The Nation - News from Sept. 10, 1989

Thousands lined Main Street in Billings before dawn to give an uproarious welcome to Montana’s Old West centennial spectacular of cattle, cowboys and covered wagons as they rumbled into town at daylight. The cattle drive and wagon train revived--for six short days--the romanticism, heroism and friendship of a bygone era. The cattle and drovers had been accompanied on the trail by some 240 covered wagons and 2,400 “social riders.” To take part in the drive, riders had to have an animal for the cattle herd. If they didn’t own one, they could lease one. “This is the best Western movie I’ve ever seen,” said Ingemar Gleissman of Stockholm, Sweden. Gleissman said he decided he had to join the cattle drive after reading about it during a business trip to San Francisco. The celebration was the most ambitious of scores of official events created to celebrate Montana’s 100th year as a state.