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BRIGHAM CITY — Dozens of people lined up outside a neighborhood park Friday morning, all of them waiting for what has become an annual tradition for many — the moving of 2,200 sheep through town.
“I don’t know why it’s so fun,” said Sharon Johnson, who has been attending for about three years. “It’s just a bunch of sheep, running down the road, but it’s really fun. The kids love it, and I love it.”
As the tight crowd of sheep clomped through town, kids’ eyes lit up, some adults too.
“One of them skidded off to the side, really close to us,” said 12-year-old Preston Loftus during his first visit to the event. “And then it came back into the middle. It was awesome!”
“I loved it,” said Preston’s mother, Alycia Loftus. “It was so much fun to watch the kids getting excited about animals, and the sheep jumping, and you could just smell them coming, so that was fun too,” she added with a laugh.
The event is also a longtime tradition in Lane Jensen’s family. His grandparents started raising sheep well over 80 years ago.
“This is our family heritage,” Jensen said. “(We) try to share this with the public, because it’s something that doesn’t happen very often, and it may not happen forever. You never know.”
In recent years, Jensen has tried to move the sheep over the fall break weekend, so kids can see it and so his kids can help. The sheep are moved to their winter pasture in Bear River City.
“I’ve got four children walking with us,” Jensen said. “They enjoy it, they kind of look forward to it. They’ve got things about it they like, but at the same time, I think in a couple of hours, they’re all going to want a nap.”
