What is a river?

It depends on your point of view. Sun reporters have fanned out along the Arkansas River, from the headwaters near Leadville to the border with Kansas, to learn what the river means to people in the places it runs through.

▶ Follow along for more from this series

ㅤ ⚲ ㅤ ROCKY FORD

C onjure a Colorado sports event and what do you see?

Giant slalom? Maybe.

Football? Obviously.

Bike races over three passes . Trail races winding 50 miles .

But horses storming a river while their riders try to hang onto a watermelon?

Sally Cope is manager of the Arkansas Valley Fair , and her dad did it. He was a contestant in the fair’s Watermelon Derby race, started in 1950. Riders had to hang on — to mane, to melon — while the horses splashed through the Arkansas River to

See Full Page