Cowboy and I are attracted to small towns, and so it is natural to be drawn to such villages as Edgar (Pop 169), Roscoe (Pop 24) and today we set our sights on Reed Point (Pop 175) and their sheep drive, which had a variety of other events to make us smile, Pancake breakfast, oh yeah, a parade, an auction of a lot of stuff, some going for exorbitant prices, others barely breaking a $5 bill all for refurbishing the depot. But fun. The event also honored Olen Raisland, who recently passed away. He was Reed Point’s most famous sheep shearer and a founding organizer of the event.
Then there were the competitions, hay rolling and the log sawing, The Cowboy says I’m a city girl, and I must admit that hay rolling was way down on my list of “wanna sees,” but we did and it was interesting, People of all ages joined in, and rolled a 5.5-foot, round bale of hay down a path trying to stay within a lined path and it was fun to watch. Some younger enthusiasts took the challenge of a 3.5-foot roll, and they did fine, too. And some eager sawyers sliced a sappy log, lickity-split. We cheered, everybody had fun and by golly, there was a winner, I don’t know who, but somebody won and will carry that honor for life.
I met people, too, always a delight. Karla Purdum, a young author from Reed Point, and Desiree Tinoco, a young woman from Wyoming who works on the Missing People of Wyoming project. And Jerry Friendly, Stillwater County Clerk. And Larry Mayer from the Billings Gazette who was doing the same thing we were, talking to people and taking pictures.
We watched the parade, mostly made up of Stillwater County Emergency Services, fire, police and EMTs, and it was good to see them and applaud their good work.
The crowning event, though, was the sheep drive. A couple thousand sheep watchers lined Division Street, about four blocks long, shoulder to shoulder, with many standing in a second row. An emergency vehicle with a young woman and a bull horn drove through the jammed street, warning watchers to stay off the pavement, that she had the sheriff on speed dial and she would have violators arrested. She sounded like she meant business, and then, all of a sudden, a flock of sheep came barreling through the streets, led by a young girl with a leash attached to a sheep. People cheered, sheep shuddered, and cameras flashed.
Reed Point put on a show. Congratulations to the team that brought it together. If you haven’t been, I am confident that next year’s celebration is already being planned.
