PrintAmerican Royal
The infamous Kansas City Stockyards, once the world’s largest gathering point of cattle, hogs, sheep, horses, and mules, has quickly become a faded memory for many who visit or live in this sparkling, energetic metropolitan area of 2 million people. Pharmaceutical companies, telecommunication firms, investments brokerages, and major corporations such as Hallmark Cards and H&R Block have replaced agricultural interests as major economic forces, but livestock is at the heart of what built Kansas City, Missouri.
Even though the last hooves clattered out of the chutes here in the 1990s, at its peak the West Bottoms area hosted 2.6 million cattle a year, 2.7 million hogs, 1.1 million sheep, and nearly 43,000 horses and mules. Yet the legacy of the Kansas City Stockyards is the American Royal, a nonprofit organization that has grown to encompass one of the country’s premier livestock shows, a PRCA Gold Tour Rodeo, the world’s largest barbecue competition, and, more fundamentally, the education of millions of people about the role of agriculture in 21st-century life.
Long a gateway to the West, Kansas City was destined to be the home of an institution that upholds the heritage of our rural past. Strategically located at the geographic center of the country near rivers and railroads, the stockyards were built around facilities once used by the parent company of the Pony Express, the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, which had outfitted travelers following the Kansas River on the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. Established on 13 acres in 1871, the stockyards had grown to 55 acres by 1878 and become one of the largest horse and mule markets in the country.
EnlargeThe annual event that would become the American Royal dates to 1899, when the American Hereford Association hosted a cattle-judging contest in a tent in the stockyards. A horse show was added in 1905; the first PRCA-sanctioned rodeo in 1950. The Great Flood of 1951 devastated the region, and while the stockyards never fully recovered, the American Royal has thrived: Today it contributes about $70 million annually to the local economy.
The American Royal fall season runs September to about Thanksgiving weekend, when more than 40 events highlight the best in the livestock business. But the American Royal as an organization has a year-round mission of educating young people about agriculture, which it does through school tours, summer events, and contributing more than $2 million annually to this end.
Bryan Beaver, current chair of the American Royal Board of Governors, shared with C&I some of his thoughts about the far-reaching impact of this century-old Heartland tradition.
Cowboys & Indians: What is your favorite part of the American Royal?
EnlargeBryan Beaver: When you go to the Junior Premium Livestock Auction and see these kids and the animals they’ve spent the last year raising, and so many volunteers from Kansas City helping to make this event successful for them, well, I love that. That’s what the American Royal is all about.
C&I: What’s the best tradition being kept alive by the American Royal?
Beaver: All of the rodeo events were born out of the reality of the Old West, and for the first time this year we are hosting a PRCA Gold Tour Rodeo, which will draw the top riders [and] the best rodeo stock in the country and pay top prize money for contestants. This is a significant step for Kansas City.
C&I: How has the organization made an impact on the city itself?
Beaver: As our current chair of the board of directors, Greg Maday, says, the American Royal is certainly Kansas City’s most authentic asset that speaks to the history of not only our city but the entire central region of the United States. It’s such a fundamental part of the fiber of our city. We wouldn’t have had such great barbecue without the Royal. Our baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, might have been named something else. We might not have grown to the significant city we are today without the American Royal.
C&I: Do you think people today “get it”?
Beaver: I’ve heard so many times that the agriculture industry is all but extinct, but the American Royal sells a bumper sticker that says, “If you eat, you’re involved in agriculture.” I like that. The American Royal means different things to different people based upon what activities they attend. For some, it’s the barbecue contest. For others, it’s the rodeo or the parade. There are some people who’ve never been to the events in the fall, but [they] have visited the museum and [attended] the summer events for kids, and that’s what the American Royal is to them. It’s all okay with me.
