Hello and welcome to the bookmark.

I'm Christine Brown, your host today.

My guest is Ray Viator, author of All Trails Lead to Houston writing to the rodeo.

Ray, welcome back.

Thank you for being here.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited.

Your last book, if People Don't Remember, was Space City USA, which was beautiful photographs of the Houston Space Connection and all the wonderful little Easter eggs that are buried in our in our and our big city.

This one is about the trail rides that lead up into the livestock show and rodeo.

Now, I would bet probably everybody your audience knows about the livestock show and rodeo, but they may not all know about the trail ride.

So can you kind of introduce those to us?

Sure.

The trail ride started in 1952 for members of the Houston Fed Stock Show, as it was called back then.

We're sitting around talking about what they could do to promote the rodeo rodeo that started 20 years earlier.

And one of the key people in the room was Brenham Mayor Reece Lockett, who said he didn't want to go and travel anymore.

You can ride his horseback.

And the challenge from the other ones was, All right, you're going to be our arena director this year.

Why don't you ride to the rodeo and kick off the rodeo parade that starts the rodeo?

This was 1952, and he took up that challenge.

And along with fellow rancher by the name of Emile Marques, they rounded up a wagon, four horse, four horses, a driver wagon driver and two others, too, and set off the next day, literally the next day from Brenham, to ride all the way to Houston.

And that became the first Sawgrass Trail ride.

They started off with four people along the way.

They picked up other riders who wanted to join, and by the time they got to Houston, it was 20 riders altogether.

And since then it has just grown exponentially, especially in the fifties and early sixties.

Can you kind of talk about where how it started to snowball and grow?

Sure.

Remember, keep in mind that this is the 1950s and so Western everything was Western.

In fact, that was there were 30 or more different Westerns on TV at the time, and they even had an Emmy category for the best Western each year.

So there was a lot of interest in all things Western.

Like I say, the Sawgrass started in 1952, quickly grew to about a thousand.

Within a few years, riders on that trail ride and then kind of ran into a successful challenge because so many people wanted to participate and they eventually had others start their own.

So the next one, I believe, was the old Spanish Trail run, which actually started up in Logan's part, Louisiana, the longest ride, 213 miles.

And this had another one start up north of Houston, the Sam Houston trail run.

And then in 1957, the Prairie View Trail Ride started.

And there's a long history about that.

And then over the years, they've eventually had 12.

Altogether, they're down to ten this year.

But at its peak, it had 12 trail rides and each of the trail rides is different from the other.

They organized differently.

The people that joined join for a particular reason.

A lot of times it's because families and friends are involved and it becomes an outing, if you will, each year.

But at the same time, each of the members of the trail rides tend to do other trail related horse related things throughout the year.

And so it's a big camaraderie, but this is the big event.

This is kind of the showpiece booster clubs in their events.

Yes.

And.

Q You mentioned a couple spots that just so we can get an idea geographically where all are these I mean, as you say, all trails lead into Houston, but where are they all coming from?

That's a fascinating thing about Houston.

If you took a map, you would hit basically every quadrant of the Houston area.

So it ranges from Sawgrass and Purview out in far northwest area, Sam Houston and Texas Cattlemen's and north little further northwest to the old Spanish trail.

On the east side, you have one starting in cheek, Texas, which is near Beaumont.

That comes in from the east side, wrapping down to Galveston County area, the Texas Independence Trail right.

Moving clockwise a little bit further than you have.

Both the southwest and Southwestern Trail runs a little bit further west.

You have the mission Trail Road, which starts actually in San Antonio, and I'm leaving somebody else.

But that's my point, is they all converge into Houston and Memorial Park on the Friday before the Rodeo parade.

The map kind of looks like there's spokes in a on a bicycle or a wagon wheel.

I should say, not a bicycle.

Well, I didn't really coming all directly into the center of Houston.

That's it.

Exactly.

Yes.

So you mentioned that the the what was then called the fat stork show and now the livestock show has started previously.

This kind of was an unofficial way to drum up publicity.

But now they're they're affiliated.

So how did they kind of grow together and become one?

