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Show D Skip Rd Th MmmgAtAg 7 1 By GARY R. BLODGETT News Editor 1 ; BOUNTIFUL -- Mida Schroeder is 94 years young, but she still vividly remembers getting caught up in a cattle stampede at age 7, and a E J few years later riding in a parade with William Jpj (Wild Bill) Cody. .J "IT'S HARD TO say which was the most j exciting," said Mida during an interview at Bountiful Convalescent Center, where she has resided the past few years. "Probably the stampede was the most scary ; J because of the circumstances and because I was :j only 7 years old. I can see it all now, just like it i had happened yesterday," she says with a far- J, away look. HMIDA RECALLS how a herd of Longhorn Texas cattle went into a stampede and one of the cattle -- apparently bitten and infected by a gray j wolf-used its long horns to rip her dad's horse :r Pen by ramming the horse's chest, right between be-tween the front legs. j J "I can see in my mind that steer going wild and causing the stampede. I can still hear the clanging of their horns and the roar of their ; J hoofs as we tried to bring the herd together," :"J she said. "IT WAS scary, but it was all in a day's work. I Riding herd was just one of the many things I did J n the range. I did everything that the other f i rV."" -"-,4 V ' i U .1 i ; i MEMORY OF PAST Mida Schroeder. age 94. displays Texas Lonchoms as memory of vhen she rode the Colorado ranees in the days of Buffalo Bill. cowboys did." Mida said the big horns from the steer that "went mad," causing the stampede, were cut from the animal and kept as a momento after the steer was killed. MIDA WAS born on a remote ranch about 30 miles from Wray, Colo., just before midnight on Dec. 21, 1888. "Dad had me on a horse with him when I was only 18 months old and I was riding alone at age 4," she said. "By the time I was 7, 1 was riding herd with the other cowboys and soon after was doing everything the other cowhands did. "I EVEN broke a few horses and although I was thrown many times, I never suffered a broken bone," she said. Mida entered several horse races and other horse competition contests as a youngster, winning win-ning several honors. She last rode a horse when she was 85 years old. SHE RECALLS the days of cattle rustling, but said trouble with the Indians - at least the Ara-pahoes Ara-pahoes of that area - ended before she was born. "We knew of the Indians, but there was never any serious troubie with them," she said. ' Mida met Buffalo Bill when she and a cousin were in Denver. Both girls were teenagers and she was introduced to Buffalo Bill by her uncle who had a ranch near the famous cowboy in Cody, Wyo. "HE INVITED us to ride in his (Buffalo Bill's) parade and so we did," she said. Asked what kind of man he was, Mida smiled and replied: "He was a big, heavy set guy, rugged rug-ged looking. But he was a real nice gentleman, a lot of fun." SHE TOLD of being lost on the range but explained that if a rider will "give the range pony his head" by relaxing the reigns, the horse will find its way home. Speaking of horses of another kind, Mida said she rode the "iron horse" to Lincoln, Neb., each fall to attend school. "Even though I was raised on the range, riding the train alone as a youngster was a bit scary," she confided. SHE TO of the hardships on the range - the weather, the vast desert covered with snakes and coyotes and wolves roaming wild. Homes w ere built of sod, logs or rocks and were very primitive compared to today's standards. She was never without her "six-shooter- in a holster hols-ter strapped to her saddle horn. Asked if she liked that kind of life, she replied with a smile: "Oh yes, wouldn't you?" MIDA LAYS claim to two historical events of her ancestors - that Rush Valley, west of Grant-sville, Grant-sville, was named after her father's uncle who led a group of easterners to the gold rush in California, and to Benjamin A. Rush, (he second person to sign the Declaration of Independence. |