D. E. Larsen, DVM

The Coos County Fair has existed for my entire memory. The fact is, it started in 1912. Every summer in my early memory, the Larsen kids worked to have money for the fair.

Our main effort was peeling chitum (cascara) trees. We would dry the bark on the roof of the machine shed. Once dried, we crushed the bark into small pieces and sold it to the local feed store. I was the youngest, and I am sure I got the short end of the stick when it came to dividing the funds. It was calculated on the fact that my needs were fewer. I would guess that my contribution to the workload was probably less as well.

I became aware of the calf scramble in 1952, when my oldest brother caught a calf. In those years, the calves were steers. They were sold at an auction at the end of the following year’s fair.

When I was fifteen, I filled out an application for the calf scramble. I have no idea what the selection process was or how many applications there were. But there were ten scramble calves and twenty guys giving chase. The fact that my uncle was chairman of the fair board couldn’t have had any bearing on my application.

The calf scramble had become a significant event during the Saturday night rodeo. They ran all the calves into the arena, and they stood in a group at the far end, wondering what was going on. These were not baby calves. As a group, they averaged close to four hundred pounds.

The calves were heifers this year. We had to show them at the fair the following year, but there would be no auction. They became the property of the successful scrambler.

They lined us guys up in front of the rodeo chutes. We were all given a rope halter and then a brief reading of the rules. This was an individual sport. You were not to expect help from your competitors, and you were to not offer any help.

You had to catch the calf, put the halter on the calf, and lead her out of the arena. Once you had her out of the arena on the halter, she was yours.

They blew the whistle, and the race was on. There was some initial cooperation in the group of guys, with everyone helping to corner calves. But once the first couple of calves were seemingly caught, it became every man for himself.

I was in a small group, chasing a couple of calves toward the corner of the arena when suddenly, there was a calf running beside me on the left side.

I threw my left arm around her neck and locked hands. I tried to plant my heels in the soft arena dirt. The calf had no problem pulling me off my feet and dragging me across the arena. My arm maintained a solid grip around her neck. 

It was not long before she was tired enough to come to a stop. With my left arm still firmly around her neck, I grabbed her by the nostrils with my right hand and pulled her head across my chest. At the same time, I stood and leaned with all my weight, pushing her to the left. She resisted for a moment, then flopped onto her left side.

I rested a moment, keeping all my weight on her neck. While I was trying to figure out how I was going to get a halter on this calf, I noticed a small group of guys gathered around me. They were not there to help. They were hoping the calf would escape my grip.

I pulled the coiled rope halter from my belt and shook it to straighten it out. Then, with my right hand, I slipped it over her nose first and pulled the upper part of the halter over her left ear. Finally, I struggled to get the halter over her right ear and tightened it to make sure it was a secure fit.

I started getting myself up, keeping one knee on the calf’s neck while I wrapped the end of the halter lead around my butt. With a deep breath, I sprang to my feet and braced myself. 

The heifer righted herself to her sternum, looked around for a moment, then scrambled to her feet and started in the direction of the far end of the arena. I planted my feet, she hit the end of the rope and spun around, standing there, pulling against the lead rope.

I swung around her in a wide circle, not giving any slack in the rope. Finally, I had her pulling against the lead rope with her butt pointed toward the exit gate. I took a step, and she backed up with a constant pull against the lead rope. 

The circle of guys thinned out a little when they realized I was in complete control of the situation. They were looking for other potential escapees. I made slow progress, backing the heifer toward the gate.

As I approached the exit gate, Uncle Duke and another guy came out and helped me with the last few yards. Once through the gate, the other guy took the lead rope and tied it to a fence post.

“I’ve been working these scrambles for quite a few years,” the other guy said. “I don’t think I have seen anyone walk a calf out of the arena backwards before.”

“He has trained calves to lead for the last 10 years,” Duke said. “It was a little inventive, but he knows that a will pull against the lead rope for two or three days.”

“I think we should see more of that sort of stuff,” the other guy said. “The crowd really loved it. Did you hear them?”

