The Some-teenth Annual Oreana July 4th Parade

looking back on July 4 2022

If you’re one of the lucky few who gets invited to Parade Mistress Linda’s personalized annual 4th of July Parade in Oreana, well, you get to see the best kept secret in Idaho.

Every year is different. Linda makes plans, plans change, sometimes the morning of the parade. Sometimes the parade comes up the road. Sometimes we go down the road to the Parade. 

Participation is optional by the animals, and sometimes they say yes and march out of the driveway, then change their mind halfway into the Parade and turn around and head home on their own. This year Linda held the Parade at her house so all animals could join in the festivities as they felt like it. 

This year Linda was going to ride Hattie the Mule, but Hattie changed her mind the morning of the Parade and, though they’d been practicing, even with the American flag, Linda decided staying on the ground was a much better option. But riding isn’t essential to a 4th of July Parade anyway. Uncle Sam is, and neighbors are. 

Instead of climbing aboard an equine, Linda/Uncle Sam mounted a ton-hay bale and flung candy to the Parade fans. This was not only fun for the humans, but exciting for the painted and patriotic animals, particularly the goats and pigs, who descended upon the candy faster than the humans could gather it up.

The goats and dogs and horse and mule and donkey and mini-mule are old hands at the annual parade, but the Caspian horse and the painted pigs participated for the first time, and proclaimed the Oreana July 4th Parade a big little town success.

 

Oreana Fourth of July Parade

July 4 2017

Nothing says patriotism more than a July 4th parade. Nothing says JULY 4th PARADE more than the custom Oreana Fourth of July Parade. You won't see the it on television or Twitter or in the newspapers. You'll only see it by special invitation, and a few select people get the honor of observing every year.

Parade mistress Linda put on her 11th annual Oreana Fourth of July parade, starring her various menagerie: war horse Ted, 

various dogs (Goat Dog, Coyote Dog, and possibly others; Henry refused to participate; Edna the donkey wasn't interested this year), and various goats, 

tossing candy 

to her throngs of fans. 

Hercules the horny jackass was barred from this year's activity. 

This year's guest star was Yvonne's donkey Marie who stylishly showed off her panache.

It's an event not to be missed!

Oreana–Where the Deer and Antelope Play

Friday June 17 2016

Coming to the high desert country of Owyhee County to visit fellow horseback riders, the author decided to make Oreana her home.

I've lived in really big cities, smaller cities, little towns, in the boonies, on the road, and you could even say a tent for a while. It's easy for me to shed one persona and slip into the other, rather inconspicuously and fluidly. I'm comfortable in all of them. But I do have to say that living in less than a town, out in the boonies, with horses of course, is pretty darn nice. 

I always say I live in Owyhee, which is the SW county of Idaho, but the 'town' I'm associated with is barely a blip on the map, and I live outside that town anyway. But it's home. I did a feature profile on Oreana in the June issue of Idaho Magazine. It starts out:

“Oreana—Population 8, Maybe 9.” That hand-painted sign tacked to a telephone pole greeted me as I drove down the hill into the little community of Oreana for the first time in 2005. I’d come to this fairly isolated corner of Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho to visit some endurance horse-riding friends for a week. I stayed on for a month. It took that short a time for the high desert sagebrush country to get under my skin, because two years later, I was back to stay…

And I must say that not all editors are so easy to work with, but I really enjoy writing for and working with Steve, the editor of Idaho magazine. 

You can read the rest of the excerpt here (and the whole article is available for purchase or subscription): 

https://www.idahomagazine.com/article/oreana-spotlight/