Monday, July 08, 2013

Follow a ranch family's 3-day cattle drive

For generations, Cameron Bros. Ranches has driven its cattle along narrow Klickitat County highways in a grassland valley between the Columbia River and Mount Adams. Only a handful of long-distance cattle drives still occur in Washington state, said Jack Field, executive vice president of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association. That includes the recently completed Cameron Bros. drive, a three-day affair that moved a herd of about 600 — mostly cows and calves — from High Prairie to their summer pastures in the Simcoe Mountains. “We could put them on a semi and haul them, but aside from being more expensive, that would not be near as fun or satisfying,” said longtime rancher Brad Cameron. A handful of friends woke as early as 3 a.m. to help on horseback or manage support trucks. Steadily and slowly, the sea of riders and cattle streamed past pioneer wagon trails, abandoned one-room schoolhouses and scrub-oak forests. Seventy-year-old cowboys rode alongside young ranch hands who texted down the trail. Brad Cameron, 49, has participated in his family’s cattle drive since age 3. He doesn’t recall when the tradition began, but said his family homesteaded and established the ranch in 1903...more

Go here for an interesting set of pictures.

This is one of my favorites.  Notice the government is nosing around everywhere, even a cattle drive.



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