Counting sheep

Business owners and shoppers heading to Ketchum’s Main Street on Monday morning, Oct. 12, may get a bit of a surprise.

The street will be empty, with not a car in sight. Instead, there will be sheep. Thousands of them.

Diane and John Peavey will herd their flock south from the mountains to the desert for the winter. This year, for the second annual Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce Trailing of the Sheep Festival, they’ll overrun the center of town.

Diane Peavey, who is helping to organize the event, went before the Ketchum City Council on Sept. 8 to request the closing of Main Street on Columbus Day, Oct. 12, from 9 to 10 a.m.

The council voted to close Main Street from Saddle Road on the north end to Serenade Drive on the south, and to restrict parking on Main Street during those hours as well.

The migration down Main Street will be only one of a whole weekend of events devoted to the rich history of sheep ranching in the valley.

On Sunday, there will be a festival in Roberta McKercher Park in Hailey, where sheep shearing and Basque dancers will be featured. Following that, there will be a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Community Library in Ketchum, where a talk will be given on the history of sheep farming, and people will be invited to share their own stories.

Come Monday, the sheep will be making their way into town, and people are invited either to walk behind the sheep or to simply watch from the sidewalks.

Certainly, minor problems--such as the droppings--will be addressed.

"As long as we make sure the intersections are swept, it shouldn’t be a problem," Peavey said.

The Trailing of the Sheep Festival has grown from an informal gathering to one of the chamber’s major seasonal events. Peavey said she and her husband have always invited people to trail the sheep, but it wasn’t until last year that the chamber got involved.

Now, she said, people are planning their vacations around it.