Reporter for The Canyon Weekly
It’s Cowboy Thanksgiving time in Detroit!
The event, which first got underway in 2005, takes place Saturday, Feb. 3 at the Detroit Community Center and the surrounding area.
Organized by Councilor Greg Sheppard with help from the Detroit Lake Foundation, the event starts in the 2 p.m. range, with dinner set for about 5 p.m. Participants are encouraged to bring a potluck item or dessert with plenty to share.
Sheppard is hoping to have a couple of bonfires set up around the fire bay area of the Community Center, and is working on some musical acts for the gym.
The weather is forecast to be pretty favorable, with highs toward 60 and a low of 45 with some morning showers.
Sheppard credits former eastern California and Montana rancher Matt Conroy with starting the Cowboy Thanksgiving tradition in Detroit. Calving season is usually just winding up at the end of January, Sheppard said, with ranchers and cowboys looking for an opportunity to get together and celebrate after putting in some backbreaking work.
“He brought the idea to town,” Sheppard said of Conroy.
This is year two of the “comeback” for the Detroit Cowboy Thanksgiving as the event missed a couple of seasons because of COVID-19 and the wildfires.
Sheppard thinks the city is ready for a community event “given all the strife we’ve had in town over RVs.”
“It’s a good time for the town to get together and make some new friends,” he told The Canyon Weekly.
