On Saturday October 25, Jake Atwood and Klayton Laws representing the Desertview Pro Rodeo, traveled to Heber City to accept an award during the Wilderness Circuit Finals Rodeo. The award was for the Utah Small rodeo of the Year. The award was voted on by the Wilderness Circuit participants.
Atwood and Laws are the head of the rodeo committee for the local PRCA rodeo held every summer in Castle Dale. That committee also includes Derri Jewkes, Gayle LaFrentz, Bret Jeffs, James Huggard, Will Payne, Mistie Christiansen, Danny Whiteleather, Joel Dorsch and Darshell LeRoy.
There were a total of six rodeos honored from the states of Utah, Idaho and Nevada. Spanish Fork was the only other Utah rodeo honored at the awards dinner. Other awards were handed out to rodeos located in Reno, Nevada, Burley, Idaho, Preston, Idaho and Elko, Nevada.
At the rodeo itself, the top 12 participants in each event were in Heber City competing for the right to be the Wilderness Circuit champion. Many of these cowboys will be in Las Vegas for the National Rodeo Finals in early December.
During the presentation, it was noted that the rodeo committee was proactive in trying to make the rodeo better. They had just hired a new stock contractor with better animals and they had also moved the date to be a better fit to get more and better riders. Next year’s Desertview Pro Rodeo will be held June 11-13 Atwood had this to say after accepting the award, “I really need to thank the committee for all of the hard work they put in to make this rodeo better, especially Klayton who is passionate and donates a lot of time to our rodeo.” Atwood also thanked the many sponsors whose money makes the rodeo what it is today.
The rodeo concluded its 16th season in 2014.
Shannon Hiatt was the director of the recreation department for Emery County at that time and was instrumental in bringing the first pro-rodeo to Emery County.
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