Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Calgary Stampede trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Every July Calgary paints its storefronts, puts on a cowboy hat and calls itself Cowtown for ten days. This quiz covers the whole of the Calgary Stampede, from the 1886 agricultural fair and the 1908 Dominion Exhibition to Guy Weadick, the American trick roper who talked four ranching millionaires into bankrolling a 'real' wild west show in 1912, and on to the modern event that draws well over a million people to Stampede Park. You will get questions on the rodeo and its $100,000 championship Sunday, on chuckwagon racing and the Rangeland Derby's tarp auction, on the parade marshals from Bing Crosby to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on Tom Three Persons and the Treaty 7 encampment now called Elbow River Camp, on the Saddledome, the Corral and Nashville North, and on the pancake breakfasts, the animal-welfare arguments and the pandemic cancellation of 2020. Easy questions suit anyone who has been to the grounds; the expert tier asks about the first Stampede Queen and the last unsponsored wagon. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Stampede, chuckwagon racing, Guy Weadick and the venues, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which month is the Calgary Stampede held every year?
July
The first Stampede in 1912 was actually staged in September; the modern ten-day July run dates from the merger with the Exhibition.
Q 02How does the Calgary Stampede bill itself?
The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth
It draws more than a million visitors a year to Stampede Park.
Q 03How many days does the modern Calgary Stampede run?
Ten
It was a six-day event until 1967, went to nine days that year and to its current length in 1968.
Q 04Which American trick roper organised the first Stampede in 1912?
Guy Weadick
He had come to Calgary in 1908 with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show and wanted something more authentically 'wild west'.
Q 05What were the wealthy cattlemen who put up $100,000 to guarantee the 1912 Stampede called?
The Big Four
Pat Burns, George Lane, A. J. McLean and A. E. Cross saw it as a last celebration of their lives as ranchers.
Q 06How much prize money did cowboys compete for at the first Stampede in 1912?
$20,000
More than 100,000 people attended the six-day event, which generated $120,000 in revenue.
Q 07After the 1912 Calgary success, Guy Weadick staged his second Stampede in which city, where it lost money?
Winnipeg
A third attempt in New York State in 1916 lost money too, and he did not return to Calgary until 1919.
Q 08The 1919 Stampede in Calgary was staged in honour of whom?
Soldiers returning from World War I
It was billed as the Great Victory Stampede.
Q 09In which year did the Stampede merge with the Calgary Industrial Exhibition to become a permanent event?
1923
Nearly 139,000 people came and the event turned a profit.
Q 10Which sport did the Stampede's founder invent for the first merged Exhibition and Stampede?
Chuckwagon racing
Only six teams raced that first year for a total purse of $275.
Q 11What is the official name of the Stampede's wagon-racing competition?
Rangeland Derby
Its nicknames are less polite: 'the half-mile of hell' and 'the dash for cash'.
Q 12At the start of a chuckwagon race, what do the outriders toss into the wagon before mounting up?
A barrel standing in for a stove
Penalties follow if the stove is not loaded, a barrel is knocked over or an outrider finishes too far behind the wagon.
Q 13Which announcer, famed for 'and they're offfffff!', called the Stampede's wagon races for 45 years?
Joe Carbury
He retired in 2008 and was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Q 21Which First Nation boycotted the 1950 Calgary Stampede after free admission for treaty-card holders was cancelled?
The Stoneys
Violent thunderstorms that year spawned apocryphal stories of a rain dance meant to ruin the fair.
Q 22Which future prime minister briefly owned the exhibition grounds before selling them in the 1890s?
R. B. Bennett
The site became Victoria Park, named for the queen, and remains the Stampede's home today.
Q 23The Stampede parade begins the festival on which day of the week?
Friday
It sets off shortly before 9 a.m. and parade day is treated as an unofficial civic holiday.
Q 14Since 1979, how have chuckwagon drivers sold the advertising space on their wagon covers?
At a tarp auction
The auction totals are watched as a barometer of Calgary's economy.
Q 15Who was the last driver to win the Stampede's wagon race without a sponsored wagon, in 1956?
Lloyd Nelson
The first advertisement on a chuckwagon tarp had appeared back in 1941.
Q 16How much does each rodeo discipline's winner collect on the Stampede's championship Sunday?
$100,000
A total of $1 million is paid out on championship day alone, making it rodeo's richest payout.
Q 17How many major disciplines make up the Stampede rodeo?
Seven
Bull riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling, breakaway roping, tie-down roping, saddle bronc and bareback, plus four novice events.
Q 18Most rodeo livestock comes from the Stampede Ranch, created in 1961 near which Alberta town?
Hanna
The 22,000-acre ranch was North America's first of its kind, breeding bucking horses and bulls for rodeos as far away as Las Vegas.
Q 19Which First Nations cowboy became the only Canadian champion of the 1912 Stampede by riding Cyclone?
Tom Three Persons
Cyclone had thrown more than 100 riders before the Kainai (Blood) cowboy stayed on him in the saddle bronc final.
Q 20The Treaty 7 nations' Stampede camp, long called the Indian Village, was renamed what in 2018?
Elbow River Camp
The five nations of Treaty 7 erect tipis and hold pow wows on the river bank each year.
Q 24Whose presence at the 2011 parade pushed attendance to a record estimated 425,000?
Prince William and Kate
William and Catherine also took in a private demonstration of rodeo and chuckwagon events despite protests from animal groups.
Q 25Which two Hollywood entertainers each served as Stampede parade marshal during the 1950s?
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
Queen Elizabeth II first visited in 1959 and returned to open the 1973 Stampede.
Q 26What happened when the Stampede's founder, fired by the exhibition board in 1932, sued for $100,000?
He won, but got only $2,750 plus costs
He stayed estranged for 20 years until being invited back as parade marshal in 1952.
Q 27The Stampede first topped one million visitors in which year?
1976
Attendance has hovered around 1.2 million since 2000.
Q 28The Stampede set a then-record attendance of 1,409,371 while celebrating what?
Its centennial in 2012
Garth Brooks and The Beach Boys were booked for the Saddledome for the anniversary; the mark stood until 2024.
Q 29Why was the 2020 Stampede cancelled, the first cancellation in over a century?
The COVID-19 pandemic
Drive-through pancake pop-ups and the fireworks show went ahead on the original dates.
Q 30Two weeks before the 2013 Stampede opened, the grounds were badly damaged by what?
Flooding
The Saddledome's concerts were cancelled, but the Stampede itself went ahead as promised.