John Wharton brought a newspaper clipping from the Belleville Telescope into the newspaper that helped us find the story about a time when a man traveling with a bull visited this area and attended a football game at Hardy.
The Hardy News page in The Superior Express edition of Oct. 8, 1964, included the following story:
Carl Swanson and his bull, Randy, arrived in Hardy Friday afternoon while on their walking trip from Onamia, Minnesota to Texas. The football game between Hardy and Republic gave them an opportunity to set up headquarters near the football field and tell their story to many people. Between halves, Mr. Swanson led Randy onto the field and the 1,850 pounds of purebred Hereford beef showed to good advantage. Carl did some rope throwing and put his dog, Penny, through his tricks.
Swanson estimated when he reached the Nebraska-Kansas State Line, he had completed half of his journey.
The same issue of The Express reported Swanson and his bull stopped at Superior’s City Park and there were so many youngsters crowding around the bull that The Express photographer could hardly see the bull.
In the Oct. 1, 1964 issue of The Express, it was reported Randy was three miles north of Nelson on Tuesday of that week when Howard Crilly, the Express publisher, caught up with him and was expected to make Superior sometime Thursday. In those days before fax machines and the internet, The Express maintained a long standing agreement to have a reporter in the courthouse when it closed at 5 p.m. each Tuesday in case there were any late public notices for that week’s papers.
Most likely, Mr. Crilly learned about the unusual travelers while at the courthouse and went in search of them before returning to Superior.
Crilly reported Swanson, 40, a single man who was disgusted with cattle prices, had sold his farming interests and started out with his bull on a propaganda stunt, protesting the importation of beef. He was selling postcards along the way to help pay expenses but was coming up short.
Traveling with Swanson and his bull was Bud Pogue and a dog.
One man led the bull while the other drove their automobile. At night they slept under the stars.
The bull was fitted with boots when walking on pavement through the towns but traveled barefoot while walking just off the pavement along the edge of the highways. Occasionally one of the men rode the bull to put on a show for the youngsters. And youngsters were permitted to have their pictures taken while sitting on the bull.
When The Express photographer caught up with the travelers, the bull was lying down, resting at the roadside and Mr. Pogue didn’t want to disturb the bull. Progue told the photographer Swanson had given him strict orders to not disturb the bull under any circumstances while the animal was chewing his cud. Consequently, The Express did not have any pictures of Randy in that issue.
The trio was making about 8 miles a day having started on their journey on April 28.
When word of his planned trip arrived in McAllen, Texas, a newspaper there said, “When he arrives here he will get roast goat for himself and his Randy is liable to be butted by a Brahman bull.
But they didn’t need to fear his arrival for his destination was Galveston, not McAllen.
Iowa officials discouraged making the trip through that state for traffic safety reasons but South Dakota issued an open invitation.
He had planned to reach Galveston by Christmas but on Dec. 19 it was reported he had only reached Ada, Oklahoma. Cold weather in Oklahoma added additional delay.
He had planned to ride across Nebraska on Highway 81 but near Madison he was ordered to take a different route or face arrest. The route moved west to Highway 14.
The March 29, 1965, Brownsville Herald reported the Carl Swanson let the salt water gurgle through his worn jeans and frayed cowboy boots and looked beat with a scraggly beard and hair that need cutting. The trip across the United States took 335 days but he along with Randy the bull and Blondie the dog had made.
The trio had plodded through the nation’s midsection to promote the sale of American beef.
Swanson said he had gone broke raising cattle near Greeley, Nebraska.
The travelers kept to the back roads and tried to stay off the pavement but Randy wore out two pairs of shoes on the trip. Accounts did not state how many pairs of boots Swanson wore out.
When Swanson, Randy and Blondie arrived in Galveston, they were met by the city’s mayor who gave him a new pair of boots, new jeans and the key to the city.
A wide strip of old carpet had been laid for the plodding bull to walk on.
After the ceremonies, Swanson waded into the small gulf wavelets and poured fresh water from the Rainy River and International Falls up north on the Canada border into the Gulf. The surf made his chaps rise up like a surf board.
Wading ashore, Swanson said, “When we’ve lost the small ranchers and farmers, we’ve lost a great part of America.” Then he dried his feet.
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