‘No, I didn’t hear a thing,” I said. “I was just trying to get to the gate. I thought it worked pretty well. Sort of the path of least resistance.”

There was plenty of help to lead the calf to her stall in the beef barn.

“She has to stay here tonight,” Uncle Duke said. “She can go home tomorrow afternoon when the other animals are released to go home.”

Sunday evening, we loaded her into the truck with the rest of the fair animals with no problems. She went home, and we kept her in the barn for several weeks to help tame her down. She was no longer a range animal. Rather than turning her out with other calves, we let her run with the cow herd. That way, she would come to the barn twice a day and learn that good things, grain and silage, happened in the barn.

“What are you going to name her?” Dad asked one evening.

“I have been calling her Queenie,” I said.

Queenie wintered with a herd of Jersey cows, and when spring came, I started working with her for her return trip to the Coos County fair.

Please read the rest of her story next week.

Photo Credit: Mohan Nannapaneni on Pexels.

D. E. Larsen, DVM

It was a sunny Friday evening and we just got the kids to the dinner table. 

“Maybe we should eat dinner and go to the movie down at the Rio tonight,” I said. Speaking more to myself than to the family.

“That would be great,” Sandy said. “It that new movie that everyone is talking about. Star Wars, I think.”

I made a long reach from the end of the table and speared slice of chicken breast with my fork. Just as I settled onto my plate, the telephone rang.

“Great,” Sandy whispered under her breath.

“Three day old wire cut,” I said. “Those gals never look at their horse all week and find the problem when they are brushing them for a Saturday morning ride.”

“Do you want me to answer it?” Sandy asked.

“I’ll get it,” I said as I got up and walked to the kitchen to answer the call.

“Hello, this is Dr. Larsen,” I said into the phone.

“I’m so glad I caught you, Doc,” Janice said. “I thought you might be at that movie already.”

“What do you have going on, Janice?” I asked.

“Luna has a nasty wire cut on the side of her neck,” Janice said. “I think she must have caught it on the barbwire fence. I was hoping I could get you to come out and sew it up tonight.”

“I thought we talked about that barbedwire fence last year,” I said.

“Yes, I know it is my fault,” Janice said. “But you know how it is, there is always something else to spend the money on and something that seems to consume the time.”

“When do you think this happened?” I asked.

“It looks like it might be a day or two old,” Janice said. “There is some dried blood in the hair and the wound Is matted with her hair.”

“Janice, you know that there will be no difference in the wound healing of a wire cut that is two or three days old,” I said. “It will save you a hundred dollars if I come out in the morning.”

“Yes, I know,” Janice said. “But I was planning to ride Luna in the morning. A bunch of us girls are going up Black’s Creek for a ride. Do you think she will be okay to ride tomorrow?”

“I can’t tell without looking at her, but I wouldn’t expect a skin laceration on her neck to slow Luna down much,” I said. “And twelve hours difference if only going affect the price. What time are you planning to leave in the morning?”

“Sue is going to be here with her trailer at nine,” Janice said. “That is why I wanted to get it done tonight. But, if waiting until morning will save a hundred dollars, maybe I should wait.”

“I can be out the by eight,” I said. “Luna is so easy to work on, I should be done before nine.”

“Okay, Doc, let’s do it in the morning,” Janice said. That way your kids can see the movie.”

***

Janice was holding Luna in the corral when I pulled into her driveway. I poured a bucket of water and drew up ten ccs of lidocaine in a syringe and stuck it in my pocket. 

With my surgery bag in one hand and the water bucket in the other, I slipped through the corral gate.

Luna snickered when I patted her on the right shoulder. The laceration that Janice had call about was on the right side of Luna’s neck. It was less than two inches long, dry and crusty, it probably happened on Monday or Tuesday. I would have been pissed if I had came out last night for this wound.

“I have to tell you, Janice, that this would will heal inspite of what we do today,” I said. “This is nearly a week old. I can clean it up, give her a tetnus booster and some antibiotics and she will be good to go. To close this wound, I am going to have to remove the skin edge and all the granulation tissue, then suture the wound. That might heal a little faster, but only by a week.”

