Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A long line of entries stretched down Route 66 during Tucumcari's first annual Independence Day Parade on Thursday. More than 80 units were in the event.
An unexpectedly large inaugural Independence Day Parade in Tucumcari on Thursday had organizers already looking ahead to improving or tweaking the event for next year and beyond.
Bobby Hockaday, one of the parade's organizers, said after the event he had hoped to draw 15 entries. He had kept expectations modest because the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce had only two months to prepare and it also being Tucumcari's first July 4 parade in recent memory.
Hockaday said signups for the parade began slowly, then picked up rapidly the week of the event. By the time the parade started on Route 66 on Thursday morning, the chamber had 39 official entries. The Quay County Sun counted more than 80 units of floats, vehicles or horses.
For comparison, that was roughly the same number of units Saturday at Logan's longstanding Fourth of July Parade.
"We had quite the turnout," Hockaday said.
City commissioner Jonathan Brito came up with the idea shortly early in the year for a July 4 parade in Tucumcari, and he said Hockaday and Kristine Olsen of the chamber took the reins.
"It was pretty amazing," Brito said. "It's one of the longest (parades) we've had in a while."
Brito thanked the volunteers, participants, the city's EMS department and varying fire and law enforcement agencies for helping make the parade a success.
Tucumcari for years has held parades during Rattler Reunion, Rawhide Days and the Christmas-season Parade of Lights.
But longtime residents, including Mayor Mike Cherry, couldn't recall the last time, if ever, the city had hosted a parade for Independence Day.
A perusal of 1974 editions of the Tucumcari News indicated the city held several events for the July 4 holiday, but a parade was not one of them.
In 1976, during the nation's bicentennial, Tucumcari hosted a moderately attended parade.
Brito said he and chamber members are soliciting ideas to make the parade better, including it being a night event that would conclude in front of the Elks Lodge where the annual fireworks display is held.
He said he's also considering the Tucumcari Convention Center, the endpoint of this year's parade, hosting a concert after the event.
Hockaday said he doesn't view Tucumcari's parade as a competitor to Logan's parade. In fact, he said having two parades in the region might encourage more people to make floats for both events.
"We're hopeful that each parade can get bigger and better," he said.
Brito said the Tucumcari parade will need changes by 2026 regardless. July 4 that year falls on a Saturday, and Brito said he doesn't want a Tucumcari parade to conflict with Logan's morning parade.
Thursday's parade began with a half-dozen law-enforcement vehicles escorting a New Mexico State Police float that saluted slain NMSP patrolman Justin Hare. Several state police officers and Hare's family were on the float.
NMSP also brought the float to the Logan parade on Saturday. Hare's two young daughters, Juliann and Caydence, were the grand marshals.
NMSP's float won first prize from the Tucumcari chamber. The High Plains Horseman Riding Club earned second place, and the Quay County Republican Party float was third.
The Tucumcari parade stopped for a few minutes when a spectator at the Lowe's Market suffered a medical episode. Luckily, Tucumcari EMT vehicles in the parade happened to be passing by, and their personnel treated the woman. She refused hospitalization.
