A swap meet I call The Cowboy Trade Day™ is the result of a lot of pondering and planning! It occurred to me that up until the mid 1930s almost every farm and ranching town of any size in America had what they called "Trade Day" or "First Monday." It was sort of like a swap meet, usually held on the first Monday of each month. Folks would come from miles around by horseback or wagon into town and spend all day buying, selling and trading -- everything from hogs to hay, sunbonnets to corn on the cob! Plus with all the buying and selling going on, these gatherings were also a big social event. They gave folks of like mind a reason and a place to get together and visit and swap stories... an essential part of life!
These monthly Trade Day swap meets pretty much died out with the coming of the telephone, the automobile, and hard surface roads. Farmers and ranchers began to 'ship' there stuff to bigger markets and the need to visit was just a phone call away. The old time "Trade Day' almost became a thing of the past. But not quite!
Back in 1995 I began to realize how old I was getting to be, and I started thinking about my retirement years. All my life I had been rubbing elbows with horsemen, cowboys, western movie folks, ranchers, horse traders and the like. Well, I can hardly get my foot in a stirrup anymore, much less stay in the saddle for very long, so that pretty much puts a stop to all that.
So I asked myself, "Now that you're a 'has been' old-timer, what are you going to do now?" I don't fish or play golf, hunt, do needle point or play chess, so after considerable thought I decided that in order to keep myself busy and sane for the rest of my life it would be nice if I could come up with some activity that would give me a legitimate excuse to keep on hanging around with these cowboys and such.
I had to come up with a new plan. I thought to myself, "Hurley, this is what you need to do. Bring back the old time Trade Day!" But as you know by now, I took the idea a step further by limiting this Trade Day swap meet to cowboy, western, and Indian stuff only. I was not inclined to start up "just another flea market." My plan was to create a 'special' Trade Day event that would draw ranchers, cowboys, cowgirls, and such from all over the nation to my home town each year so we could all spend the day buying, selling,trading, and swapping stories.
Now here it is 2008 and The Cowboy Trade Day™ has grown into the largest event of its kind in the USA, attended by thousands! And me, I'm right where I want to be -- in the middle of it, rubbing elbows with the kind of folks I like. What more could an old man ask for? Enough said!
As of 2005, The Cowboy Trade Day™ has a new home, located at Rogers Point Park / Arena, eight miles south of Claremore, Oklahoma on Historic Route 66 (a mile or two north of Catoosa, on the bank of the Verdigris River). I hope to see you there on the 3rd Saturday in September!
--- Hurley Hughes - Event Producer - Claremore, Oklahoma
