Rawhide rolls on without Longhorns

It was not by choice, but Tucumcari Rawhide Days showed it could keep rollin', rollin', rollin' without its signature Texas Longhorn cattle.

The festival, which salutes the "Rawhide" television show shot in the Tucumcari area in the late 1950s and early 1960s, had set up a pen for the cattle a half-block west of the Tucumcari Historical Museum so festival-goers could get an up-close look at the animals.

However, one local rancher who planned to bring the Longhorns had a family emergency, Rawhide principal organizer Alan Daugherty said. A backup supplier was unable to bring them, either.

Also for the second straight year, Longhorn cattle weren't part of the Rawhide Days parade. That was a given, however, because festival organizers couldn't justify the cost of a previous Oklahoma vendor bringing the animals. The last time the Longhorns were guided down Route 66 in 2022, it cost the festival more than $13,000.

The shorter-than-usual parade contained 12 entries on horseback and about eight vehicles or floats.

Daugherty said he didn't have anyone "that took the lead" this year to boost the parade's participation numbers.

"Looking into next year, I'm hoping we'll be able to get someone lined into that type of a duty, to be able to help contact local businesses and industries that have different types of equipment and vehicles to put in the parade and enlarge it in the future," Daugherty said.

Longhorns or no, a steady stream of visitors went through the gates of the historical museum during the weekend.

The festival kicked off Friday morning with Katelynn Young, Pioneer Days Rodeo Princess, entering the museum grounds on horseback, holding one American flag and carrying another folded flag that members of VFW Post 2528 ran up the flagpole.

Shortly after that, volunteers with the museum served a free breakfast - biscuits baked in an horno oven and milk gravy prepared over a chuckwagon campfire. Visitors also had the option of slathering the biscuits with apple butter or prickly pear jelly.

More than 170 biscuits were served Friday morning. Daugherty said that was up a little from the previous year.

"During the course of the day, most of the time we would have 150 people around (the museum) on different things, but it's kind of hard to tell when you've got everything scattered out," he said. "But the weather worked out well for us. And we think we're building a nice venue for activities there around the museum."

Florence Yepa, a Native American from Jemez Valley, on Friday morning gave frybread preparation demonstrations and used the horno to bake a batch of bread.

Yepa's son, Victor Loretto, estimated it would take 15 to 20 minutes to bake the loaves.

"It's done when it's the same color as my skin," he said.

Historian Don Bullis gave a presentation about Alex Street, the first sheriff of Quay County before New Mexico statehood, Tucumcari's first mayor and one of the city's founding fathers.

Bullis told a story from 1907 where the local constable and marshal pulled guns on each other during an argument in Street's Legal Tender saloon. The marshal was gunned down, but the constable was acquitted by a jury.

Street also was a member of the New Mexico Mounted Police and the U.S. Department of Justice, the latter a forerunner to the FBI. He died in 1937 and is buried in Tucumcari.

On Saturday, Mesalands Community College silversmithing professor Gene Ross spoke in Navajo of his humble beginnings in Arizona and his unlikely rise in academia as his wife Judy retold his story in English.

Ross recently was honored as a master artist by Evergreen State College.

Ross, who runs one to two miles a day to stay fit, said he is about to turn 80 and would teach one more year at Mesalands before retiring.

Daugherty said he wanted Rawhide to feature more historical and cultural presentations.

"We were pleased with the response we had from the community and from the area" about those presentations, he said. "Those are a few of the things that we're hoping to promote again and do again next year."

On Saturday afternoon, the festival gave away about $3,000 in prizes and merchandise through a raffle.

"One of the big winners had seen some information about us from Albuquerque and decided to drive over for the for the weekend," Daugherty said. "He walked away with a bunch of prizes on things. So we were glad that worked out that way. We appreciate the support of the community and all the businesses and sponsors that helped donate things."

The WRCA Youth Ranch Rodeo on Saturday at the Quay County Fairgrounds arena probably was closest in spirit to the "Rawhide" series.

There, 17-year-old Hardy Osborn of House on horseback smoothly sorted cattle during a timed event as family members cheered. Osborn was part of the Bar 3 ranch team, which finished runner-up overall to the C3/Myers Cattle Company team. Rimrock Ranch finished third.

The top hand in the competition was Haize Price of Rimrock, and Dacian Montoya of the Bar 3 team had the top horse.

About 20 competed in barrel racing at the arena on Sunday.

Daugherty said he didn't have final numbers for the Saturday junior livestock show at the fairgrounds, but he believed it had grown from the previous year.

"We brought in about five to 10 families from the Canyon and Amarillo area," he said. "We're hoping that we can build upon that next year, as well. and have that show expand itself out."

Other festivals took place in Clovis and Fort Sumner the same weekend as Rawhide. That depressed the number of vendors in Tucumcari compared to the previous year, Daugherty said. The conflicts also prompted the cancellation of a roping competition.

Daugherty said he still wants the 2025 edition of Rawhide to be on the third weekend in June but added he was open to having it on another date.

"We want to work with neighboring communities and not try to do anything that's conflicting," he said.

Because many Tucumcari residents count ranchers as their friends and neighbors, they take for granted the rural lifestyle here.

But for out-of-town visitors like Sean Campbell of Chicago, who went to the fairgrounds to check out the rodeo and the livestock shows, it was an entirely new experience.

"I've been enjoying my time here a lot," he said Saturday afternoon at the museum. "I'm a city boy, and I've never had a chance to pet a goat. It's awesome. I saw pigs. I've also never pet a horse before, but maybe next year."