Hunewill Ranch 100th Cattle Drive

I’ve written before about the Hunewill Ranch in Bridgeport, California. Today I’m heading out working on their 100th consecutive year cattle drive and my 10th year doing this with them. I’ve actually been here a couple of days before the drive starts helping gather and sort cows so they’ll be grouped and ready to go this morning.

In 1861 (the Civil War was just starting) Napoleon Bonaparte Hunewill started a lumber mill in Buckeye Canyon. He supplied lumber to the town of Bodie hauling the wood across Bridgeport Valley with teams of oxen. Later he moves down into the Bridgeport Valley with his wife Esther and son Frank, raising cattle to supply beef to the miners of Bodie. That ranch still exists and raises cattle during the spring and summer. That’s where we’ll start out.

After a couple of winters in Bridgeport where the snow can get really deep Napoleon realized he needed a winter place to keep his cows. He purchased land in Smith Valley, Nevada in the town of Wellington where the family still maintains the second ranch.

The fall task then is to move the 600-800 pregnant cows from Bridgeport to Wellington, a distance of about 60 miles through mountains and then into the Nevada desert.

Over the years they have worked out stopping places where the cows (and cowboys!) can rest at night so the drive takes 5 days and 4 nights to complete.

That’s counting on things working out perfectly which they sometimes don’t. It’s a sun up to sun down activity with the main task being making sure the cows go the right direction and none get lost. Cows are counted by two cowboys when they leave in the morning and again when they pull in at night. If the count is off then cowboys head back to try and find the lost ones – not a fun task.

The weather is a lot better than Montana or Idaho but it is almost always below freezing much of the day and snow/rain/wind are common. We do a lunch stop mid-day but the rest of the time is on horseback working. The last mile takes us going through a rural residential area of Wellington and it is common for folks to bring their chairs and sit by the road to watch the drive moves through to its final destination.

Although it’s a lot of work I really look forward to this every year. It’s basically the entire Hunewill family, even the small kids, and their invited friends, so over the years you become very close. There’s an equal number of men and women and everyone works. The reward at the end is everyone gets a special wild rag commemorating that years drive and because this is a special year there is an opportunity to purchase a 100th year buckle set custom made by Chet Vogt.

Wish us luck. Success is defined as getting all the cows and horses and people to Wellington without injury or loss.

Let’s move ’em out……we’re burning daylight….

You can get more information about the ranch HERE.