Carey city favorites
to be parade
grand marshals
By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer
Following last year’s Pioneer Days Parade
in Carey that honored U.S. Armed Forces veterans, this year the organizing
committee has chosen one of those veterans, who is also a third generation
resident of Carey, Ray Baird and his wife Carley to be the marshals. They are
being honored for their commitment to the community, and they will ride in the
parade on horseback.
Ray and Carley Baird share their
tales at the 93 Express. They are the grand marshals for the annual Pioneer Days
parade in Carey. Express photo by Matt Furber
The Bairds joined a few neighbors for a
cold drink on a hot day at the 93 Express cafe to talk about the parade and
their lives in the community. Ray’s grandfather came with the first Mormon
families that settled Carey, when they came up from the Great Salt Lake to
homestead.
The Bairds have carried on the ranching
and farming traditions in the valley started in 1892.
"We raised six boys," said Carley Baird.
"David, Rick, Gary, Jack, Brock and Kim."
These days the Bairds spend as much time
as possible on their 650 acre Little Fish Creek cattle camp, north of Carey,
where it is cooler in the summer. Ray descends frequently to participate as a
planning and zoning commissioner. He was integral in getting the city government
back on its feet in the late 1990s.
Carey was incorporated in 1919, but after
World War I the town had "drifted away." It was under county government for
about 50 years, said Baird. As Baird and others worked on a new comprehensive
plan for the town, they discovered that Carey had never officially
"unincorporated."
The Pioneer Days celebration is as much
about celebrating family and community as it is about celebrating the legacy of
Brigham Young. The followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
who came west with Young to present day Utah, reached the Great Salt Lake area
on July 24, 1847.
"I am not LDS," said Carley Baird,
laughing with her contagious smile. "I am the black sheep."
The Bairds have continued to work as
farmers and ranchers, despite other career obligations. Baird spent over 30
years working as welder at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory, east of Arco.
Having grown up ranching, Baird has run
cattle on his family’s land since he returned from two years serving in the Navy
in the South Pacific at the end of World War II.
Today, he and his wife lease out some of
their grazing land, but they also run about 50 cows of their own, many of them
Black Angus.
"Black is beautiful," said Ray.
He and Carley met at an American Legion
"Legion Loonies" talent show after Baird returned from the war. Carley,
originally from Missouri, went to high school in Richfield. They have been
married for 55 years.
The grand marshals will ride horseback in
the parade. In fact, they have been riding together since the 1950s, when they
participated in the Carey Riding Club.
"We both traveled around the country with
the club," said Carley. "We looked good. We wore a uniform with white shirts and
black hats. (We) were sharp."
The group even traveled out of state to
Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Montana, Oregon and Washington to show their skills.
Carey still has many active riders, but
the stage will be set this weekend by a pair of handlers as steeped in the
experience and the land of southern Idaho as any of their Mormon ancestors.