Bishop Mule Days facts for kids
Bishop Mule Days is a super fun yearly festival that celebrates the amazing mule! It happens in Bishop, California, for six days right before Memorial Day. Imagine over 700 mules showing off their skills in 181 different events! This festival also features the largest non-motorized parade in the United States.
What started as a small show in 1969 with just a few hundred people has grown into Bishop's biggest event. It now attracts as many as 30,000 visitors! Many people call Bishop Mule Days "The Granddaddy of Them All" when it comes to mule shows.
For over 20 years, Bob Tallman has been the main announcer for the event. Besides the mule competitions, you can also find an arts and crafts show and a country music concert. In 2020, the festival was put on hold and moved to 2021.
The Big Parade
The yearly Bishop Mule Days parade happens on the Saturday morning before Memorial Day. The parade route goes north through downtown Bishop on U.S. Route 395. Here's a cool rule: no cars or trucks are allowed! All parade entries must be on foot, or use mules or horses.
In 2010, the parade had 110 different groups. This included 18 mule pack strings from businesses and government groups. Some of these were the United States Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the Mountain Warfare Training Center from the United States Marine Corps. You can also see many old wagons pulled by mules and horses. Most groups come from California, but some travel from states like Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona.
Famous people like Ronald Reagan have been the Grand Marshals of the parade in past years. For the 50th anniversary in 2019, a special twenty-mule team pulled a copy of old borax wagons. These wagons were built to look exactly like the original ones you can see in Death Valley, California.
Exciting Competitions
The competitive events at Bishop Mule Days take place over six days. They are held at the Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop. There are many different types of events where mules and their riders show off their skills.
Some of the exciting events include:
- Barrel racing
- Calf roping
- Steer stopping
- Cow penning
- Flat racing
- Carriage driving
There are also activities like packing, dressage (fancy horse riding), team chariot racing, and even mule shoeing contests. In 2010, there were almost 220 different classes for competitors!
The Pack Scramble
The packing scramble is a super unique and exciting event that you'll only see at Bishop Mule Days. Here's how it works: 1. Mule pack strings (groups of mules with gear) enter the arena. 2. Their gear is unloaded, and the mules are set free. 3. Rodeo cowboys then make the herd run wild by firing blank gunshots!
This event is called a "wild and wooly spectacular" because over a hundred horses and mules run loose in the arena. Teams of professional backcountry packers compete against each other. Each team must find their own mules from the running herd, pack them correctly, and then race around to the finish line. Spectators cheer loudly as they watch! The team that is first to get their mules together, reload their packs, and lead them out of the arena wins.
