The Summer Lecture Series continues with Andy Gulliford returning to give a talk about, La Estrella del Pastor - Hispano Sheepherders from Colorado and New Mexico: Culture, Tradition, and Sheepscapes, on Wednesday, July 24th. The lectures take place in the Center's Lyceum Room #120 at 1:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.
From his book The Woolly West, Dr. Andrew Gulliford will speak about poor Hispanic sheepherders pastores, and wealthy Hispanic sheepowning families or ricos who transformed the West by the grazing of thousands of sheep across New Mexico and Colorado. He will discuss the history of sheep grazing as well as describe a powerful love story between Aldo Leopold and Estella Luna Otero Bergere. Gulliford will discuss the brutal sheep and cattle wars and explain historical archaeology and the wide variety of sites related to sheep movements, sheep camps, cairns, aspen tree carvings, and lonely sheepherder lifeways in Colorado’s high country for summer grazing. He will show photographs, and discuss cultural traditions, sheep camp recipes, high country wild herbs, and stories of Hispano herders who have grazed and still graze U.S. National Forest and BLM lands. Questions and stories from the audience will be welcomed.
Gulliford received the National Individual Volunteer Award from the U.S. Forest Service. The Woolly West won the Colorado Book Award for History and the Wrangler Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction from the National Cowboy Museum & Heritage Center. Books will be available for sale. Dr. Gulliford is a professor of history and Environmental Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango.