it was Zachary Crisp – a first-timer from Robbinsville, who had never even ridden a horse before – who won the best time Saturday, staying on a bucking bull for five seconds.
Other bull riders included Kiara Swartz, 15, and Malachi Burchfield, 13, both of Robbinsville.
Lucas Maynard, a 16-year-old from Stony Point (outside of Statesville), was a rodeo clown-in-training and helped warm up the audience before the Saturday event.
Bill Hankins, a professional rodeo announcer out of Calhoun City, Miss., was the event announcer. The number of people running the event numbered in the dozens and included judges, rodeo clowns, wranglers and various other helpers.
There were six bull riders Friday night and 18 on Saturday night, Lancaster said, including some from Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
Falling on the the weekend of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the event Saturday was steeped in patriotism and a thank you to emergency service providers. Public safety workers who were in uniform did not have to pay admission.
Lancaster could not have been happier with how the weekend turned out.
“How do you like the turnout?” he asked a reporter from The Graham Star. The reporter asked Lancaster how he liked the turnout.
“I’m smiling,” he said.
Lancaster had planned to ride a bull himself over the weekend, but was nursing a leg injury.