You dont have javascript enabled! Please enable it!

Historic Newspaper Archives

July 11, 1965 featured image

Burro’s Note Shows He’s Only a Jackass

“The burro race drivers are mean and cruel. When we get tired and lay down they pour sand in our ears or tie ropes around our lower jaw to pull us upon our tired feet. Even Indian Joe in Arizona wasn’t this mean; he only hit us with a piece of cactus. These drivers will tell you they are not cruel to us, but they are liars. The guard turn their heads to such cruelties. One driver even had a prod stick with a wire from electric batteries attached to it. But the batteries were too low to shock us. Go see for yourself, Mr. Buie, and tell your readers to help stop this cruelty, and I’ll give you a ride sometime.
July 24, 1965 featured image

Pioneertown’s National Burro Derby Day

AUGUST 5 is the date and the photo shows some of the exciting action that will go with the starting of some 60 to 80 wild burros from Pioneertown’s “Golden Empire Corral” on the long trek from Pioneertown to Big Bear. It is Pioneertown’s first National Burro Derby Days, held in conjunction with Big Bear’s Old Miner Days, an annual event. The name “wild burro” is no misnomer. These burros are captured on the Nevada deserts and are really wild! Early the morning of August 5, the burros will be saddled and leave Pioneertown for Yucca Valley with a lunch stop, then on to Lander and Lucerne Valley for an over night stop, reaching Big Bear the evening of the 7th. The burros will be “housed” and cared for at the Pioneertown Golden Empire Corral from July 31st., to be groomed for the race.