MOSQUITO FESTIVAL
Ropers and a calf explode from the gates during the calf roping completion.
Austin Piper, left, and Matthew Withers, center, enjoy a beer while talking to Colleen Withers after the first day of the Paisley Rodeo.
David Ogata, 11, practices his calf roping on a plastic cow outside the Paisley Rodeo.
MOSQUITO FESTIVAL
There are more dead insects squished on the grill of an F-150 pickup parked in front of the Pioneer Saloon than there are people in this town. Insects, mosquitos in particular, are what brought me here. Paisley, Oregon a town of 237 people in southeastern Oregon, is holding its annual Mosquito Festival and I have arrived to see who has a festival for mosquitos.
Len Babb III prepares horses for the horse roping competition at the Paisley Rodeo which is planned for the same time as the Mosquito Festival.
Jeremiah Geaney, 71, takes a break from playing music in the back of the Pioneer Saloon in Paisley, Oregon.
The Mosquito Festival is a fundraiser for mosquito abatement, which is needed due to the prevalence of flood irrigation in the area.
The Paisley Rodeo lasts three days and coincides with the Mosquito Festival.
Kenny Morehouse, left, gets reacquainted with friends in the Pioneer Saloon. The festival draws people from several counties in eastern Oregon.
A sign in the window of the Paisley Mercantile building.
A hay bale wall keeps underage people out the official dance area at the Paisley Saloon.
Lawrence Knoke, 86, went to the Paisley School in the 1940s and returned for the school's 100-year anniversary, during the Mosquito Festival.
Tom Hoatson and Erin Martinez dance outside the Pioneer Saloon.
Albert Beachler, 77, repairs old cars and tractors to enter in the Mosquito Festival Parade.
Paisley's Swat Team, an entrant in the Mosquito Festival Parade.
Underage visitors dance to the music spilling out of the Pioneer Saloon in a parking area along Highway 31.