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NEW JERSEY: Hit the Cowtown Rodeo on Saturday night

BY MARSHALL S. BERDAN | Special to Newsday

August 20, 2006

Looking for something really different to do with the kids on a Saturday night - something you wouldn't have thought you could do within a thousand miles of New York? Well, partner, in that case just hitch up the old station wagon and mosey down the turnpike to New Jersey's very own Cowtown Rodeo, now in its 52nd season of authentic western thrills, spills, and equine excitement. The kids and you will both have a hat-waving, spur-shaking ball.

THE ROUNDUP

Despite its northeastern location, there is nothing citified or elitist about the Cowtown Rodeo, which, as its promoters are quick to point out is "a professional stop on a professional circuit" - in this case, the First Frontier Circuit. As such, the two-hour program includes all seven events that constitute a "full rodeo": Brahma bull riding, steer wrestling, bareback riding, calf roping, saddle bronc riding, team roping, (two horsemen lassoing opposite ends of a calf) and girls barrel racing. Each week as many as 4,000 rodeo enthusiasts and just plain curious city slickers park their little dogies on a wooden bench in Cowtown's open-air arena for what is one of only two weekly PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association)-sanctioned rodeos in the country. (The other is in Mesquite, Texas. ) It's a wild and bully western show that not even the most jaded Easterner will find the least bit boring.

COWTOWN LOWDOWN

The Cowtown Rodeo traces its bovine beginnings back to 1929 when local rancher Howard "Stoney" Harris, correctly concluded that the annual Salem County Fair would be spiced up considerably with a little Western flavor. After several encouraging years, he purchased the stock and equipment of a traveling rodeo that had gone broke, and began holding weekly performances.

These lasted until the advent of World War II. In 1955, Stoney, joined by his son and partner, Howard Harris III, a former college rodeo champion in Idaho, revived the weekly spectacle, which, thanks to the increase in family transportation, began drawing larger and more wide-ranging crowds.

In 1978, Harris III handed the reins over to his son, Howard Grant Harris, a champion saddle bronc rider in his own right, and his wife, Betsy. Under their leadership, the Cowtown Rodeo has only continued to grow in national prestige and local popularity.

GET ALONG LITTLE DOGIES

The rodeo begins with a parade of participants, most of whom hail from the East Coast, and the playing of the national anthem. From then on, it's hold on to your hats, cowhands, as the events come fast and furiously, with the bronc and bull riders busting out of numbered chutes at the eastern end and the calf ropers and steer wrestlers breaking out of manually released gates at the western end. Even novices will have little problem figuring out who's ahead, with the running commentary from the announcers cluing them in to the finer points of the various events. Each week, there are more contestants than can be accommodated in the regular program, so the "leftovers" (as determined by draw) begin anew after Dave & the Wranglers have serenaded the departing crowd with "Happy Trails to You. " For those who stay, it's an extra hour of rodeo thrills at no extra charge.

HITTING THE TRAIL

The Cowtown Rodeo gets under way at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays (rain or shine) from Memorial Day weekend until the end of September. Located on U.S. Route 40 in the unincorporated township of Pilesgrove, N.J. (the nearest good-sized town is Woodstown), Cowtown Rodeo is exactly eight miles east of the Delaware Memorial Bridge (New Jersey Turnpike Exit 1).

Tickets cost $12 for adults, $6 children 12 and younger, and younger than 2 free (groups of 25 or more receive a 33 percent discount), with free parking and reasonably priced food concessions inside the arena compound. There is also a souvenir shop on the grounds featuring ... surprise, Western wear. For information and advance ticket sales, call 856-769-3200 or visit cowtown rodeo.com. And if you are willing to arrive early, Cowtown is also the site of a huge weekly farmers' market (8 a.m.-4 p.m. year-round).