April 27, 1930 — The cowboy in the middle of the photograph is about to get bucked off of that horse.

Not that someone (at far right) is filming the event.

Unattributed 2¼x3¼-inch glossy print. It comes to us through a third-party purchase from a photo dealer. It, and others, were pasted into a now-anonymous family's photo album.

Thirty-three thousand spectators observed the 1930 Saugus Rodeo — and an estimated 25,000 were turned away for lack of capacity — in a valley that sported an entire population of maybe 3,000. Despite its success, the 1930 rodeo (held April 27) would be the last under Roy Baker's ownership. The Great Depression was on, and Baker, who started the rodeo in 1926 with Bob Anderson, was forced to call it quits. He sold out to Hoot Gibson, star of both the rodeo circuit and the box office.

In fact, the 1930 Baker Ranch Rodeo was co-presented by Baker and Gibson. In the 1930 rodeo program, Gibson writes:

"In the immediate future, I will assume complete charge of the Baker Ranch Rodeo. Messrs. Roy Baker and Bob Anderson have together brought this annual event from its inception to its present success and deserve to be congratulated. It is my earnest aim and ambition to take up their reins and make of it the biggest and most spectacular thing of its sort in the entire world.

"Next year I plan to improve the Baker Ranch Rodeo in every possible way. There will be bigger money prizes. The best riders in the world will be on hand to compete for world's titles. There will be more spectacular races, more hazardous stunts and a show that will be faster and more exciting than any ever attempted heretofore.

"This ranch will co-operate with the Pendleton Round-Up, Calgary Stampede, Cheyenne Frontier Days, Chicago Rodeo, Madison Square Garden, Salinas and other great rodeos, to bring California and the West Coast the very finest riders and horses in the world. Winners of events at these shows will be particularly invited to Baker Ranch to participate for greater cash prizes than ever offered here previously.

"Not only do I promise greater spectacles and more thrills but every effort will be bent to provide for the greater comfort of spectators. There will be three new paved roads leading to this ranch next year. The stadium will be enlarged, covered and made more comfortable. Every convenience and aid to the pleasure of the man in the audience will be anticipated and coped with.

"An airport adjoining the stadium will provide a landing field for private and commercial planes, placing the Baker Ranch Rodeo within five minutes of Los Angeles and within easy flying distance of cities throughout the West and Middle West.

"Suggestions for the betterment of this annual event will be appreciated. Particularly do I invite ideas for a name that may become as world familiar as are such titles are "The Pendleton Round-Up" and "Calgary Stampede." Such suggestions, mailed to me in care of Baker Ranch, Saugus, California, will be treated with every courtesy.

"Here is to a bigger and better rodeo in 1931. I trust today's offerings pleased you and promise that next year there will be much more in the way of thrills and excitement."

HOOT GIBSON.

Big promises. Gibson made good on some of them. Others, not so much. But he gave it a good run for a few years and brought out his Western film buddies including William S. Hart, Harry Carey, Tom Mix and John Wayne.

Gibson continued to produce the rodeo even after he sold it in 1934, but the Great Flood of March 2, 1938, wiped it out. Bill Bonelli bought the grounds out of foreclosure later that year and introduced auto racing in 1939. He continued to hold rodeos into the 1940s and 1950s, but the dream of turning Saugus into another Pendleton Round-Up or Calgary Stampede was gone.

The future Saugus Speedway was built originally as a rodeo arena in 1927 by Roy Baker, brother of shoe magnate C.H. Baker.

Roy Baker purchased the 40-acre property east of Bouquet Junction in 1923 for the purpose of breeding and selling show and pleasure horses. To that end he imported saddle brood mares from Kentucky and studded them with a pedigreed, chestnut-colored saddlebred stallion named Peavine McDonald (b. 1910), which sired five pedigreed mares and four pedigreed colts between 1920 and 1936. Baker advertised that he had 2,500 acres of grazing land and also offered training and boarding services for outside horses.

Probably to attract horse buyers to his ranch in faraway Saugus, Baker staged rodeos. Some references suggest he built a 12,000-seat arena in 1924, but this is dubious. (Promoter Bob Anderson organized a local rodeo in 1924, but its exact location is unclear, and it wouldn't have had grandtands.) Anderson did hold the annual rodeo on Baker's property in April 1926. That December, Baker and Anderson started construction on a new stadium, complete with partially covered grandstand seating and a quarter-mile oval track. When it opened May 1, 1927, it seated 18,000 fans, and thousands more had to be turned away for lack of room.

Over the next decade, ownership of the arena would change hands three more times.

As with a majority of the American populace, Baker was hit hard financially by the Great Depression of 1929 and was forced to sell the stadium to cowboy actor Hoot Gibson in 1930. Gibson continued to hold rodeos at the stadium and drew a Hollywood crowd including famous actors such as William S. Hart, Harry Carey, Tom Mix, and John Wayne. He also used the stadium as a movie set or leased it to other companies for film making.

But Gibson felt the effects of the Depression, as well. In September 1933 he appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom and pleaded poverty, saying he had no assets with which to repay a $2,500 loan. He testified that he owned a one-third interest in Hoot Gibson Inc., which owned the Saugus rodeo, and that it was in arrears.

In 1934, Gibson sold the stadium to Paul Hill, owner of the Western Livestock Stockyards, who continued to call it the Hoot Gibson Rodeo. As with his predecessors, however, the stadium brought Hill financial hardship when it was hit by the Great Flood of March 2, 1938. Heavy rains that year caused a river of water to flow down Soledad Canyon and filled the ranch home and arena with mud and debris. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the "old buildings ... collapsed during the March floods" and the arena was built anew.

Nonetheless, Hill lost the ranch sometime after the April 1938 rodeo. According to Reynolds, the property was repossessed by the bank. In 1939, ownership passed to William Bonelli, and it was renamed Bonelli Stadium.

Bonelli, a professor of economics at Occidental College, continued the annual rodeo tradition for a number of years but introduced auto racing in 1939 on a more frequent schedule; ultimately auto racing became the primary draw and Bonelli renamed the arena Saugus Speedway. Occasional rodeos and circuses continued until at least the late 1960s, auto racing until 1995. The facility was sometimes used for concerts before the grandstands were removed in 2012 (the originals had been replaced in 1955). The venue continues to host an outdoor swap meet.