Oregon Public Broadcasting

This is the time of year ranchers move sheep by the tens of thousands from the mountains to lowland pastures. 

In the inland Northwest, sheep drives can cross over a hundred miles by foot.  But land that used to be open range is gradually turning into subdivisions, golf courses, and busy streets.

In one central Idaho valley, ranchers have a colorful way to win newcomers over to sharing the land.

Correspondent Tom Banse reports they drive their sheep right down the center of swanky Ketchum-Sun Valley.

Brothers Mike and Mark Henslee are walking with about a thousand sheep.  They started high in the Stanley Basin of central Idaho and plan to wind about 150 miles south to warmer pastures near the Snake River.

Rancher John Peavey moves sheep along during the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival. Trailing Of The Sheep Festival Slide Show

Along the way, they have somehow to slip all those sheep through the eye of a needle, otherwise known as fashionable Sun Valley.

Mark Henslee: “Bruce Willis and Demi have that house down by Hailey which we go past tomorrow.”

Mike Henslee: "The Kennedy house is up here somewhere that we probably go past... or the Kerry’s.  We go past a lot of ‘em.”

The flock stays on steep hillsides to skirt the celebrity and millionaire estates.  But it goes right down the first fairway of the Bigwood golf course.

Mike Henslee: “They’ve just grazed the golf course AND fertilized.”

Fortunately, it’s too cold for golf this morning.

Just a few decades ago, domestic sheep outnumbered people in the Rocky Mountain West.

Today, people far outnumber the sheep ... not just here, but around burgeoning McCall, Idaho ... along the Boise Front ... and west of Jackson Hole.  In some cases, the century old tradition of the Western sheep drive is being replaced by more expensive trucking.

It hit home for sheep ranchers John and Diane Peavey when Sun Valley’s communities built a bike path in the livestock right-of-way.

Diane Peavey: “It was one call after another, ‘Get your sheep off our bike path. Their droppings are getting caught in our rollerblades and our bike wheels.’  John and I, we kind of looked at each other and went, ‘Now what?’”

Peavey and her husband run one of the oldest sheep ranches in this part of Idaho.  They decided to become proactive -- to share their heritage with the recreationists, the second-home owners and other new arrivals.

Now every fall, one of the outfits in the area trails their flock right through the center of the resort town. It’s turned into an annual festival called the Trailing of the Sheep.

Diane Peavey: “That was not a reenactment. These sheep would be moving from the mountains to the desert country regardless of this festival.”

The struttin’ of the mutton is quite a show.  Old sheep wagons, bagpipers and Basque dancers lead the parade down Ketchum’s Main Street.

In Sun Valley, attorney Jim Phillips has acted as a go-between between developers and woolgrowers.  He says the law is on the ranchers’ side when swank developments and mansion sprawl threaten to block the sheep migration. 

Jim Phillips: “You can’t just show up with a development and say, ‘Hey, we want a trail across your property.’ It has to be, ‘We’ve had this trail.  This trail has been used as long as anyone can remember,’ right.  You have to recognize that in your development.  You have to provide for a continuation of that.”

Phillips says the ranchers could make a stink about maintaining their trail rights, but they want to get along and sometime accept minor detours.

Rancher Diane Peavey says the Trailing of the Sheep Festival deserves some of the credit for improved coexistence lately.

Diane Peavey: “Suddenly, where there had been animosity -- just by reaching out and sharing stories, sharing music, dance, food, sharing the sheep, sharing them with communities that don’t know anything about sheep -- they come to understand and wait each year.  ‘When are they coming? We can’t wait for the sheep. Can we help?’”

One local driver stopped by a river of sheep on the road displays a positive attitude.  Linda Mueliger was unperturbed by the sheep jam.

Linda Mueliger: “It great. The sheep, it’s a wonderful thing for the community. It’s lots of fun, yeah.”

Last year, the Trailing of the Sheep was listed by MSN Travel as one of the top ten fall festivals in the world.

Online:

Trailing of the Sheep Festival (Ketchum, ID)