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The “Visiting Ranchers” return this weekend

By Glenn Wallace / Staff Writer

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Rancheros Visitadores cowboys gather for their blessing by the Padre of Santa Ines Mission last year. //Tina Larkin/Staff

This weekend will mark the 77th annual ride of the Rancheros Visitadores, roughly 800 cowboys who will receive a blessing at the Old Mission Santa Inès before riding 20 miles, to the group’s private campgrounds.

The procession of horses, and wagons will wind through Solvang, before reaching the field by the Old Mission shortly before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5.

Once the procession of horses and carriages makes it to the Jackson Camp area, the procession breaks into a set of separate camps.

Each camp provides food for its members and their animals. Entertainment, medical care, and livestock for the last-day rodeo of this weeklong event are also organized and provided for by each individual camp.

The Visitadores come from many walks of life, hailing from several different states and other countries, but all appreciating the cowboy ethos of the Old West.

Theirs is an exclusive brotherhood, only inviting a select few individuals to join their ranks. Newcomers must ride in the event several years as guests, and then stay in their own designated camp before granted full membership.

The new Visitadores camp is said a common target of the other camp’s practical jokes, for which the event is famous for.

Famous names on the Visitadores roster, often granted honorary membership, have included Bob Hope, Gene Autry, Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan. Several locals have participated in the yearly ride, notably 3rd District County Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who represents the Santa Ynez Valley. He has been a member of the organization for 30 years.

Last year about 550 permanent members and about 400 guests attended, with 35 of those men on the ride for the first time.

The Rancheros Visitadores ride was founded by John Mitchell, who upon returning from a gathering of the Bohemian Club, decided to re-create a similar gathering by paying homage to gatherings of old in California, where ranchers and vaqueros would come together to divvy up unfenced cattle before holding a rodeo and a fiesta.

The event has grown both in the number of participants, but also in the number of spectators who gather each year to watch.

For fans of cowboys who remain curious about the old west there are other sights to see in the area.

The Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum houses countless artifacts of the area, back to ranching’s heyday and beyond.

The museum’s carriage house will especially interest Los Rancheros Visitadores fans, with several carriages owned and used by Mitchell still on display.

The Rancheros journey Monday begins not far from the Elverhøj Museum of History and Art. The proximity is fitting, as the museum’s current exhibit “The World of Edward Borein,” a celebrated western artist who was among that inaugural bunch of riders who began the tradition in 1930.

The exhibit includes “trappings of the vaquero lifestyle, and mementos of the Rancheros Visitadores riding group,” according to the museum.

Viggo Brandt-Erichsen, the Dane who built the Elverhoj museum by hand, was also a member of the group. His group vest and badge will join Borein exhibit, which runs through May 27.

For more information about the Elverhoj Museum call 686-1211. For more information about the Santa Ynez Historical Museum, call 688-7889.