Vaqueros herding cattle Northeast of Vale

Mexican vaqueros first entered California in 1769 and during the next 80 years developed a unique culture of managing large herds of cattle on mission lands and large ranches. In 1869, the first Mexican vaqueros arrived in Southeastern Oregon to work on the famed "Whitehorse Ranch" in Southern Malheur County and as ranches spread throughout the sagebrush ocean of Eastern Oregon so too did the vaqueros. Vaqueros have continued since that time to work on cattle ranches and today a wide selection of traditional rawhide gear, silver-mounted bits and spurs, and California rigged saddles continue to be produced and used on Oregon ranches. The young Anglo-Americans who took up their work anglicized ‘vaqueros’ into ‘buckaroo.’

This mural was made possible in part through the donation of the Mexican-American Citizens League.

Address: A Street and Court Street (Dr. Hamilton Dental Office)

Artist: Colleen Mitchell-Veyna (painted in 2005)