In March in San Diego County, 151 years ago, it was rodeo time, as exemplified by the notice below from the San Diego Union of March 21, 1873:

Back then, this wasn’t a public entertainment event. It was all business, part of the cattle business, to be exact. As Charles Nordhoff, a prominent journalist of the day, wrote in, California: A Book for Travellers and Settlers, which was published that same year, “Every spring, in the cattle country, rodeos are held. Rodeo comes from rodeár, the Spanish verb to gather or surround. A rodeo is, in fact, a collection of cattle or horses, made to enable the different owners to pick out their cows, count them, and, if they wish, drive them off to their own pastures.”

Nordhoff added that, “Sometimes, 20.000 head of cattle are gathered on a plain, and the work of ‘parting out,’ as it is called, and branding, lasts for several days. A carefully defined set of laws regulates this work, and law officers, called ‘Judges of the Plains,’ attend to settle disputes as to ownership, and regulate the procedure. These officers appoint the times and places of rodeos, and attend at each.”