Wyoming Day 2012 was held Saturday during the 106th annual National Western Stock Show. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association organized a bus trip that saw a full motorcoach of primarily ranchers heading south from Cheyenne, Wyo., to take part in the festivities.
I was a guest of the WYSGA for this trip to cover the happenings. But my accounts of this event were written without any editorial scrutiny by the organization.
Wyoming is the only state to have a special date
“The Cowboy State” is the only state that is honored with its own special date, even though visitors and participants for the stock show have come from all over the country. Chuck Sylvester, who is the chairman of the State Private Lands Committee for the WYSGA, cited that this goes back to the “great working relationship” that the two states have basically had since the first stock show took place in 1906, especially with judging contests. Sylvester, who lives in Greeley, Colo., has two ranches in Wyoming and was in attendance to affirm his remark that, “I enjoy Wyoming.”
Nonetheless, the last Saturday of this event saw packed crowds coming and going into and out of the grand Expo Hall, which contains three floors full of exhibits, food vendors, and companies trying to sell their wares, including livestock scales, tractors, jewelry, turkey drumsticks, dips, salad dressing, clothing, etc.
On the third floor of the Expo Hall, children’s activities were in full swing, which saw parents and kids get the chance to interact with various farm animals like chickens, ponies, and goats, as well as learn about agriculture through the various exhibits, many of them interactive. The stock show wouldn’t have been the same without the appearance of a bagpipes band marching down the corridors as people stopped to take videos and photos of them.
In these tough times, the friendly staff of the Colorado Area Health Education Center was again on hand to provide free health screenings for adults who are farmers, ranchers, and/or uninsured. These tests, like in previous years, included blood pressure, glucose, and lipid panels, the latter used to measure the cholesterol in the blood.
And the furniture retail outlet American Furniture Warehouse set up a living room area featuring Florence Top Grain Leather furniture for people to take a break from walking around the complex. This included a comfortable sofa that one tired attendee said he could “fall asleep right now” in. On the first floor, various judging competitions took place, including for sheep and prospect calves, where the soundtrack of baaing sheep was constant around the sheep pens.
Wyoming Day 2012 provided “a chance to see each other”
One of those riding down on the bus from Cheyenne, Wyo., Rob Orchard, has a ranch near the small northwest Wyoming community of Ten Sleep. Orchard, who, minus the three years serving in the military, has been in ranching all his life, since the early 1940s. This was his fifth or so time coming down.
Orchard said he makes these treks, “Because I know a lot of these folks through the WYSGA. We don’t get a chance to see each other – it’s a great chance to visit people, eating meals, and see the rodeo together, and find out how the ranch is doing along with how much snow they got.”
Outside the Wyoming Day luncheon, held in the National Western Club, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead was outside the entrance shaking hands with the Wyomingites who came down, then joined them for a feast consisting of prime rib, roast beef, and brisket.
Those protein-rich meats, along with an array of trimmings and numerous pies for dessert, was also enjoyed by husband and wife James and Connie Goodrich, of Wheatland, Wyo. Goodrich remembered the times when he, as a child, would ride down on the train to see the stock show, saying, “It was an experience.” That experience ended in the early 1970s.
Wyoming was prominent throughout the stock show
Notwithstanding the state’s special day Saturday, Wyoming figured prominently in this year’s spectacle, with some Wyoming-based rodeo participants for the matinee rodeo at the Denver Coliseum taking on other cowboys in events like steer wrestling, mutton busting, and barrel racing. During the bareback riding event, the horse fell on one of the riders, but both reportedly escaped injury. Mead got to ride atop a replica stagecoach which was pulled by six horses around the arena.
The wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynne, was named the 2012 Citizen of the West earlier in the stock show, according to the event’s website. Cheney is a native of Wyoming. Furthermore, the January 21 print edition of the Wyoming Stock Roundup cited a number of first place finishes in various judging competitions, including a win for Jessica Middleswarth, of Torrington, Wyo., for the Junior Yearling Heifers (Polled Herefords). Three top honors in the Open Breeding Cattle (Polled Hereford) competitions went to the Ward Ranch LLC, of Sheridan, Wyo.
The program director for the WYSGA, Kosha Olsen, had this to say about the importance of the state’s residents taking part, “Wyoming Day is a day when the National Western Stock Show celebrates the people of Wyoming and their contribution to our western way of life. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association is pleased to carry on the tradition of taking a group of Wyoming ranchers to attend this day of celebration.”
The next National Western Stock Show is scheduled to be held January 12-27, 2013, per the advertisement in the Expo Hall. That is expected to include Wyoming Day on January 26, 2013, the second-to-last day of the future event (which is the traditional time to honor the state).