Chisholm Trail Roundup: Getting better with age
By Kyle Mooty
LPR Editor
Due to their creativity of float making and overall positive public relations for decades, this year’s Chisholm Trail Roundup is dedicated to Mark and Stephanie Riggin, who are retiring and closing their longtime Lockhart business, Wilson & Riggin Lumber.
The CTR will be hosting its 49th event – it began 50 years ago but missed 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wilson & Riggin (see related article in this section) has been a part of float making for most or all of the previous years, but it will not be participating this year as the business is getting set to close later this month.
Set for June 9-11, this year’s CTR is returning with full force with entertainment from the opening on Thursday to the close Saturday night.
Kids and adults will enjoy events ranging from the Miss Chisholm Trail Roundup pageant, carnival, petting zoo, barrel train and pony rides, Swifty Swine Pig Races, live auctions, musical entertainment, and of course the rodeo, complete with trick riders, mutton bustin’ galore, and all of the usual rodeo events.
Kim Clifton, Director of Operations for the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce, said she expects more than double the number of vendors from last year’s event. The vendors have been moved to the courts at City Park as the City of Lockhart allowed CTR to remove the fence.
All of the action begins Thursday, June 9, at Lockhart City Park. (See the map of where events will be held at City Park on this section’s centerspread.)
If people don’t wish to park at City Park, there will be free parking with a shuttle from 5 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday to and from the Caldwell County Justice Center on Colorado Street (SH 183).
The Parade, always one of the highlights of the CTR, will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, usually lasting about two hours. It begins at the intersection of San Antonio and Medina streets, comes east on SH 142 and circles in the Caldwell County Courthouse on the Lockhart square. Clifton said floats are allowed to hand out items such as candy.
“I think most of the town comes out for the parade,” Clifton said.
There will be somewhere between 150 and 200 entries in the parade for people lining the streets to see. The floats come from local and nearby towns, and range from athletic teams, various pageants and their royalty, school groups, churches, and the “must-have” firetrucks for the children.
High school reunions, some of 60 years or older, take place at the CTR with many classes adding floats to the parade.
Lockhart City Park will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight June 9-11 for all CTR events.
“This is my second year on this end of things, but I have attended it my entire life,” Clifton said. “It’s really interesting how everyone works together. We have 30 to 35 people working year-round on the Chisholm Trail committee. We also have a lot of extra volunteers. We try to bring in 100 to 200 volunteers. Also, it’s important to realize that this is completely paid for through sponsorships.”
Donald Schneider is the chairman of the CTR committee. He has been involved with CTR since the late 1990’s.
The Chisholm Trail Roundup began on June 4 with the second annual Running of Bulls in Lockhart, and on Wednesday, June 8, there was the annual Cowboy Breakfast.
