Mt. Taylor Vintage Bronco Round-up: Fifth Anniversary

The past Saturday, October 1st , 2022, the fifth annual Mt. Taylor Vintage Bronco Round-up was held; this year starting at Ed Corley Ford on Santa Fe Avenue in Grants. N.M., again sponsored by Roger and Evelyn Siegmann. Sales person Diane Jackson was instrumental in coordinating this year’s event. Here enthusiasts of some of the near half- century old Ford four-wheel drive sport vehicles would start the yearly trek over the majestic Mt. Taylor seen ablaze in orange and red fall colors. This year we encouraged owners of all years including new ones on our trek.

We assembled around 9 am on the dealership west parking lot and swapped stories of why we own Broncos and how long they have been in the family. We had new faces here this year including a 1994 Bronco, and a 1985 Bronco ll that the owner purchased new. After a brief safety talk and instructions to “keep all fours on the ground” we started the games. The first game was sponsored by Chris Winch State Farm, to descramble “ keli a odgo gionrbeh”. After a few moments and a couple hints the beautiful State Farm insulated mug was awarded the winner. We then lined the vintage Broncos up from oldest (1967) to newest (1994) that were followed by were a couple 2023 Broncos from the dealership showroom. We cruised up to the east parking lot and back to the west parking lot. A video was taken to send to Ford Motor Company. We passed out this year’s commerative Mt. Taylor Vintage Bronco Roundup stickers to all. Those participating drew a card for the poker hand and rolled dice to spell the “Bronco” game. Our adopted minpin dog Duke Marie wore his hand crafted cloth bronc saddle and wagged his tail for everyone’s delight.

We then started to mosey up the trail to the San Mateo Volunteer Fire Department as we did last year, for another roll of dice and draw of a card. There Firefighter Lloyd Ortega and his wife Arcelia were on hand this year to greet us and oversee the games progress. We discussed the Bronco Round-up and took pictures, before heading through the beautiful village that was adorned in the start of fall colors.

We drove to the Mt. Taylor Mine gate where we were welcomed by Facilities Manager Bruce Norquist and then escorted to a safe parking location for pictures with the mine’s 185’ tall headframe in the background. We talked about past mining experiences and of miners that worked here a little over three thousand of feet below the surface, mining uranium. The sun warmed us as we thought of those miners; some were co-workers or relatives of ours. We noted the majestic Mt. Taylor peak towering above and to the right of us. We then reigned in the rusty and dusty iron steeds and headed to the east of the mine and village and up towards San Mateo Canyon, and then loop around and back to Grants.

We arrived back at the Ed Corley dealership about 1:30 pm to finish our games and were pleasantly surprised by Manager Stacey Corley and his family. We finished the poker card draw and awarded the winner a prize gifted by Tom’s Off Road Parts of Medford, Oregon. The Bronco dice roll was finished also and prize to winner provided by Champion Ford of Gallup. (Formerly Gurley Ford, now in the Corley Group). These people have helped for 5 years now.

Stacey’s daughter Paris, was on hand and picked her Bronco choice, and awarded a gift to the lucky winner, as did his sister Florence, for her choice.

Mr. Ed Corley Sr., also on hand, was surprised by seeing an original and addressed 1965 Four Wheeler Magazine with the cover story of Ford introducing the new Bronco the following year. He had delivered it as a mailman to our family at Golden Acres Trailer Court west of Milan in 1965. Memories were traded and thankyou gifts from the Corley group were given to all Bronco owners. We discussed, and are starting to plan next year’s Mt. Taylor Vintage Bronco Roundup starting at Ed Corley Ford in Grants again next year: the first Saturday in October, 2023.

Yee-haaa….Giddy up, giddy up. Hope to see ya then pardner!