Cattle make their way through the roundabout at the intersection of Interstate 25 and Vandehei Avenue during the Cheyenne Frontier Days cattle drive on July 18, 2021. The 125th anniversary Cheyenne Frontier Days begins Friday, July 23, and runs through Aug. 1. (Rhianna Gelhart for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle/Wyoming News Exchange)

After cancelling in 2020 for the first time in its 124-year history due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wyoming’s biggest summer event — Cheyenne Frontier Days — returns this weekend to the capital city. 

The 10-day string of rodeo competitions, live music and Western celebrations comes as Laramie County experiences the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections in the state. Event organizers urge participants to have at least one vaccine shot. 

The “Daddy of ‘Em All” bills itself as the largest outdoor rodeo of its kind in the world. This year’s event will feature high-profile musical acts Garth Brooks, Maren Morris and Eric Church, among many other events. 

As of Thursday, 30 patients with COVID-19 were being treated at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, along with four at the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Those patients account for 51% of the 66 patients hospitalized statewide. 

According to numbers compiled from Wyoming Department of Health figures by the Wyoming News Exchange, there were 227 active cases in Laramie County Monday. The next highest number was 39 reported for Sweetwater County. 

Laramie County, which is Wyoming’s most populous, accounts for nearly three-quarters of Wyoming’s more transmittable delta variant, Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Director Kathy Emmons said, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported. 

Slightly more than 34% of Laramie County’s population was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Monday, according to DOH. 

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Katie Klingsporn

Katie Klingsporn is WyoFile's managing editor. She is a journalist and word geek who has been writing about life in the West for 15 years. Her pieces have appeared in Adventure Journal, National Geographic...

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  1. The Creepy Daddy of them all. Frontier Days is also a known, annual, hub for the human and sex trafficking business—a business/crime that is unfortunately ever-increasing in this state and country.

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  2. Wyoming needs to grow up and stop celebrating an “industry” that was founded on thuggery, murder, and the greed of speculators.

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  3. Reply