Rattlesnake Gravel Grind

07/17/2026

Grateful for the Sweetwater Jaycees 1958!

07/15/2026

He won six World Championships in just four years. Then he walked away from professional rodeo forever — and nobody could stop him.
Born December 9 1916 in Fletcher Oklahoma, Louis Brooks lost his father at just two years old and was raised by his grandparents in Washington County. He left high school to cowboy on local ranches — spending years working cattle and learning horses on the open Oklahoma plains before anyone ever put a number on his back at a professional rodeo. He entered his first competition at twenty years old. He looked like he had been doing it his entire life.
He turned professional around 1940 and hit the rodeo world like a force of nature. Ba****ck riding. Saddle bronc riding. Bull riding. Calf roping. He competed in everything and beat the best in every arena he walked into. Covering legendary broncs like Amos, T-Joe, Hell's Angel and Hootchie Kootchie — animals that made grown men hesitate — Louis Brooks rode them all with a quiet authority that left competitors shaking their heads.
Then he made a decision that changed everything. He dropped bull riding and calf roping completely to focus solely on the two events he was born for. He said it himself — "When I quit the bulls my ba****ck riding and saddle bronc riding improved 40 percent in 30 days." The results were immediate and overwhelming.
In 1942 he won the ba****ck riding World Championship. In 1943 he swept the All-Around the saddle bronc and repeated as reserve in ba****ck — a Triple Crown that put him alongside the greatest cowboys of any era. In 1944 doctors told him he had a heart condition and warned him that if he kept competing he would not live to see his thirtieth birthday. He competed anyway. He won the All-Around again. He won the saddle bronc again. He won the ba****ck again.
Then he retired. Uninjured. Undefeated in the prime of his career. On his own terms.
Six World Championships across four seasons. The first cowboy in history to win back to back All-Around titles — a record that stood until Casey Tibbs came along. He walked away from the arena and built a 100-section ranch operation in Sweetwater Texas — raising Brangus cattle and thoroughbred horses that won important races in New Mexico and California.
His brother Don said simply that Louis used rodeo exactly the way it was meant to be used — as a foundation for building something real and lasting.
He passed away August 6 1983 at 66 years old. Inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1955 and the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1991.
Six World Championships. Four years. One Oklahoma cowboy who competed until the doctors said stop — then walked away on his own terms anyway.
That is Louis Brooks. 🤠🏆

06/13/2026

Welcome to another gravel racing adventure with iowagravelgang!Ra...

06/12/2026

iowagravelgang 🔥

It's the week after Rattlesnake, join us as we discuss the event, t...

06/06/2026

Before Sweetwater, Texas was a town, it was a camp. A buffalo hunter's camp, to be exact. 🦬

In the late 1870s, hunters working the southern plains set up a temporary water stop along a creek in what is now Nolan County. They called it Sweetwater Creek because the water was clean and drinkable in a land where that was never guaranteed. It was nothing. A few tents, a fire, a reason to stop.

Then the Texas and Pacific Railway came through in 1881, and everything changed overnight. Within months, a full town had erupted from the dirt: saloons, merchants, cattle pens, hotels, and a courthouse. Sweetwater became one of the most important railroad hubs in all of West Texas, a place where cattle empires, cotton fortunes, and frontier ambition all converged on a single set of iron tracks. The railroad didn't just pass through Sweetwater. It created it. And when you drive through today and see those old brick storefronts still standing on the square, you're looking at what one set of tracks can build from nothing. Drop a 🚂 if you've ever passed through Sweetwater on I-20. 👇

05/14/2026

05/11/2026

05/01/2026

Come join us as we head north to for cooler weather in beautiful Kremmling, CO