Well, it was always associated with the rodeo.

And the rodeo eventually created a trail ride committee and that serves as kind of the umbrella organization over each of the individual trail rides and the trail ride committee.

In addition to judging each of the trail rides as they come into, Houston also does a variety of things to help with the logistics along the way.

A good example, especially in the city of Houston, they will coordinate all this logistics that it takes to get ten or 12 trail rides into Memorial Park on the same day and allocate who's staying and what area of that park, and then coordinate the timing of when they roll out the next morning to go into downtown Houston.

So it's a lot of logistics, a lot of planning throughout the year to get to the trail rides and then to Houston.

The logistical piece was one that was really fascinating because it's one thing to think about, okay, yeah, they trail right into Houston, but I've driven into Houston.

That's hard enough just for me to do by myself.

And I'm in a car on a road meant for that.

So seeing and then and then seeing, you know, the people on horses with the Houston skyline behind them, it's kind of an anachronistic image.

So that that planning piece I can only imagine, is a lot of work.

It is.

And keep in mind that each trail ride is responsible for coordinating its own logistics of getting into Houston and then coordinating with the trail ride committee on top of it.

But it's it's a there are many organizations, if you will, the largest the Sawgrass Trail ride has the most structured organizational organization, the smaller ones.

It's maybe a series of four or five friends that coordinate the different logistics.

And there's not as much is not quite as cumbersome, but within the Sawgrass and purview that some of the bigger ones and the overall leader of that ride is called the Trail Boss.

And under him, each wagon has a wagon master who's responsible for that wagon, the safety of that wagon and the people associated with that wagon.

But then within it, you also have a safety boss.

You have a sound boss, because if you go along behind the ride, you'll hear them playing songs.

Throughout the the ride you have somebody in charge of the Chuckwagon, either for an individual wagon or for the trail ride.

So they have got to coordinate all the logistics of getting people fed throughout it.

And then they also have to coordinate all of the locations of the ground, stop it along the way.

They will stop at a real wide variety of county parks or county fairgrounds.

They do several county parks.

Also, there are a lot of independent arenas throughout the Houston area that each of the rides or some of the rides have their own arenas that they tend to do events that not just turn turn around season where they might overnight or camp out there, but also throughout the year they'll have different horse related events there.

So it is a lot of coordination and but it's each of the tournaments have been around long enough that they've got most of the makes it worked out.

Sure yeah.

Now how did you get involved because this book comes out of the photography that you've the photography project you took going to to take pictures and kind of preserve this heritage visually.

So how did you get involved with the trail rides?

Well, you know, the fascinating thing about the trail rides is the really welcoming.

Anybody could walk up and immediately your friend and yeah, I was carrying around a camera, but that didn't matter.

They welcome me and talk to me.

Tell me about, you know, how the riots going or something like that.

For me personally, it's a curious little coincidence.

I live on land that was once part of the seven ranch in far west Houston.

I say land.

I mean, it's a subdivision now, but it was once part of a 6000 acre ranch run by Emile Marx.

And Marx is just fascinating himself.

If you get a chance to read the book and there's a long section on the history of the people that played an instrumental role in the trail rides, Marx started ranching in the 1919 early 1900s.

By 1920, he had his farm, a ranch out in far west Houston, and he would regularly host rodeos to thank the other ranch hands who would help him round up his cattle.

That year it got so popular he had a grandstand there, and the photos of it are in the book.

He and they would get together each spring and have these rodeos.

People would come throughout the Houston area.

He had celebrities drive in for it, so it became a big deal.

And this would have been in the 1920s, which is really kind of amazing and then when the Houston, Texas dog Show and rodeo started, he provided some of the original horses that were used in the Fair Stock show and the rodeo.

He went on to do a lot of different things.

But like I say, 20 years later, he was one of the key people on starting the Sawgrass Trail, right?

So like I say, I live on the land.

It's less than two miles from my house.

And so I the other curious serendipity, the development is that my cousin actually happens to live on one of the farmer former marks on our property.

And she gave me a book which, by the way, is part of the consortium that Texas A&M runs, written by Debra Sizemore, who did the definitive book about the seven ranch and including a chapter on the soccer pastoral ride.

And Debra's work is just amazing resource material because she did first person interviews with the Marx family.

So a lot of the information I have is based on those recordings of those notes that she wrote and turned into that book.

And so that kind of piqued my curiosity in being a photographer.

You can't live in Houston over a year and not see the rodeo, the trail routes coming into Houston.

So it's there in front of you.

And so through a couple of years, I just thought about it and then decided to go out and kind of scout what I could see for from a photographic point of view.

And that's when I really became more intrigued by the idea of the concept of creating this book.

Because if you go, I started with a soft grass trail, and the rodeo website does a great job of laying out their map.

You can follow along, you can meet them up when they're coming to your particular area.

So I took that and went out to kind of scout the photo opportunities along the way.

And it's just great scenery, especially as you get farther out of Houston.

You've got the rural ranch type settings and the rolling hills out in the Brenham area.

So it just starts learning itself.

In fact, the cover of the book, I went out and shot that because I took this, took the photos for this book over about six year period.

And so I would go out each year, especially a soft grass one, and take from the same location.

And but the first shot was the best shot I got out of it.

But we got but I then went to the all the other trail rides.

I went to San Antonio and it was a beautiful morning in San Antonio.

Just golden light coming up and several photos in the book are from the mission trail ride that started that morning in San Antonio.

So photographically there were just a lot of opportunities to get great shots.

And then you've got the people involved.

I mean, like I say, they they're very warm and friendly and they never met a stranger.

I don't think they'll take anybody in and tell you what they're doing and, you know, let you walk around and explore things.

So it was just a great opportunity to tag along with them.

Now, we'll have to admit, I didn't ride any of these because in order to photograph, I had to get ahead of them and shoot back as they were coming towards me.

Sure.

I have to say all that.

I want to call this the book, the photos in this book, colorful.

And I mean that both literally, as you see on the cover, there's they're colorful.

But then also just, you know, the pew captured their character because these people do seem warm.

I wanted to go I'm not going to ride on a horse for a trail ride.

But I wanted to go I wanted to to see, you know, and there's a piece later in the book.

You talk about the education piece.

Yes.

A lot of these rides are associated with a make stops for elementary schools.

Yes.

For kind of to help the younger generation especially connect back to our western heritage.

And that does come across.

It made me even as an adult, want to go to one of those and learn learn more about what it takes to do it.

You know, we know that's at the heart of what the rodeo is all about.

It's agricultural education, but it's also engaging the next generation of people in the agricultural field.

And that's embraced fully by each of the trail rides.

They reach out to the community, they'll stop at daycares, they'll stop at schools, they'll stop at churches, they'll stop almost anywhere that's convenient.

And that would bring people out and let people pet the horses, talk to them about the experience there.

It's just a great, as you say, education experience and going out and meeting some of the turtle rides at the schools, like the northeastern trail ride out of Beaumont, You see the kids come up to it.

They're just thrilled.

And one of the photos in the book was shot during the COVID.

So you see the kids in the mask and they were able to go out and to see their excitement.

It's just amazing.

But that's the whole nature of the rodeo.

I mean, whether it's the trail rides or any of the events at the rodeos, there's an excitement and that interest in our Western culture, the real enrichment for Yes, for, for yeah, for all of our culture.

I think one of my favorite sections of the book, though, is the section called A Day in the Life on the Trail.

We don't have time to go over everything that happens, but can you kind of just walk us through like what what happens on a Day in the Life?

It's a long day.

The first thing I would say because it starts before sunrise where they have to some of the group and a particular, let's say, a wagon, they will have to trailer some of the their support to the next campsite.

So they have to get everything ready, go out there and come back and get their horses in the wagons ready, a breakfast that they've got time to settle up and get ready to roll out.

Most of them leave their camp overnight, campsite by about 9 a.m., but they've been up two or 3 hours before then.

And so part of my effort was to try to get out there in the early morning and watch them and just capture that work.

And it's you see it in all kinds of weather.

I have some beautiful sunny days and then I have some typical February days, windy and rainy and just miserable.

