Rural Rodeo Ground with Irrigation Pond, Western United States, 1940s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Rural Rodeo Ground with Irrigation Pond, Western United States, 1940s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

Rural Rodeo Ground with Irrigation Pond, Western United States, 1940s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1940–1950

AA-2026-5BFAE8

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

A rodeo operator has dug a bright blue-lined irrigation pond at the edge of the arena—the kind of practical decision that made sense when water was precious and cattle needed cooling in the heat. The arena itself is parceled into sections with white rails and poles, the infrastructure of what appears to be a county or regional rodeo ground, the sort of weekend entertainment that drew families to watch roping and riding. Beyond the grounds, a river lined with cottonwoods marks the boundary of arable land, and beyond that rises the kind of high desert bench country common to interior valleys in the Northwest or Northern California. Someone has gone to real trouble here—leveling the arena, stringing fencing, piping water—suggesting this was a venue that expected to operate season after season, not a one-time gathering. The whole setup speaks to a time when a reasonably successful small-town rodeo could be self-supporting, when people still believed in permanent structures for entertainment built on the prairie.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Aerial Survey of River Valley, Mid-20th Century

1950–1960

Moose in Willow Flats, Yellowstone Valley, 1950s

1950–1959 · Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

High Desert Valley with Mountains, Oregon or Eastern Washington, 1955

1955

Agricultural Valley View from Elevated Rimrock, American West, Mid-20th Century

1955–1970

Rio Grande Valley, Mexico, 1960s—Irrigation and Development

1955–1975

American High Desert Through a Train Window, Likely Southwest US, Mid-20th Centu

1950–1959

Rio Grande Near Big Bend, Texas, 1950s

1950–1959 · 1950s

Cascade Range Forest and Valley, 1950s

1950–1959 · 1950s

Horse Racing Track with Artificial Lake, circa 1950s

1950–1958

Rolling Farmland Valley with Collapsed Outbuilding, Eastern Canada, 1960s

1960–1969

Pastoral Landscape with River Valley, 1950s

1950–1959

Arid Valley Landscape, Mid-20th Century Survey

1945–1955