When fans enter the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo arena this week on one of the three rodeo nights, plenty of visuals will catch their attention — the grandstands addition on the west side, the rebuilt announcer’s stand and rodeo office, and just outside of the structure, attractive-looking restrooms with a wood carving of a cowgirl out front.
But beyond those obvious upgrades, there were several other pieces to the Frolic and Rodeo’s arena renovation and expansion project’s first phase. Below and behind those new grandstands, for example, are a network of modernized livestock holding pens and chutes.
Frolic prepares to take over Philomath for 3 days this week
The Philomath Frolic and Rodeo’s three-day summer celebration runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday and in addition to the action inside an upgraded and expanded arena, there will be a variety of events, fireworks and the annual community parade. One of the top rodeos in Oregon alongside the likes of Pendleton, St. Paul and Sisters, the…
Gallery: Philomath Frolic and Rodeo Arena Ribbon-Cutting (July 8, 2025)
A collection of images from a Philomath Frolic and Rodeo arena project ribbon-cutting event on Tuesday.
John Adair, facilities director who has volunteered with the Frolic and Rodeo since 2023, helped lead efforts to install eight new back pens, lead-ups and exit alleys that connect to chutes purchased two years ago.
“When we put in the new grandstands here, we had to redesign how we entered and exited the animals from the arena,” Adair said. “They’re bringing them in on either side of the alleyway and exiting through the center. It makes it a little tight but we had to get new pens and new equipment to be able to do that.”
The Philomath Frolic and Rodeo marked the completion of the first phase Tuesday evening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Besides the grandstands, announcer’s stand, restrooms and stock pens, the project also featured new arena lighting as well as asphalt that was laid to improve accessibility for visitors with mobility issues.
Plus, volunteers did a lot of painting, put in a new water line, cleaned up the Yew Wood Corral, installed new flags and completed various other tasks to get the site ready for this week’s rodeo run.
Future plans include new grandstands on the east and north sides.
“This arena holds so much more meaning than just a set of grandstands and dirt beneath my feet,” Alyssa Collins, Philomath Frolic and Rodeo board president, said during Tuesday’s event. “It’s a place where our community comes together to share in joy and the thrill that is rodeo.”
The project required coordination between multiple entities with Gerding Builders serving as general contractor. Project manager Mike Adams had words of appreciation for several people that were involved along the way, including Andy Cook, project superintendent who kept “the project running as smoothly as possible while managing the various trade partners to a positive and timely project conclusion.”
Adams also singled out its project partners for a moment of recognition.
“They did a great job of staying on top of the contract the whole time and on top of the schedule,” Workman said about Gerding Builders. “We got updates multiple times every week on where things were at. Nowadays, a lot of the concern isn’t the labor and getting it done, it’s when your parts and equipment are going to get there, so we were continually hearing that.”
Even small details proved challenging in the current supply chain environment. The restroom doors arrived just last week, Workman said, and at one point organizers thought they might need to substitute porcelain toilets for stainless steel before their preferred option became available.
“This project will continue to provide our community a space where not only can you watch your favorite rodeo, but also celebrate graduations, weddings, birthday parties, corporate events and so much more,” Collins said. “We look forward to the community utilizing this space now and in the future.”
Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony drew several elected officials, including Sen. Dick Anderson (R-Lincoln City), Rep. David Gomberg (D-Otis), and Rep. Anna Scharf (R-Amity). Benton County Commissioner Pat Malone and Philomath city councilors Teresa Nielson, Diane Crocker, and Brent Kaseman also attended.
Philomath Frolic and Rodeo board members were also on hand.
Anderson, Scharf and Gomberg each had a few minutes at the mic. Scharf represents portions of Yamhill and Polk counties through her service in the Legislature but is a Philomath native, graduated with the high school’s Class of 1987 (as Anna Remington) and grew up with the Frolic and Rodeo.
Gomberg, who has Philomath in his district, helped push through $1.9 million earmarked for the Frolic and Rodeo project during the 2023 session.
“We worked really hard to make this happen. I have an ask of all of you and that is every time you flush one of those new toilets, I want you to think of us,” Gomberg joked.
Philomath Mayor Christopher McMorran emphasized the event’s significance to the city.
“The Philomath Frolic and Rodeo is the biggest event that this small town puts on every year and it’s such a special one,” McMorran said. “It’s homegrown, hometown fun that embodies the spirit of Philomath — the city of volunteers.
“The Frolic has no paid staff and the entire organization is run by dedicated community volunteers,” he added.
Collins, who took over as the Frolic and Rodeo’s board president just last year and in the past had served as the rodeo queen, expressed the arena’s connection to the rodeo competitors.
“When thousands of cowboys and cowgirls who come into this arena and the thousands yet to come step on this dirt, it’s not only a way of life, it’s their faith, their commitment, their strength, that make this arena what it is,” Collins said, who followed with words of thankfulness for the association, volunteers, board, sponsors and community members.
In recent years, the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo had planned to upgrade its grandstands at some point but those aspirations became a priority following a June 2022 fire that took out a section of the grandstands.
As for those new stock pens, lead-ups and exit alleys, that part of the project featured an investment in the neighborhood of $150,000.
“We had a grader come in and level out the ground so all our panels are now level and they hook together like they’re supposed to and that made a huge difference,” Adair said. “But it still took an army of six or seven of us almost two days to get everything lined up and pinned together and straight.”
Overall, Adair and his group of volunteers worked in that part of the arena for six weeks to two months. In addition to getting the back pens set up, there was infrastructure work to get done for the installation of new water and power and to accommodate future builds, finishing areas for the rodeo contestants and judges and installing new fencing “to just kind of clean things up and make it a little easier on the eyes everywhere you look.”
The old pens, installed in the early 1990s, were showing their age after 30 to 40 years of use. “They are in decent shape for as old as they are but they have definitely been through the wringer,” Adair said. “A lot of panels are having to be discarded because they’re no longer safe for livestock use. But a lot of them are also good to ‘re-home,’ which is what we’re hoping to possibly do … to another rodeo facility or a local farm or somebody that’s willing to do a little horse trading.”
The facility upgraded to larger chutes to accommodate bigger livestock.
“The stock is definitely getting more aggressive and the riders are getting more aggressive — the animals are getting bigger,” Adair noted. “We had to get bigger chutes for the new stock because we actually had some of the smallest chutes in the NPRA (Northwest Professional Rodeo Association) circuit and they had to bring in special animals because our chutes were so small.”
Safety remains the biggest factor with the upgrade — not only for the competitors but for the B Bar D stock.
“Our animals are the No. 1 athletes out here and we want to make sure everybody that comes out here has a good time,” he said.
In addition to the new back pens and lead-ups, the Frolic installed a new roping chute with arrow pens and freshly painted roping boxes.
“We set everything to the dimensions of the PRCA, which is the professional circuit, we’re the amateur,” he said. “So everything that we have is set to a PRCA standard so if we ever decide to go professional, we’re already meeting requirements on that aspect of it and wouldn’t need to make any changes.”
Could the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo end up on the pro circuit one day?
“There’s discussions on the board but right now, we’re just happy to be in the NPRA and we support them and they do a great job for us,” Workman said, adding that board member Leanna Knapp has been very active with that organization. “PRCA in the future? Maybe — we’ve got a little bit of ways to go before we get there. We’ve got to finish out the arena, get Phase 2 done, get our capacity up, get some more ticket sales coming in — there’s a bit of a price gap between the NPRA and the PRCA.”