But they're out there and they're committed to it.

And so then throughout the day, they travel about, I would say, 5 to 6 miles, and then they'll take a break and you'll see some photos.

And they're about their breaks on the ride, which could be everything from literally eating in the saddle, eating a sandwich while sitting in the saddle, too, that some will set up camp stoves or serving tables on the side of the road or in the parks that they're stopping at.

And then that goes on usually three or four stops a day at the most.

They cover 20, 25 miles a day, depending on which run and how far they're coming from.

But then they get to their final campsite and it's everything in reverse.

They've got to they kept stressing the first responsibility is to the horses so they and saddle them are their in huts that unhitched them from the wagon.

They give them water, feed them and get them ready, and then they clean up a bit and relax a little bit.

And so usually they because they have sent out an advance team, they'll have the food ready for them when they get there.

And then it's then the evening comes and each trail ride does something a little bit different.

But there's usually some entertainment going on, some partying, going on.

It depends on the campsite.

Some have more support around it, so they could run electrical lines and have, you know, deejays and things like that.

But some are just very primitive where they camp for the night.

And so you see all kinds of things.

Now, obviously, it's changed over the years.

There's not the old chuckwagon in one sense, but there are the these pop up trucks that say pop up.

They have been custom built for this purpose, for this, for each individual trail ride has their own and they're cooking their field.

They usually they are either volunteers for that particular trail ride or people they've recruited to prepare the meals in advance and serve everybody.

And then it's clean up and go to bed sometimes late in the morning.

And then it all repeats the next day.

You mentioned the horses, and I did want to highlight this because there are, of course, rules about, I'm sure that come from the planning committees about animal safety.

But yeah, they're also just all these people are committed to the health and safety.

And one of the details I found interesting is there's even farriers sometimes available for if anything, the horse needs of it is along this trail ride the horse is going to get to ensure their safety.

You're right.

I was surprised that I wasn't expecting it the first time I met the saw grass turn right on their first night there.

They had a farrier there who was available and there were three or four people that brought their horses over to have them reshoot one or the other, at least twice that I saw on one of the other trail rides on different that they would have problems with their wagon wheels.

And there was somebody who knew how to take the wagon wheel apart, fix it, have a photo in the book of them actually having a weld a piece back together.

So they've got to be ready for anything that happens along the trail.

Right.

Another illuminating part of the book that I enjoyed is you.

You do break down and give kind of a little section on every trail, right.

Featured, which unfortunately, we can't go into What I would encourage people to read the book to learn about all these trail rides because like you say, they each have a unique flavor or mission or there's something about them all that sets them apart from each other.

But can you maybe just highlight one or two?

Maybe.

Interesting.

Or like I say, the Texas Independence Trail ride, what sets it apart is all the other trail rides.

You're usually have to be associated with a particular wagon.

If you're a low rider, you're the rider.

You have to follow along with that wagon.

Texas Independent says, We don't care.

You know, we'll have wagons, we'll have people.

You can come and go or mix however you want.

So they like that independence of how they do that particular ride the Northeast Trail right out of Beaumont.

It's just fascinating.

The Trail Boss is a second generation travels and it's just the way he runs that trail ride.

It's very he has a very strong religious base to it in terms of really wanting to empower the riders and for them to feel the responsibility and not just to this generation, but to the next generation.

You see the same thing in the Prairie View Trail Ride, which was founded by Ernest Diamond in 1957.

Him and two or three other people from Prairie View A&M area and his that ride is still run by his son, Mark Diamond Jr. And that's the other kind of continuing aspect about all these trail rises.

It's very family oriented and you will see people from different generations on each trail ride and within each wagon.

And I found it fascinating to be on the trail ride.

And you can see the families and they're interacting, the kids are playing together and horsing around literally and figuratively.

And it really is that that kind of camaraderie and family orientation.

The things that changed over the years, though, is that it's harder for kids these days to participate.

And so you will see during the middle week during school, you won't see as many riders out because kids have to be in school.

But you will also see, especially on the weekends, younger riders with ten or 12 badges from their previous trial.

Right.

So it starts very early.

