Cowtown Rodeo is a real, professional rodeo that has run every Saturday night from late May through September in Pilesgrove, New Jersey since 1955, making it the oldest weekly running rodeo in the United States. It’s sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, sits on a working ranch in Salem County, and is still run by the same family that started it nearly a century ago. If you pictured tumbleweeds and ten-gallon hats when you think “New Jersey,” you weren’t expecting this — but here it is, dirt, bulls, and all.
Wait, There’s a Rodeo in New Jersey?
Yes, and it’s not some novelty pop-up. New Jersey is probably the last place you’d expect to see a rodeo, let alone the oldest weekly running rodeo in the country, but Cowtown Rodeo takes place every summer Saturday night in Pilesgrove, about an hour south of Philadelphia. The arena holds thousands of people, there’s dirt trucked in and groomed like a stage set, and the cowboys competing are the real professional-circuit deal, not local hobbyists playing dress-up.
The whole thing is genuinely jarring the first time you see it. You’re driving past farm stands and soybean fields in South Jersey, and then suddenly there’s a 4,000-seat rodeo arena with giant cowboy and cow statues out front. There’s a 2,000 acre Western ranch and rodeo in Pilesgrove, New Jersey, about a hundred miles from New York City and an hour outside of Philadelphia — not where you’d expect to find a true working Western ranch complete with pastures full of rodeo stock.
How Did a Rodeo End Up in South Jersey?
The story starts not with a rodeo at all, but with a livestock auction. In 1926, Howard Harris Sr. started a livestock auction, and back then, New Jersey was the real “Garden State,” so the auction drew a huge number of people. A few years later, his son had an idea for extra entertainment. Because of the large crowds coming to the market, Howard Jr. decided to put on a rodeo alongside the Salem County Fair as entertainment — that was in 1929.
For almost a decade, it stayed a once-a-year fair attraction. The rodeo was held annually during the County Fair until 1938. Then World War II shut things down entirely. World War II caused the rodeo to be put on hold until 1955, when Howard “Baldy” Harris, Stoney’s son, came back from the University of Idaho carrying the 1954 National Intercollegiate All Around Rodeo Championship saddle. That’s the moment the weekly tradition we know today actually began, and it’s why you’ll see the rodeo describe itself as having run continuously since 1955 even though the Harris family’s rodeo roots go back to 1929.
The exposure snowballed fast. In 1957 and 1958, the Cowtown Rodeo was syndicated on national television. The crowds it drew outgrew the original grounds, so the rodeo outgrew the original arena thanks to live national TV exposure, and in 1967, the present 4,000-seat arena was built.
A Family Business, Five Generations Deep
This isn’t a corporation running a tourist attraction — it’s still the Harris family, generation after generation. Ownership passed from Stoney to Baldy, and then in 1978 to Baldy’s son. In 1978, Harris and his wife, Betsy, bought the rodeo, and shortly afterward Harris hung up his competitive spurs to produce the rodeo full-time; Grant and Betsy later passed the rodeo to the fifth generation, their daughter Katy and her husband RJ Griscom, who took over daily management in 2020.
Grant Harris wasn’t just management — he grew up in the arena. Fourth-generation Howard Grant Harris grew up in Cowtown, NJ, entered bull-riding at age 14, obtained his rodeo license at 17, and was crowned the Northeast Circuit Saddle Bronc Champion in 1975, 1977, and 1978. And the family has turned down serious money to keep it in-house. Despite receiving attractive eight-figure offers to sell the rodeo to other theme park interests, the family decided to stick with it on their own.
They’ve also put their land where their mouth is. Forfeiting some of their future land rights, the Harris family has chosen to preserve about 375 acres of farmland around the rodeo, and the United States Department of Agriculture spent $2.3 million to buy those rights and keep the property as open grasslands. That’s a family betting its own future income that the ranch stays a ranch, not a housing development.
What Actually Happens at a Cowtown Rodeo
This is a full professional rodeo card, not a watered-down version for tourists. Cowtown showcases all seven professional rodeo events each week: bull riding, steer wrestling, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, team roping, tie-down roping, and girls barrel racing. Between events, expect the classic rodeo clown doing double duty. Between events, a rodeo clown provides comic relief while also serving as a bullfighter protecting fallen riders.
Cowtown doesn’t just borrow its animals from out west, either. Cowtown Rodeo is unique in that it has produced rodeos all over the East Coast, from Rutland, Vermont, to Raleigh, North Carolina, and also raises most of its own bucking stock. Some of that bloodline has serious pedigree. Unique among Northeastern rodeos, Cowtown raises much of its own bucking stock, with animals that have competed at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
The rodeo has earned recognition beyond just being old news locally. In 2023, the Cowtown Rodeo was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, and in 2024, it received the PRCA Small Rodeo of the Year award. Cowtown livestock even has a New York City connection you wouldn’t guess. Cowtown is also where the Madison Square Garden Championship Rodeo begins — the snorting livestock that impresses crowds at the yearly Eighth Avenue rodeo event live here in Pilesgrove.
Is Rodeo Dangerous to Watch?
Worth being honest about: this is a real, physical sport, and it carries real risk for the athletes. In 2016, a bareback rider was killed at Cowtown when a horse tossed him and trampled him. Cowtown Rodeo owner Grant Harris said at the time that this was the first time a rodeo participant had died from injuries suffered in the event. It’s a sober reminder that what you’re watching isn’t theater — the cowboys are taking genuine risks every single Saturday.
Planning Your Visit
The regular season runs Memorial Day weekend through late September. Cowtown Rodeo, located at 780 Harding Highway in Pilesgrove, is open every Saturday night from Memorial weekend through the end of September, with gates opening at 6 p.m. and the rodeo starting at 7:30 p.m. Bring cash if you can — food vendors accept cash only — though parking is always free.
A few times each summer the schedule shifts to all-bull-riding events. For 2026, that means the 7-event rodeo nights run from May 23rd through the end of September, with the Xtreme Bulls “all bull riding” event returning August 10th and 11th. If you want the full season pass experience, a Season Ticket is good for admission to all 19 regular seven-event rodeo Saturday nights.
Get there early if you can, because Cowtown is more than just the arena. Right next door is the Cowtown Farmers Market, which grew out of the same family’s original livestock auction business. It’s a twice-weekly, year-round indoor and outdoor farmers market and flea market that has been serving buyers and sellers since 1926, starting as a livestock auction and now featuring 400-plus vendors. It’s open every Tuesday and Saturday from 8:00am to 4:00pm, so you can easily turn rodeo night into a full day of browsing stalls before the gates to the arena even open.
Why It’s Worth the Drive
What makes Cowtown special isn’t just the novelty of “a rodeo in New Jersey,” though that’s a great hook. It’s that the novelty is backed by nearly a hundred years of an actual family working the same land, raising their own stock, and turning down life-changing money to keep doing it their way. You’re not watching a recreation of the Old West. You’re watching a slice of it that happened to plant itself in the Garden State and never left.
If you’re anywhere near Philadelphia or South Jersey on a summer Saturday, it’s worth the trip out to Salem County. Grab a cooler, get there before the gates open, wander the farmers market, and settle in for the most unlikely — and most authentic — Saturday night rodeo east of the Mississippi.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
