49er Days

At noon on the Friday of Mother’s Day weekend, horses and wagons come down Riverside Avenue in Winthrop. They belong to the Washington Outfitters & Guides Association’s Ride to Rendezvous, a week-long horse-packing excursion through the Methow Valley high country, and their arrival opens Winthrop ‘49er Days. In the Winthrop Chamber of Commerce’s words, the community comes out to celebrate the horse train’s “arrival back home!” The Okanogan County tourism council describes packers and pack trains, cowboys, cowgirls and an entire wagon train converging on the town for three days of western events.

Pack strings on Riverside Avenue

The 2026 celebration, the 81st, ran May 8 to 10. Saturday began at 10 a.m., when the West Coast Country Heat dancers performed. The Grand Parade went down Riverside Avenue at 11 a.m. with creative floats, community groups, horses and mules, hydroplane boats and live entertainment. The chamber says the parade carries more pack strings than any other parade in the state, along with a band and vintage vehicles, and that watching and joining are both free. From noon to 1 p.m. the same street held a Stick Horse Rodeo.

Children had the rest of the day. A Storybook Scavenger Hunt started at the downtown Visitor Information Center and continued through 12 downtown stores. At the Shafer Historical Museum, among artifacts and buildings from the valley’s early days, there were washboards, a kids’ lasso and rolling hoops. Confluence Park offered games, face painting, food and crafts until 2 p.m.

Pulled pork and a barn dance

At noon the Winthrop Kiwanis served a pulled-pork lunch in Mack Lloyd Park. Through the afternoon the park held cowboy games, exhibitors and live music from the outdoor stage. The Whidbey Island Rooster Tails, a hydroplane racing club, displayed one of its boats at the Winthrop Barn. At 5 p.m. the outfitters served a steak dinner in the park for $30. Line dance lessons began at the Barn at 6, and at 7 Pack String & Friends started a dance that ran until 11, with a dance competition at 8. Sunday opened at 7 a.m. with a cowboy breakfast in Mack Lloyd Park, followed by a packing competition. The Methow Valley News reported that the weather cooperated.

The 2026 royalty were Grand Marshal and Grand Lady Don and Lorah Super, junior queen Layla Mortland, and junior princesses Mylie Erks and Alice Esmiol. The chamber, the outfitters’ association and the town of Winthrop present the event with Okanogan County lodging-tax funding. The 82nd celebration is scheduled for May 7 to 9, 2027, preceded by an outfitters’ dinner on Thursday, May 6.

Tom Graves and the noon parade

Carl Miller remembers the early ‘49er Days from his childhood in the valley. His uncle, Henry Damman, helped organize the first festivities, which Carl recalls as simpler. The Methow Valley News has called the event “a rural celebration of the valley’s formative days and pioneering spirit,” and has kept its count: the 68th in 2013, the 72nd in 2017, the 80th in 2025.

Tom Graves figured he had been part of every celebration except those of 1951 and 1952, the years he spent in the infantry during the Korean War. He also rode in every parade from the first one in 1959. His grandfather, Charles Graves, started a homestead at the south end of Lake Pearrygin in the late 1890s; the land is now part of Pearrygin Lake State Park, and Tom was born in the same room as his father. He worked as a horse packer and smokejumper, built trails and logged for the Forest Service, and ran Pasayten Pack Trips until 1981. From 1972 he carried the banner of the Methow Valley Horsemen in the parade to promote the twice-yearly Methow Valley Rodeo.

For many years Graves was parade chairman. He lined up the participants, assembled the judges and made sure the parade started on time at 11 a.m. “One year,” which he recalled as 1970, “we didn’t start it until noon. Boy, were they pissed. It runs pretty smooth now. That was the year we started taking parade entries.”

In 2013 Graves served as Grand Marshal, with his wife Fae as Grand Lady. That year’s celebration recognized the old packers, and the official poster carried the image of Fae’s father, horse packer Clyde “Ole” Scott. “We have said ‘no’ for many years; there are other people far more deserving,” Fae said, but when she saw the poster she knew “this is the year to do it.” The two rode in the parade side by side on their own horses, and their grandson Shawn led the color guard.

Royalty in Claude Miller’s wagon

The 2013 junior royalty were Zoey Marchiney and Kira Cramer, in satin and tiaras, waving from Claude Miller’s wagon, with Chuck Long riding beside them in black hat and cowboy boots. “Chuck is the first young man to be junior royalty,” said committee member Linda Wilson, in more than 50 years of parades. Donna Martin made the girls’ dresses, which, as Marchiney put it, “are pretty cool; they have a hoop skirt and everything.” Fae Graves outfitted Long with his shirt and boots through the Methow Valley Senior Center, where she co-chaired the annual Western Sale. At the outfitters’ Wild Game Dinner that April, Long had met some of the outfitters, and they taught him to shape his black felt hat.

Four years later Graves coaxed Carl and Roxie Miller into serving as Grand Marshal and Grand Lady. “He said he wanted to see us in the parade before he died,” Roxie said. She had protested: “I told him I wasn’t old enough,” and added, “and I’m still not old enough.” Graves had once worked for Carl’s father. The 2017 junior princess, Emily Paul, was Claude Miller’s granddaughter. In 2025 the 80th celebration was led by Larry and Janie Surface, with twin sisters Lilly and Nella Belcher as junior queen and princess.

From the earliest festivities, Roxie Miller said, ‘49er Days “has always been a valley kind of thing.”