Murtagh statement talks about how he was two years old when he rode his first, and that's not an unusual story.

So it's very family one.

But like you say, each one has a different story to tell, a different personality to it, and it makes you want to learn more and maybe visit them if you live close enough, You know, to Go was the one that was called like the champagne Trail, right?

Yeah.

One appealed to me a little bit.

That's out of far West Houston, the Brookshire area.

And they were known for their their fancy meals that they'd have once a night and they're still around and including they sometimes lead the trail, ride a wagon into the rodeo for performance.

They had their grand entry and they usually have at least one or two wagons from one of the trail rides there to kick it off.

You've talked about wagons a bit, but I want to maybe ask you to go into more detail because maybe people are picturing a covered wagon, which certainly there are, but there's different lots of different kinds of wagons that are on these rides that are.

And then featured in the book.

Yes.

And there are criteria that the Trail Rider Snowshoe Trail Ride Committee is set and that each of the individual trail rides have said in terms of it has to be authentic.

It's not anything electrical on it.

They do have to have a number of safety precautions on it.

So there are certain criteria for it.

But then after that, it's up to the individuality and creativity of each trail ride and you'll see some very colorful covers on these wagons and some very pedestrian but very useful covers for the wagons.

You'll see them fitted out inside with just bare benches to sit on for those riders and some with a little more padding on that.

And that's important because one of the other aspects I wanted to mention was the longevity of some of these riders.

Sawgrass has one gentleman, Johnny, who's I think is in his nineties, and he keeps getting the award for the longest serving trail rider.

He's riding in the wagon now, but he used to be a trail rider and certainly one of the Mark's family members, they rode into their eighties and 90.

So it's not unusual to see people of all ages associated with the trail ride.

I also wanted to you talked about the authenticity of the the wagons.

There's also the dress code.

You can't.

Yes, we could.

We're not dressed for the trail rides today.

You need to be in something a little more western.

But there are you make a good point.

There are very specific criteria for the dress for it.

Yeah, it has to be.

It's more what cannot and go on it.

No ball caps.

You do need cowboy boots, Western boots.

You know it's a safety issue.

Boots were designed and evolved to be safe to wear on horseback and so but it's part of the culture too, to make sure that's represented.

But there are different criteria.

There's no advertising on any of the wagons or any of the trail riders.

There's no alcohol while they're underway.

So there are different criterias for each of the trail rides.

And that surely makes for better pictures to have everybody there ready to be here.

Yes.

Now, they they the first few days, they tend to be more normal.

Western wear fuel for the arrival and Memorial Park and for the trail ride into for the rodeo parade.

They're allowed to dressed up and encouraged to dress up.

And they do.

And so you get more finery in terms of the Western wear that they wear those last two days because they're competing for prizes for the most spirited and most authentic looking trail.

Right.

Well, unfortunately, we are running short on time.

I could just talk a such a fascinating topic and such a beautiful book.

I could talk about it for an hour.

But in our final minute, can you just kind of sum up what you want people to take away from this book?

I think it's the same thing that the rodeo itself emphasizes and certainly each of the trail runs.

This is all about understanding our Western culture, celebrating it, keeping it alive, not just for this generation, but for future generations.

And yes, while the number of attendees have has come down over the years, it's still amazing how many people they draw out each year on the trail ride that are actually riding on a horse or in the wagon for seven days into Houston.

But it's also it reaches so many other people.

You can't go anywhere in Houston on that that Friday before the Rodeo parade and not see one of the trail rides coming into Houston because they're coming in from all all around the campus and so that to me, it's spreading that that Western message about how important that is to our heritage here in Houston and over the years and this is the 72nd year that they've run.

So it's it's part of who we are.

It's and it's a wonder I'm so glad you've captured this so that we have if we can't go, if we're too far away, we can experience it vicariously through this beautiful, wonderfully photographed book.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

I really enjoyed our conversation.

I appreciate you coming.

Thank you.

And that is unfortunately, all the time we have for today.

The book, again, is called All Trails Lead to Houston by Ray Viator.

Thank you so much for joining us and I will see you again soon.