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The
Reindeer of Texas by
Clay Coppedge | |
Not
a lot of people remember this but there was a time when reindeer roamed wild in
Texas and spread cheer and wonder all over the state,
and several states beyond as well.
Okay, so the reindeer weren’t wild.
But they were here, all right, thanks almost entirely to the efforts of a man
named Grady Carothers, a traditional Texas rancher who one day decided
he wanted to see reindeer in Texas.
Carothers’
inspiration was his son who, being a native Texan, thought it mighty peculiar
that Texas didn’t have reindeer like some of those
places “up north.” Grady Carothers got to thinking about it and decided that other
Texas children might like to see reindeer too.
Bringing reindeer to Texas
is one of those things, like saving money or starting an exercise program, that
is easier said than done. Carothers set about getting Texas its own reindeer,
despite the guffaws of neighbors and otherwise good friends. He wrote a slew of
letters to postmasters and various Chambers of Commerce in Alaska
without so much as a reply from the Great White North.
Encouragement came
from an unlikely source. The manager of a local department store told him that
the Alaska Native Service managed the reindeer for the Eskimo and that his best
bet would be to get in touch with the service. Three times he was told “No” but
Carothers was nothing if not persistent; he might even be called ornery and stubborn.
Finally, Carothers was allowed to buy six reindeer steers despite the fact that
the animals had never been that far south during a heat-brutal August in Texas.
After getting the required permit in the summer of 1946, Carothers and his older
son left the next day for Nome, Alaska. From there they traveled another 100 miles
east to Galvin where Carothers bought six reindeer for $50 a piece from an Eskimo.
The original Alaska reindeer were interlopers from Norway. They had been
taken to Alaska
from that country in 1891 to provide food and clothing for the Eskimos. One of
the old Norwegians, who was wise in the ways of reindeer, persuaded Carothers
to leave the reindeer with him in Seattle
until fall, which Carothers did.
The Norwegian helped Grady break the
reindeer, but there was a problem. The Norwegians and Alaskans trained the reindeer
to pull a sled. Carothers wanted them to drive a line. He eventually figured it
out, and in the process learned that reindeer can be as ornery and stubborn as
any Texan.
Then there was the matter of feeding the critters. Texas
was woefully short on reindeer moss — there wasn’t any at all — but there wasn’t
a lot of the stuff in Alaska
either. Carothers taught the reindeer, or they learned on their own, how to like
cultivated food. But Carothers got some of the moss, when he could find it, and
brought it back to Texas as a treat for the reindeer,
which appropriately, if unoriginally, were named Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Vixen
and the like.
These naturalized Texas reindeer wore red harnesses with
their names stitched on them and pulled Santa in his sleigh from Thanksgiving
through Christmas for more than 40 years. Carothers contracted with local chambers
of commerce, shopping centers and schools, putting on three shows a day and transporting
the equipment in vans from town to town and state to state. It took three men,
including Santa, to handle the reindeer.
Early on the reindeer performed
close to Carothers ranch in Mills County, but their popularity extended all over
the state and into 39 southwestern and central states. Sometimes as many as six
teams of reindeer were on the road at one time. One of the highlights came when
he and his reindeer pulled Santa in a rose-covered sleigh in the 1955 Tournament
of Roses Parade.
In time, Rudolph, a fawn with a red nose, joined the
team and learned to travel in front of the harnessed deer. Rudolph had his own
harness with his name and little bells. He was quite the prima donna.
Carothers
ended up making 15 more trips to Alaska to get more reindeer, including some females
so that he could have his own replacements, ones that were native Texans to boot.
He and his reindeer were profiled in several newspapers and magazines, including
the January, 1954 edition The Wide World.
The reindeer were kept on Carothers
ranch in Mills
County, then Carothers and Son Enterprises moved to California, where the
animals were exhibited at Santa Claus Land and shown in fall parades. He sold
the reindeer and equipment in 1984 and drove the stagecoach at Knott’s Berry Farm.
“It wasn’t easy, but nothing ever is,” Carothers said of his reindeer
operation.
Carothers died in April 25, 2004, one day after his 98th birthday
in Gonzales, County, California. He is buried at Senterfit Cemetery near Lometa.
And the reindeer, like the buffalo
and others before them, no longer roam Texas.
© Clay Coppedge
"Letters from Central Texas"
December 1, 2008 Column
Related Topics: Texas
Animals
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