The Association

The Cle Elum Roundup Association is a non-profit comprised of dedicated volunteers (100% volunteer run) who are working to strengthen our community through western traditions and the sport of rodeo.

CERA started in 2014 as a Pro-West sanctioned rodeo. In 2018 we were honored to earn the PRCA/WPRA prorodeo sanctioning.  We look forward to continuing to build on our past traditions of Roundup to produce a world class rodeo for competitors and spectators to enjoy. 

The Roundup is held in a beautiful mountainous pine forest setting of the Washington State Horse Park in Cle Elum, WA. Conveniently located in the heart of Central Washington State. 

We invite everyone to enjoy not only the Roundup but also the fabulous food, shops and recreation that this small community in Upper-Kittitas County has to offer!

The Board of Directors

Julie Cloninger     James Jones        Daniel Beard      Courtney Cunniff         President            Vice president       Secretary                 Treasurer                 

 Justin Zipperer,  Bev Miller, Lee Hadden, & Mike Frailey

Are you interested in joining the Board of Directors and use your talents to continue to develop the Cle Elum Roundup?
​Email [email protected] for an application.
​

What's a Roundup

A roundup comes from the days of the open range and the big cattle drives. Ranchers would hire hands/cowboys from all around to ride out and gather their cattle for calving,  banding, doctoring, and market.
 
Some cowboys would have their own horses, but most of the time the ranch owners would have to gather horses for the men to ride for a couple months of work. Often these horses had to be gentled and from that grew the legends of the rank bronc and the cowboys who could stay on... from this crew riding contests, bets, dares and shows.
 
A great deal of skill horsemanship and roping skills were utilized. Of course this lead to competition and test of skill amongst the hands and soon grew into sport and entertainment. i
 
The skills of a roundup are the basis for rodeo - calf roping, team roping, tie down roping, bulldogging and saddle bronc riding. The other events: bull riding, bareback riding, barrel racing and breakaway roping developed more as competitions created for the show side of rodeo.