Oregon Public Broadcasting

September marks the 100th year for the Pendleton Round-Up. Organizers for the popular rodeo are already scrambling.

The town plans to feed, entertain and house more than 75,000 visitors a day for a week. Pendleton's population is only 17,000. Anna King reports.

Pendleton Round-Up is one of the largest and oldest rodeos in the West. The event isn't until September, but things are already getting crazy.

Round-Up officials are organizing a legion of 1,000 volunteers and completing a major stadium addition. A new bronze statue is being cast. And there're 300 teepees to set up.

Randy Severe is the President of the Round-Up Association. He says there are so few rooms left that Walla Walla is nearly booked and he's sending people to the Tri-Cities an hour away.

Randy Severe: "We still have a lot of calls from people who want from people who want to come and get here. And some of them are VIP type people who don't make their plans quite early enough."

75,000 visitors is a long ways from the original event in 1910. It drew about 7,000 local people and closed all the stores in town.