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Tourists soak up memories on Half Moon cattle drive
At least 325 yearlings and 27 riders ranging in age from 8 to 84 made the annual spring cattle drive from the Twin Coulee Ranch to the summer pasture at the Half Moon Ranch last week.
The cattle drive ended with a barbecue and barn dance at the Half Moon Ranch, 16 miles south of Lewistown on the Red Hills Road. Riders from four countries and several states participated.
By LANA TEGELER
For The Gazette
Christine Simm from Bo’ness, England, is a librarian.
"Every year I plan well ahead of time where I want to visit for vacation," she said. "And this year I planned a cattle drive in Montana, and so here I am. Last year I went to India."
Simm keeps notes and takes plenty of photos of all her vacations and shares them with friends when she gets back home and her e-mail friends she has met in her travels.
"My first trip to America was some years back and I didn’t have a lot of extra money. I was starting out in my own apartment and dreamed of going to America but didn’t know how I was going to be able to afford the trip," she said.
"Then I heard the company Hoover was giving away free roundtrip tickets to anywhere to anyone who bought an item from them."
John Desmond from Cork, Ireland, said for years, "I would hear my dad talk about wanting to come to Montana and be on a cattle drive, but he never made it. He passed away two years ago." So Desmond made the trip to carry out the dream.
"Being out in the wide open spaces, seeing the countryside, being in the mountains and moving cows. It’s almost like a religious experience," he said.
The guests were picked up at the Billings airport Tuesday and rode a bus to the Twin Coulee Ranch where they were greeted by Art and Eileen Nelson, along with an assorted collection of ranch dogs and the wranglers who would be helping them with their horses.
The winds of a Montana spring were also blowing in a storm that would drop more than three inches of rain during the next few days.
With the help and guidance of head wrangler Amos Charbonneau of Lavina, the horses were brushed out and guests that had never saddled a horse or had only ridden English style were shown the proper way to bridle, saddle, ride and tie a horse.
Because of the severe weather forecast, plans of camping out had to be changed. The crew was shuttled back to the Twin Coulee Ranch instead.
A neighbor of the Twin Coulee Ranch showed up with a guitar. Tunes were strummed out and everyone relaxed and knew the words to songs like "Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys."
Thursday morning after a chuckwagon breakfast everyone saddled up to take the steers all the way to the Half Moon ranch.
Before noon, the fog and clouds brought more rain.
Slickers were being untied from the backs of saddles in hopes of keeping the riders dry.
Two mule teams pulling wagons behind the cattle drive furnished lunch at the Fergus County line.
Rain drenched the riders, cattle, saddles and lunch. Though everyone agreed the mountains needed the rain, the guests were hoping to see at least one of the Montana sunsets the western movies show.
Seventeen miles of riding from the prairie up the Snowy Mountains, crossing one county line, riding in weather even locals don’t favor the yearlings were sorted and the guests rode the last two miles in the rain to the Half Moon Ranch where a hot shower, heated tent and hot supper waited for them.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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