Contributed photo

Contributed photo

Travel Directions:
From I-90 take Exit 23, “Fifth Street / WY-336”
Turn West onto E 5th Street / US-87 / WY-336 / Wyarno Road.
Go 2.3 miles to the intersection of W 5th Street and Burton Street.
The entrance to the fairgrounds is on the left.

Remarks:
The 80th Annual Sheridan WYO Rodeo was in 2010. The 33rd was in 1963, the year Ennis and Jack met.

As the crow flies, Sheridan is less than 100 miles (160 km) from Lightning Flat. “Jack said his father had been a pretty well-known bullrider years back ...” [1] We can imagine that his father might have ridden in the Sheridan rodeo and that he would have been all too familiar with Sheridan’s virtues and vices ... knowledge passed from father to son. We can also imagine that his influence was one of the reasons for Jack’s infatuation with “the rodeo life.” [2] For a ranch kid, growing up in the 1950’s, and “crazy to be somewhere, anywhere else than Lightning Flat,” [3] Sheridan would have been the destination of choice.

Sheridan is a modern, all be it small, American city. During rodeo week, however, it is possible to imagine, with a little effort, Sheridan as it must have been in 1963.

See:
http://www.sheridanwyorodeo.com/
http://www.sherfair.com/

[1] Brokeback Mountain - Story to Screenplay by Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Scribner) ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9416-4, page 5.
[2] Ibid., page 3.
[3] Ibid., page 3.