“Are you sure it well heal?” Janice asked.

“If I looked at this wound on Wednesday, I would have sutured it with only some minor debridement,” I said. “Today, I have to remove the skin edge and all the granulation tissue. It will make a larger would, take more time, and gain very little benefit. I think if I clean this wound and shave the hair away from the skin edge, it will be healed in two weeks.”

“Okay, Doc,” Janice said. “Am I going to be able to ride her today?”

I press hard on the wound and around the edge. Luna showed no response to the manipulations.

“I don’t think she knows she has a wound,” I said. “I will only use a little lidocaine for local anesthesia if she flinches. My bet is she isn’t going to need anything.”

I scurbbed the wound with Betadine surgical scrub and rinsed it well. I shaved the wound edge with a prep blade, making a wide margin around the wound. Then I scraped the crusty debris from the wound, exposing fresh granulation tisuue. Luna never flinched through the whole process.

I opened a new container of Furacin ointment and applied a small coating to the wound. I handed Janice the container.

“Apply a small amount twice a day,” I said. “That is all you have to do. I will drop by next Friday, just to double check on things. I will have Sandy give you a call on Monday to schedule that recheck. If you have Luna in the corral, I don’t think you would need to be here.”

“Do I have to do anything for flies?” Janice asked.

“I don’t think that will be a problem with this wound,” I said. “By the time I recheck it, you will be surprised at how close it is to being healed.”

“That’s great, I hate the fly spray,” Janice said.

“Now a tetnus booster and a dose of long acting penicillin and I will be out of here before Sue arrives,” I said.

***

Just as I said. Luna’s wire cut was almost healed with I rechecked her the following week. Janice and Sue had an enjoyable ride after my visit. And the kids got to see Star Wars. I just didn’t expect that movie to still be around for almost fifty years.

Photo Credit: Stephen Leonardi on Pexels.

My July is busy this busy this year. I seems like I have more time on the road than I have at home. First a trip to Myrtle Point over the 4^th of July, that involved seven hours of driving and three days away. Then this weekend, another trip to Myrtle Point for an impromptu class reunion, another seven hours of driving and four days away.

Then on the 25^th of July, during the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point, I have a celebration for Twin Oaks 4-H club, for 80 years of service to the community. With the fair, there are no accommidations available in Myrtle Point, so we have to back track to Roseburg for a room. Another seven hours of driving and two days away.

That totals nine days away from home for July, but it seems like more, as it always most of a day to prepare to depart and then at least a day to recover from the trip. That makes fifteen days and we won’t speak of the expense. It all adds up to a busy July.

That somewhat explains this weeks blog post. II was written in 1850. Which means little work for me. This is a letter written from by my great-great grandfather. He had traveled to California in the gold rush and this was a letter home.

In another letter, in possission of another portion of the extended family and partially published in the Oakland Tribune on January 23, 1949, he stated that he was coming home with $220 dollars. Not much for such a trip. 

But I hope you enjoy the letter and to make it easier to read, there is a transcription that that follows the scans.

This Transcription by David E. Larsen, July 5, 2025 – Corrections or guesses are in brackets [ ].

***

August 18, (18)50 fifty miles from

Sacaramanto Cittey

My Dear Wife

I am happy to inform thee that I arrived here on July the 28 in perfect good [h]ealth but much tire([d] of traveling having walked and carreyed my pack for near 400 miles the road a considrable part of it) being so bad that I cannot Describe it some placeses for o[v]er 10 miles very Deep sands other places very rockey and stoney alsotremendious hills very ruff and in some places Covered with Snow I me and 3 others left our company and teams near 400 miles back from this place the reason why we did so was our provisions were got very Scarse and we thought of getting in before the teams and get Nobles son to meet them with provision but we got on the [w]rong trak and got into the digg digins one hundred and fiftey or 200 miles from were they went too we have not seen nor heard from them Since onley we heard that they had bought and killed 2 Oxen since we left them the rout that Noble took [h]ad no travle on it this year before he went (we are informed) and had we taken the Same route it is very likley we should[d] have perished for want of food as we Should have had to travel more than one hundred miles withught food the reason why it was so Mr Noble was mistaken in the distance we werel rathe[r] pinched as it was we traveled across the Disert 40 or 45 Miles on a little flower and water and from 20 to 25 miles we had neither flower nor water 2 of our men had some Dificultey in crossing I went 

