Event of the Month

By Joan Baeza

Today the June sun is warm and hospitable as I sit on the Navajo County courthouse lawn with Ann Jeffers, a rancher friend. She volunteered to haul two calves in to the portable corrals set up for "Cow Pie Bingo," a uniquely Western game of chance played for the benefit of local charities during Holbrook's Old West Days. Numbered squares are purchased by onlookers who wait for the calves to make a deposit. We wait, too. Gambling was different in Holbrook in the 1880s, I am thinking. It was a way of life when professional gambler Frank Wattron stepped off the Atlantic and Pacific railroad platform with a deck of cards and five silver dollars and won a drugstore in an all-night poker game. It was a way of life and death. Gunslingers and outlaws on the run from Texas and New Mexico mingled with the local gentry in Wattron's Drug Store and The Cottage Saloon next door. The saloon was nicknamed "The Bucket of Blood" after two men were shot and killed there over a poker hand. In those days, Holbrook was considered one of the wildest cow towns in the West by those who were qualified to judge. Many a cattle rustler and horse thief were tried in this courthouse, now a historical museum. "Have you ever seen the old jail in the basement?" my friend asks me. "Seen it?" I say. "I've been in it." I remember the relief of finding and bailing out cowboys gone astray so we could finish branding, back when I was a rancher's wife. It seems strange to be part of history now. My friend and I are listening to Los Conquistadores, a Holbrook music group, play some lively Mexican rancheros tunes. We are enveloped by peace and well-being. Mothers in shorts push strollers along the leaf-shadowed walks. Fathers in T-shirts hoist sons to a piggyback position for a better view of the entertainment in the gazebo. I notice there are more baseball caps and running shoes than Stetsons and cowboy boots these days. Streaking toward the gazebo in neon colors are the victors of the Bucket of Blood Bicycle Race, a 20-mile course that began at Petrified Forest National Park. I notice they're not wearing gunbelts. There were a two-mile fun run and 10K road race, too, to say nothing of a golf tournament and men's softball classic. I can imagine cowboys like Peg Leg Lathrop and Hook Larsen rising up in their graves, muttering expletives. I get up off my haunches and drive to the Route 66 Car/Truck Show at Heward Motors to look at some spruced-up remnants of our freewheeling gas-hogging days. It reminds me that I once cruised Hopi Drive with the Isaacson girls in their blue Chevy convertible. For me, Holbrook's Old West Days celebration is nostalgic. My parents owned a motel and filling station on old Route 66; and I pumped gas. The smell of barbecued beef, of hamburgers and Navajo tacos, and fry bread spurs our appetites. When the calves have done their part for Cow Pie Bingo, we load them into the stock trailer and haul them back to the ranch, then return to sample the food. White clouds meander across the sky like a herd of cattle grazing in summer. At the fairgrounds, we sit in the bleachers and watch young cowboys and cowgirls try their hand at riding and roping in the In-dian Junior Rodeo Association Open Show. Below the grand-stand, a five-year-old Navajo cowboy in an oversize hat practices roping anything that comes his way. He steals the show. In the background, we can hear the drums that accompany the Native American dancers performing at the gazebo. The long lonesome whistle of a freight train calls up ghosts of the past. The spirit of Holbrook's rough and rowdy days lives on.

RECAPTURE THE ROUGH AND ROWDY TIMES AT HOLBROOKS' OLD WEST DAYS WHEN YOU GO

Holbrook's Old West Days celebration will be held June 5 and 6. Many activities are free; there's an admission charged for the rodeo, and athletic events have entry fees. Holbrook is 191 miles northeast of Phoenix. There are 24 motels to choose from, ranging from budget to moderately priced. Nearby attractions include the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. For more information, call the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce, (602) 524-6558.