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In 1870, sheep ranchers in Cedar City first took their grazing animals off the neighboring mountain and herded them through town into the valley for winter.
On Saturday, the tradition was kept alive as more than 1,000 of the wooly beasts paraded down Main Street to the delight of several hundred spectators lining the curbs.
The parade was part of the Cedar Livestock and Heritage Festival, held to celebrate the livestock heritage of Cedar City and Iron County. The trail down Main Street is one of the few recognized livestock trails in the country that bisects a city for one day.
Chad Reid, chairman of the festival committee, said the event is in its fifth year and was fashioned after a similar parade held every year in Ketchum, Idaho. An official with the Ketchum Parade encouraged Cedar City to preserve the tradition.
"She said, 'You have a story to tell,' " said Reid, who helped get the city to herd the sheep down Main Street as ranchers did 140 years ago.
Maria Twitchell, head of the area tourism bureau, said the three-day Heritage festival ends Sunday with a church service.
In addition to the skittish sheep herded down Main Street to the crack of bull whips and the boisterous hollers of sheep herders, there were antique tractors, cars, and old and new sheep camp wagons drawn by horses or pulled by trucks.
There were also barbecue and Dutch oven competitions, stock dog demonstrations, cowboy poetry and a quilt show.
Dianne Jenson Butters, who recently returned to Cedar City where she was raised, attended Saturday's parade with grandchildren Ambree, 6, and Dylan, 3. She said the parade gives children a chance to see that not everything just magically appears in a grocery store.
Francis Webster, a city founder and store owner, is credited with launching the sheep industry in Cedar City.Webster's statue stands outside what was once the Cedar Sheep Association building.
Saturday was the first time Cedar City resident Ray Lien had seen the parade. He was impressed by the nimbleness of the sheep as some jumped from the herd, trying to escape.
"I didn't realize there are that many sheep herders here," he said. "It's very interesting."