Celebrating high cattle prices, the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen held their annual banquet Saturday at Sky Ute Casino.
Along with a prime rib dinner and dancing to Wild Country, there are two highlights of the event: the quilt raffle and auction, and announcement of the Cattleman of the Year.
Donna Sullivan was the lucky winner of this year's raffle quilt, which features the brands of members and is quilted by Karen Baxter. Decker Ranch bid the winning price at the auction, taking the quilt home for $4,700.
This year, a 2008 Cattlemen quilt was donated to the group by Bill and Terrie Miller in honor of their friend Marvin Conrad, a past member and emcee of the event who died last year. This quilt was purchased by Karen Zink.
Davin Montoya presented the Cattleman of the Year award to Jerry Zink, a fifth-generation rancher in the area. When he was a kid, he competed in 4-H and used to bring his family's potatoes to City Market. He also founded the Cattlemen's Chuckwagon Cookoff held every year during Durango Fiesta Days. Zink said the hardest task he and his wife, Karen, ever tackled was building a USDA-inspected slaughterhouse on their ranch.
