Cattle drive through Santa Rosa celebrates Sonoma County Fair

In a scene straight out of the Old West, ranchers drove a herd of longhorn cattle through the streets of downtown Santa Rosa on Sunday to celebrate the area’s deep agricultural roots and promote the 83rd annual Sonoma County Fair.

The cattle drive, led by a group of professional cowboys and local wranglers on horseback, brought wide smiles to hundreds of spectators along the mile-long route from Old Courthouse Square to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

“I’ve seen steers before but I have never seen them all running down streets,” 11-year-old Jenna Phillips said. “It was so crazy to see them doing that.”

Squeals of laughter echoed through the square as several longhorns broke loose from the herd on Fourth Street, but were quickly corralled near Mark Allen Jewelers.

The Sonoma County Farm Bureau revived the cattle drive, last staged in 2011, as part of a salute to the county’s agricultural traditions during the annual Farmer’s Day at the fair.

Cheri Phillips, who was raised in Santa Rosa, said she was happy organizers brought back the cattle drive because she wanted to expose her two daughters, Jenna and Skyler, to a tradition she cherishes.

“This fair is very special because of the community interest and support in it,” Phillips said. “This is tradition at its finest because we used to do this all the time as a way of life.”

The cattle grunted and shoved each other as they plodded east along Fourth Street, then south on E Street to the fairgrounds parking lot on Bennett Valley Road.

John Osbourn, a cowboy with Four Star Rodeo Co. in Shasta County, who helped to herd the cattle, has been around horses and farm animals his whole life as a cowboy in Cottonwood, just south of Redding.

But seeing the reaction of people who have never watched cattle roam city streets is always a treat, he said.

“This type of unique exposure is a really great way for people to get a sense of a time period that they have never witnessed before,” Osbourn said. “I think it is an amazing opportunity for urban dwellers to see western lifestyle.”

A similar event held in Napa in 1994 erupted into chaos when animal rights activists protested the cattle drive, ending in a stampede that sent several longhorns slamming into the glass doors of a bank. But Sunday’s event concluded without mishap or controversy.

Supervisor James Gore, who rode alongside the longhorns on horseback, said he was happy to see the cattle drive make a comeback.

“People were so excited leading up to the cattle drive event that we felt we definitely made the right decision to bring it back,” he said.

Once all the cattle were herded into a pen, Gore cracked open a Coors Light with a dozen ranchers and volunteers, sipping on beers while children petted their horses and asked questions about the cattle.

“This fair has always been about highlighting our flourishing agricultural community and is a point of pride for all of us,” said Gore, who was also decked out in western gear. “This is the bastion of agriculture in a time of modernization.”