Sheep parade demonstrates traditional herding methods

When hundreds of sheep are herded through Ketchum on Sunday, Oct. 12, their journey represents a tradition in the Wood River Valley more than 130 years old. Herds of sheep were first brought to graze in the valley in the 1880s. When the price of silver plummeted and mining operations were curtailed, the sheep industry, because of the abundance of rangeland in the valley, became a major economic staple. According to historian Sandra Hofferber, author of “A Pictorial Early History of the Wood River Valley,” by 1890 the local sheep population exceeded 600,000 animals. With progress came change. As the valley became more populated, as tourism became the major economic staple, and as grazing on public land became more regulated, the sheep population declined to about 15,000 animals per year, grazing on summer grasses and moving out of the valley before cold weather arrives. With the advent of time, agriculture has become more technical and mechanized. However, visitors—estimated at about 10,000—to the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival parade will get to see it pretty much the way it was done 130 years ago, with a couple of herders, either mounted or driving a horse-drawn camp wagon, a few guard dogs and a band of hundreds of sheep. The band selected for this year’s parade is comprised of about 1,500 ewes. It is one of six bands owned by Faulkner Land and Livestock Co. of Gooding. It takes about five days for the animals to be moved from north of Galena to Ketchum. Once there, the band is typically held near the Ketchum Cemetery until their noon appointment in town...more