[next page] before and met them with water Soon after we Crossed the Disert we met waggons with provisions to Sell flower at 2 Dollars pork and hard bread 2¼ per pound we had a little money but we had to be very Carefull how we spent it after Crossingthe Disert 2 of our men were unwilling to proseed so I and a young man from lbennedicts went A head after traveling 2 Dayes we fell in with Mr Woodworth and Vanivea’s boys Mr Woodworth Mr Silvernale Willm Vaniea put there their packes on there backs and Came alonge with us the rest of the boys are Come through and we have all together Since Mr Tu[sr]nock went along with Noble and I have not as yet [S}een him but we think of starting towards w[h]ere he is tom(m)orrow that is w[h]ere we expect him to be the prosppect(t)s are not so flattreing as was gemeraly expected thousands have alreadey wished themselves at home again I saw one man on the road that was Shoott by the Indieans he was Shot in the brest I saw and handled the harrow the man died the same night that I saw him Saw another man Said there was 6 Shot by the Indeans out of his Companey another worked a little below us 2 of [h]is companions were shot 2 Arrows Struck him but the Swifthness of his horse he would have been killed I have worked pritty hard Since I came but have not made much w[h]ere we are [h]as been dug over and over we think of trying to find a better place tomorrow morning thank

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be to god we have had plenty to eat Since we Came in and Injoied good [h]ealthe I have never as yet resented Comming to Callefornea and hope I never Shall do I have had hard things to pass through but the lord [h]as been faithfull to his promise in ssix troubles he [h]as been with me and in the Seventh he [h]as not left me and he [h]as promised that he will niver leave  he will nive[r] forsake them that put there trust in him My Dear Polley let us take Courage and put our trust in him who [h]as promised that we Shall niver be Confounded and altho many are the affli[]tions of the ritious the Lord Deliverith them {o]utof them all I should like to be with thee my dear Children and friends In Salem but as this Can[n]ot be at present let us meet at A throne of grac[e] Thank be to God we can meet here an[d] mingle our[?] prayers in the years of him who is al[w]ayes {ready?]

to answer and bless us I have had Some yea ma{???} preacious Seasons from the presance of the Lord in {??} this wilderness of Sin and wickedness this mornin[g] I feelted the to be very preacious to my Soul wil{?} praying on the hill My Dear Mary pray pray pra[y] and pray in faith and God will Comfort Support pror[?] and bless thee = and I hope and pray that Joseph will may not forget to meet [h]is father and mother at A throne of Grace God willing I hope to be at home nest febuarey {several scratch outs} acept of my Kindes love to thyself and also to all our Dear Children and may God ever bless you all with Grace to Live before him whi[t] the prayer of thy ever faithfull and affectio[nate] Husband Joseph Davenport

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Joseph Can have that Coat that Mr[s Bacon[?] made for me Mrs Bacon Can alter it for him 

John Can have A Jacket made out of that Black Coat and trowsers or anything else that there is

Thou Canst have made up for them I wish I [h]ad

Something to give to thee and my little dauters but you

will be like to wate till I Come may God bless 

and preserve you all amen

Placerville Cal Aug 21                    Paid 40

No 4

Mary Davenport

Care of Josuea Mellor

Libbertey Post Office

Town of Salem

Kenniocha Countey

Wisconsin

North America

My Kindest respects to Uncle Thomas and Aunt Dale

also Brother Hallester Sister Delno Brother & Sister Train

and all the members of the Class

My Kindest respects to Uncle Josuea and Aunt

Sarah also to Mary-Elen also to Brother M Mellor

& Wife Kindest Respects to Mr Mrs Pensory[?} & family

Mr Woodworth & vanivea’s Boyes are all well