The 100th Oregon Trail Days Parade will be Saturday, July 10, in downtown Gering and this year’s theme is “Celebrating 100 years of our Legendary Past.”
The parade will host various entries, including Longhorns, which will have a meet and greet tonight at 6:30 p.m. east of Platte Valley Livestock on 7th Street in Gering.
“The Longhorns will be in the parade, they come from Oklahoma, and they were in Greeley for the Fourth but are here now,” said John Ewing, parade chairman of the Oregon Trail Days.
The Longhorn steers are part of the Slash-O-Ranch in Woodward, Okla., accompanied by a Randy Hughes, Cody Sander, and a crew from the ranch. The longhorn steers were added to the ranch in 1997 when Cody’s father Wes Sander bid on them. He saved them from death, as the only other bidder at the sale was a packer.
“We started doing this, taking them to rodeos and parades, and now we spend all summer doing this,” said Cody Sander.
The Longhorns lead a pretty good life, visiting various states and places, where they are hauled to in a straight deck trailer.
“We used to haul them on a pot (trailer), but that’s tricky because you have to sort how they go on the truck,” said Hughes.
The trailer they have now has a bartop, so the Longhorns can hold their heads up and look around.
“It’s really neat hauling them down the road. You’d be surprised the reactions you get, and the people wowed out by horns sticking out of the trailer,” said Sander.
Hughes says the steers have horns from 6 to 7 ft long and range from black and white to red and speckled.
“They’re too pretty to not be out on display somewhere,” said Hughes. “Not one of them is the same, and they all have personalities.”
The public is invited to visit the longhorns tonight at 6:30 p.m. on the eastside of Platte Valley Livestock off of 7th street. Photos and questions are welcome.
Oregon Trail Days will open the carnival on Thursday, and the Kickoff Barbeque and Street Dance will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday in front of the Courthouse in Gering.
The parade will be Saturday with a lineup at 8 a.m. followed by a day full of events and the Oregon Trail Days Music Festival featuring Sawyer Brown with Ned LeDoux at the Five Rock Amphitheater, gates open at 6:30 p.m., and the concert starts at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, visit OregonTrailDays.com.
