2010 Sheepherder's Gathering a Success

The 2010 sheepherder's gathering was the biggest one yet, and it appeared everyone had a great time! Activities began Friday night with an appreciation dinner. Denys Koyle, co-owner of the Border Inn, kicked off the program afterwards.

Then Hank Vogler took over as emcee, sharing his witty repartee between speakers. Having spent a large part of his life working with sheep, he had no shortage of stories to share.

Sourdough Slim shared his musical talents and country sense of humor. He makes it look so easy to play multiple musical instruments at the same time, sing, tell jokes, and keep a crowd of varying backgrounds and ages entertained.

Then it was time for speakers to get up and share stories about sheepherders, sheep shearers, and sheep owners. I was able to photograph most, but not all the speakers. Fortunately the entire program was videotaped for the Great Basin National Heritage Area, so in the future it should be available for those who are interested.

Little Melanie sang a song to conclude the speaker part of the program. She is quite brave to get up in front of a crowd!

Then Sourdough Slim performed some more musical numbers. There were so many people in the room that some had to stand in the doorways in order to be able to watch.

The next day was the sourdough pancake breakfast in the morning, video clips and movies about the Snake Valley area, and another performance by Sourdough Slim in the afternoon. He did his accordion playing, yodeling, dancing, rope trick to the delight of the crowd.

In the evening was a delicious lamb and beef family-style dinner. It was fun to meet people from a variety of backgrounds.

During dinner the Silver Sage band performed, and afterwards they played late into the night for those wanting to dance.

Overall it was a very successful weekend and a great opportunity to get out of the house and beat those winter blahs. This was the seventh annual sheepherder's party--we only have a year until the next one!