Bishop Mule Days is an annual festival celebrating the

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

, held in

Bishop, California Bishop (formerly Bishop Creek) is the only incorporated city in Inyo County, California, United States. It is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley within the Mojave Desert, at an elevation of . The city was named after Bishop Creek ...

over a six-day period leading up to

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

. More than 700 mules compete in 181 events and the largest non-motorized

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

in the United States. It started as a small show in 1969 with a few hundred attendees and has grown to Bishop's largest event, attracting as many as 30,000 spectators. Among mule shows, Bishop Mule Days has been described as "The Granddaddy of Them All".

Bob Tallman Robert Matthew Tallman (born October 25, 1947) is an American professional rodeo announcer. He is known as "the voice of professional rodeo". Life Bob Tallman was born Robert Matthew Tallman on October 25, 1947, in Orovada, Nevada, to rancher Joh ...

has been the senior announcer of Bishop Mule Days for over 20 years. Also included are an arts and crafts show, and a country and western musical concert. The featured musical performer in 2010 was

Lonestar Lonestar (formerly known as Texassee) is an American country music band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Drew Womack (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (key ...

and country star

Jerrod Niemann Jerrod Lee Niemann (born July 24, 1979) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He has released one single for Category 5 Records (2006); three albums for Sea Gayle Music/Arista Nashville: '' Judge Jerrod & the Hung Jury'' (2010), ' ...

performed in 2013. 2020 saw the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

as grounds for cancellation & deferral to 2021.

Parade

The annual Bishop Mule Days parade takes place on the Saturday morning before Memorial Day. The parade route runs north on U.S. Route 395 through downtown Bishop. No motorized vehicles or floats are allowed; all entries must either be on foot, or use mules or horses. The 2010 parade had 110 units, including 18 mule pack strings from commercial

pack station A pack station is the base of operations for transporting freight via pack animals in areas that do not allow for other forms of transportation, either due to difficult access or use restrictions as defined in Wilderness Act. The station facilita ...

s and government agencies including the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

, the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

and the

Mountain Warfare Training Center The Mountain Warfare Training Center (MWTC) is a United States Marine Corps installation located in Pickel Meadows in Mono County, California, at above sea level in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Toiyabe National Forest, northwest of Br ...

operated by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

. Many historic mule-drawn and horse-drawn vehicles participate. Although most parade units are from California, units from Idaho, Nevada, Iowa, Arizona, Oregon and Utah participated in 2010. Grand marshalls of the parade in past years have included

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

and Norman Livermore. On the event of the 50th anniversary in 2019, a

twenty-mule team Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1898. They traveled from mining, mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest Rail transport, railr ...

hauled a reproduction train of borax wagons. The two borax wagons and water wagon were built over a period of several years in the 2010s at Engels Coach Shop in Joliet, Montana, accurately copying the originals that are on display at Furnace Creek in

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

, California.

Competition

Competitive events take place over a six-day period at the Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop. "A full slate of competitive events is featured, including events such as barrel racing, calf roping, steer stopping, cow penning, flat racing, and carriage driving. Activities also range from packing to dressage, and from team chariot racing to mule shoeing contests." There were nearly 220 classes in 2010.

The Pack Scramble

The packing scramble is a competitive event unique to Bishop Mule Days. Mule pack strings enter the arena, and are unloaded and untethered. Rodeo cowboys then stampede the herd, firing blank gunshots. The event is described as a "wild and wooly spectacular" with "more than one hundred horses and mules running loose in the arena." "Teams of professional backcountry packers compete against each other for bragging rights. Each team must wrangle its own mules out of a herd in the arena, pack them correctly, and race around to the finish line as spectators whoop, cheer and jeer." The winning team is the one that is first to reassemble and reload its pack string, and lead it out of the arena.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Bishop Mule Days
www.muledays.org
nbsp;— Bishop Mule Days official site Annual events in California Bishop, California Festivals in California Agricultural shows in the United States Equestrian sports competitions in the United States Tourist attractions in Inyo County, California Equestrian festivals Animal festival or ritual Festivals established in 1969 1969 establishments in California