Nebraska’s Big Rodeo Arena

The arena at the heart of Nebraska’s Big Rodeo in Burwell is described by the rodeo as one of the world’s largest outdoor rodeo arenas, set inside a three-quarter-mile track. The original 1922 grandstand still stands on the north side, a frame structure of raised benches under a steel shed roof, widened in the late 1970s; west and east grandstands went up in the 1930s to frame the arena. The corrals, ten wooden bucking chutes and the roping and dogging chutes all date from the late 1920s. The 1922 entrance gate is a frame arch flanked by square towers with pyramidal roofs, painted with bronco and bull riders. The whole thing carries a modern digital scoreboard now. Rodeo office 308-346-5010.