Bucking TRADITION.

Old faithful, Yellowstone Park's famed sulphuric spume, isn't Wyoming's only predictable eruption. The other one has popped the lid off the state capital during the last full week in July for the past 107 years. A rite of passage for cowboys, a golden goose to Wyoming's coffers and the ultimate celebration of the Old West to those who make the pilgrimage, Frontier Days in Cheyenne lives up to its billing in the rodeo world as "the daddy of' em all." Everything about Frontier Days is outsized. About 1,800 contestants are competing this year in nine performances that began last Saturday and run through July 27 at The Frontier Park, making Cheyenne the world's largest outdoor rodeo. Wyoming, which doesn't have a state income tax, collects, on average, approximately $1.25 million per year in sales tax during Frontier Days, according to the Cheyenne Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Decade after decade, through wars, hard economic times and the passing of generations, it put Cheyenne and Wyoming on the map. In late July the citizens of Cheyenne put on hats and boots and cowboy up, whether they can sit in a saddle or not. Rodeo's the one thing they have in common. It's part of a broader definition of who they are.