Posted on 07/19/2004 9:12:42 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Annual cattle drive goes off without a hitch 650 steers moved through town to unofficially kick off CFD
By Cara Eastwood rep4@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - Like a scene in an old Western movie, a herd of cattle suddenly poured over the horizon on Sunday morning, in a pasture on the north side of Horse Creek Road.
The smell of campfire biscuits and eggs still hung in the air as the steers approached, trotting in the center of a loose circle of cowboys and cowgirls who guided them slowly toward a small opening in the barbed wire fence.
Cowboy cook Don Creacy piled into his chuck wagon with his grandson, Rhett, 8, and his two best assistant cooks and aimed the wagon toward the Interstate 25 Frontage road where he would lead the cattle drive that marks the unofficial start to Cheyenne Frontier Days every year.
Creacy had been so busy feeding a hungry crowd of CFD committee chairmen, Dandies and their families that he hadn't eaten himself, he said.
"I had a biscuit this mornin,'" said the Texan from underneath his brown cowboy hat, and that would have to be enough.
The steers approached the fence at a rapid clip, and a mounted CFD chairman warned the small crowd of onlookers to get out of the way and make themselves invisible to the cattle by standing in the shadows.
Once on the road, the herd followed neatly behind the group of wagons that led the way south, toward Cheyenne.
Moving the cattle in such a public demonstration is partly for entertainment and partly to honor tradition, said stock contractor Clay Taylor.
"It's like they used to do it in the old days," he said.
Co-owner of the T&S Cattle Company, Taylor said the animals that make it to Cheyenne are the cream of the company's crop of corriente steers. They will be used in the team roping events and for steer wrestling in the upcoming CFD rodeos.
"We brought 650 (steers) but we sorted off of thousands," he said.
The best animals are selected for having the biggest horns, Taylor said.
Serving as the contractor for Cheyenne is an honor, but it requires that the company bring many more animals than most rodeos.
"It's the only rodeo like it. At Cheyenne, all the animals are fresh. We've had some animals on hand for six months to bring here."
Although the large herd of steers may have intimidated some onlookers, Taylor said the animals aren't as wild as they might seem.
"These cattle get drove around a lot, we sort on 'em all the time."
All along the cattle drive route, both visitors and Cheyenne natives gathered to watch the spectacle.
Michelle Brackeen and her daughter, Kelsey, 10, and niece, Jessica, 11, joined a crowd under the pedestrian overpass on Hynds Boulevard near Cheyenne's Central High.
Although the family has lived in Cheyenne for two years, Brackeen said she didn't know about the drive until she heard about it on the radio Sunday morning. Jessica said she was visiting from Los Angeles and admitted she hadn't seen a cow before her visit to Wyoming.
"I think I saw five yesterday," she said.
As the first wagons of the cattle drive approached, the crowd clapped and cheered from behind concrete highway barriers and from the pedestrian overpass above. More onlookers lined the rest of the route that led the cattle onto Central Avenue, then Kennedy Road and into Frontier Park via Carey Avenue where they will live in pens until the end of CFD.
Near the intersection of Central Avenue and Hynds Boulevard, Paul Padilla and his grandson, Reed Barrett, 12, waited for the cattle to pass.
"We've been here the last three or four years, and we really enjoy it," he said.
Many spectators said the event offered a glimpse into the history of the Old West when driving cattle from pasture to pasture was the only way to move them. Even though this drive took place on pavement, within spittin' distance of one of the nation's busiest highways, the flavor of the event still offered them a taste of the Wild West.
We used to go there every summer to Cheyenne. What a great rodeo they have (the world's largest!)
Keep them doggies rollin' . . . wishin' my gal was by my side.
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