Steve and Carolyn Mullin

Steve and I and our two boys, Allan and Dan, came to the John Day valley in June of 1966 and went to work for the JL Cattle Company. We spent our first summer in Logan Valley taking care of the cows, and the boys fished. That was a great place to spend our first summer! While there, we mowed some of the meadows and bunched the hay. We had to drain the tractors at the end of the day as it froze every night. We worked there a year and half, then leased Herb Deardorff’s place on Deardorff Creek for two years. Our next move was up on Indian Creek leasing Will and George Ray’s place. We have been there ever since.

Our first Grant County Fair was in 1966. There wasn’t much livestock at the Fair then, a few 4-H sheep; I don’t remember if there were any cattle. The Fair was after Labor Day, and the Pavilion had all kinds of grain, produce and flowers. The next year, I took a commercial heifer to the Fair so there would at least be one open class cow there. As soon as our boys were old enough, they joined 4-H. They took breeding cattle to the Fair. Dan had the commercial ones and Allan took the registered ones. That was the beginning of the years we showed. Dave Kline was their leader, and we helped. Then we were leaders as long as the boys were involved. When all the granddaughters were home, we took quite a string; 12 head was the maximum we could handle. For many years, we were the only ones who brought open class cattle. There were several years when John and Charlene Morris and Shirley Lee exhibited also. When the Fair was held after the State Fair and before the PI, we had several outside herds represented, which was really nice.

We are very fortunate that our family lives here in the valley and are around to help us on our various projects. Now that we are semi-retired, elk have become Steve’s main love! He takes the grandchildren hunting, and they have a great time.

We are honored to be chosen as Grand Marshals. We are proud to join such an esteemed group of past grand marshals. We hope that you will enjoy this year’s Fair. There are many interesting things planned.