Leaders: Leaders of the Western Heritage Cattle Drive Friday in Castle Rock, Colo., were dressed in cavalry attire as they rode horses to start the cattle drive. The hill with the stone topping in the background is the castle rock for which the town is named. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Two Horse Power: A wagon led by two horses followed the leaders on horses during the urban cattle drive Friday in Castle Rock, Colo. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
I love this time of year when counties and towns across the West celebrate their local fair and rodeo festivities. That week is now in our hometown of Castle Rock, Colo., and I noticed online that the Los Alamos Fair and Rodeo takes place next weekend, Aug. 1-3.
Since Douglas County, Colo., is a larger and more populated area, the fair and rodeo began Friday (July 25) and will not wrap up until Aug. 3. The event that kicks off this fun filled week in Castle Rock every year is the Western Heritage Cattle Drive. A herd of Texas Longhorn cattle is transported to town from a nearby ranch, and the “urban cattle drive” signals the beginning of fair and rodeo week. I refer to it as an urban cattle drive because the cattle are trucked into town, and the actual cattle drive is only about a mile long.
It may be urban and it may not be long but the locals love the event. Perry Street in downtown is closed beginning earlier in the day in preparation for the event, which takes place at 6 p.m. The downtown district is always very busy and congested and this event makes parking and moving about downtown almost impossible. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. and were able to get a reasonable parking spot, then walked several blocks to claim our spot along the route. There were already many people set up and waiting. The sidewalks looked more like a “tailgate party” than a cattle drive!
Marilyn found a choice location in the shade to wait. Thankfully, there was a park bench so she could sit and not have to stand while we waited over an hour for the cattle drive to begin. I continued down another three blocks to find my spot for photographing the cattle.
Crowds continued to pour into downtown and the street soon became packed with people on both sides down the route of the cattle drive. The weather was very overcast, which did help keep it cooler but about 15 minutes before the scheduled start it began to rain. Fortunately the shower only lasted a few minutes. A few minutes after the start time, we could finally see the beginning of the drive led by riders on horses and followed by a wagon powered by two horses. Behind these leaders were the stars of the show, the Texas Longhorns, surrounded by cattlemen on horses to keep the cattle directed as they moved through the downtown area.
In the late 1860s, large herds of cattle were driven through this area from Texas on a route known as the “Goodnight-Loving Trail”. This event every year helps honor that heritage. The leaders on horses were dressed in cavalry attire from that period, which also ties this drive to those long-distance drives in the 1860s. The Goodnight-Loving Trail was named after two Texas cattlemen, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. While Loving lost his life on the second cattle drive, Goodnight continued the long-distance cattle drive for a few more years before settling down on his ranch in Texas. The drives were popular and profitable because they provided beef for early pioneers and miners throughout the West.
I photographed the herd as they passed by and then followed the drive until I returned to Marilyn’s location. As the drive began wrapping up, I made my way a few blocks farther down the street to an area where the cattle were driven into an area with steel pipe fencing, where they would be loaded onto trailers for their journey back to the ranch. As the cattle drive concluded and the crowds dispersed, the rains began again, but with more force and longer-lasting than the earlier shower. At least we kicked off fair and rodeo week with a successful urban cattle drive!
We wanted to attend the Castle Rock event last year, but the cattle drive and several rodeo events took place in a pouring rain, which I did not find conducive for photography. The event this year was a blast!
I always loved the fair and rodeo festivities in Los Alamos, and we hope to attend some of those events at the fairgrounds.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
The Stars of the Show: The stars of the show make their way down a hill into downtown Castle Rock. The Western Heritage Cattle Drive marks the beginning of several days of fair and rodeo activities in the town. The cattle were surrounded by cattlemen on horses from the ranch that supplied the Longhorns. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Calves: In amongst the Longhorns were about a half dozen calves who made the trip to town to participate in the cattle drive Friday evening. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
The End of the Drive: The cattle drive was about a mile long and a steel pipe fence was arranged for the cattle to feed into as they reached the end of the route. The cattle would gather and wait a few minutes for the cattle trailers to load them for a trip back to the nearby ranch where they live. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
I See You: A couple of Longhorns were giving me the eye as I photographed them from just outside of the steel fencing that came between us. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
The Party’s Over: Cattlemen from the ranch help load the cattle onto cattle trailers for their journey back to the ranch. Their party in downtown Castle Rock was over. All good things must come to an end. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com