Living alone in
the mountains all summer is not for everyone. Which, undoubtedly, is why many Idaho
shepherds are recruited from South America.
Two of these shepherds, Victor Comesana, 27, and Roberto Soto de la
Cruz, 34, both from southern Chile, reflected last Sunday on their spartan lives outside a
tiny covered wagon which serves as their summer living quarters next to a tributary of
Newman Creek, about 17 miles north of Ketchum.
They are among several shepherds scattered throughout the Idaho high
country who move their flocks to the mountains in the summer and, then, back south before
the snow flakes fly.
The wagon that is Victor’s and Roberto’s summer home is
covered with three layers of canvas to keep out moisture, contains two bunk beds, a small
cooking corner and, in a concession to civilization, a radio equipped with a CD slot.
Relaxing in the shade with four of their five working dogs, they said
their jobs, albeit in an isolated setting, were a pretty good deal because they could put
together a nest egg for when they decide to put down roots in their homeland. Their net
salary is about $650 a month, they said.
"It’s better than what we expected," Roberto, who has
been in this country eight months, said in his native Spanish tongue about their lives as
sheepherders. His family, he said, owns a farm in southern Chile.
Victor, who’s been here about 29 months, indicated he might like
to use his savings to buy a home in Chile. But, for now, he said in Spanish,
"I’m going to apply to come back" to the United States, and to Idaho.
Both shepherds work for Faulkner Land and Livestock of Gooding under
three-year contracts. They were recruited in their native land where they worked as
shepherds at elevations of 7,000 feet or more.
The "band," about 1,500 sheep on a nearby ridge, was
monitored by a fifth dog, a Great Pyrenees, bred for the job. Meanwhile, five horses, used
by the shepherds both to herd the sheep and as pack animals, were sunning themselves in a
nearby meadow.
Before winter snows cover the land, the sheep will be herded back
toward Gooding, and then hauled to a market in Blythe, Calif.
On the way back south, in October, they’ll pass along
Ketchum’s Main Street for the "Trailing of the Sheep" festival.
For now, though, Victor and Roberto toil in a sort of splendid
loneliness untouched by pressures of the outside world.
