Board of Directors: Jo Baeza, Steve Taylor, Wendy Kochheiser, Linda Bohn, Gordon Kearl, Steve Harrington, Rusty Weiss, Tauni Newman, Chris Isaacs

The White Mountains Roundup, Inc. was established in 2006 by a committee of local people who wanted to preserve the region's true cowboy heritage and promote cultural tourism. Stockmen were the first non-Native settlers in the White Mountains. Sheepmen from New Mexico grazed their flocks in northern Arizona even before the Civil War, raising wool and meat for Spanish colonies in New Mexico. Cattlemen began driving herds from Texas to provide beef to Fort Apache after it was established in 1871. With a ready market, the beef industry thrived and remains an important part of the economy today. In 2005 the U.S. Congress set aside the third Saturday in July as the National Day of the American Cowboy to honor our cowboy and Western heritage. Many communities across the West picked up on the idea and continue to hold cowboy events on this day. Whether we are Native, Hispanic, African-American, white, or any combination thereof, the one thing Westerners have in common is our cowboy heritage. The American Cowboy wasn't the product of any one culture or creed. He created his own culture and creed in the spirit of the American West. At times wild and rowdy, at times heroic, the historic cowboy left us a legacy of hard work, self-reliance and a refusal to be defeated. Jesse Mullins, former editor of American Cowboy magazine wrote of the cowboy: "He belongs to all of America, in all places and at all times, and his highest-held principles and virtues are available to all and promise personal betterment to all." In 2010 the rancher is still raising beef, and the cowboy is still riding horses and driving cattle. Long Live the Cowboy!