The Last Cattle Drive Through Pinedale?

by Cris Paravicini

At the crack-of-dawn last Sunday, May 29, bawling cows and calves shook awake sleeping Pinedale. Gene Pearson and seventeen other cowhands climbed a horseback early to beat the Sunday traffic and push 400-plus pairs of Angus/Hereford cows and calves down Pine Street. It was perhaps the last cow drive through town.

At the crack-of-dawn last Sunday, May 29, bawling cows and calves shook awake sleeping Pinedale. Gene Pearson and seventeen other cowhands climbed a horseback early to beat the Sunday traffic and push 400-plus pairs of Angus/Hereford cows and calves down Pine Street. It was perhaps the last cow drive through town.

The drive began one mile south of Pinedale. The cows wintered at the Jack Richardson place but will summer at the Meyers and Webb places on Horse Creek 18 miles west.

Pine Street was empty at 5:45 a.m. when the lead cow hit Bridger Avenue bringing with her a bawling wave of hide, hair, and clicking hoofs. But, the cows, hesitant on the rock-hard, artificial turf, and by now aware that their calves were lost in the flurry, changed their minds and headed back to the starting gate. Eighteen stubborn cowboys, however, proved more determined and held the wheel in check.

Work conditions grew increasingly challenging as calves fell to the rear and a few cows exited down avenues, alleys, and sidestreets searching and bawling for their babies. The surface, too, was slick when steel horseshoes met wet pavement.

Out in the open meadows and brush, even the willow-covered river bottoms, a cowboy can cut across the flat to head a run-back, but downtown Pinedale created a whole new set of problems.

When a cow left Pine going north on Maybell, the trailing cowboys had to leave Pine on Tyler, make fast tracks to Magnolia, go west to Maybell, and hope the old cow hadn't thumbed a ride to Franklin.

One cow felt quite at home in Pinedale that morning as she walked onto the sidewalk of the Stockman's Restaurant, stuck her wet nose on the window, and stared hard at the breakfast crowd. She then turned to leave, splattering her green-grass tip graciously near the front door.

After leaving the city limits, perhaps for the last time, the herd followed the main highway, through mostly polite Memorial Day traffic and a hail storm, to a holding field near the Daniel Y. Cows and calves were mothered and cowboys cussed and discussed some of the problems and highlights of the day.

Next day, again at first light, the final leg of the journey was complete. Jim Miller was voted, if not most valuable player, certainly, the toughest. Within the first stride or two after stepping onto his horse, the morning frost brought out the devil in the cayuse, and he took his head and began to buck. A rein broke - the lifeline to a cowboy - and Jim was bedded down on the rocky terrain. It hurt like hell, but he got up, caught his horse, and hung with the job till the last cow went through the gate at the end of the trail, six miles later. He did this, as it turns out, with broken ribs and a punctured lung, but the job was done and done well.

In year's past, Gene has made this drive south of town near the sewer lagoon. But, in a sign of the times, new homes now block the trail, leaving Pine Street as his only option this year.

Gene and Betty Lou are moving their ranch operation from Pinedale to the Daniel Valley. So the Pearsons won't have occasion to make another cow drive west from Pinedale.

Photo credits:  Cris Paravicini, Cris Paravicini