Bethesda, Ark. ? When Jim Bechdoldt of Bethesda received a phone call in August inviting him to drive a chuck wagon for the 2007 Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive, he knew he couldn’t pass up the chance.

Bechdoldt is certainly qualified. He drove a covered wagon from Fort Worth, Texas, to Valley Forge, Pa., on the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage in 1976 – a distance estimated at more than 2,500 miles, although no exact figures were kept. That wagon train was on the trail for five months and nine days.

Bechdoldt participated in the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Wagon Trail in 1986 and in the Wyoming Centennial train in 1990. And he has hosted numerous wagon trains in this area.

Bechdoldt immediately called a longtime friend and horse and wagon enthusiast, Don Luster, to accompany him. Luster owns and operates Don’s Coach & Buggy Shop in Bethesda and was also on the Wyoming Centennial ride.

“Don’s assistance and expertise during the trip was invaluable,” Bechdoldt said.

For one thing, Luster, during a routine examination of the wagon wheels about halfway through the trip, found a crack in one of the wheel spindles.

“The wheel would definitely have parted company (with the rest of the wagon) eventually,” Luster said.

Luster also kept a daily journal during the trip.

To celebrate Oklahoma’s centennial and the Chisholm Trail’s 140th anniversary, the drovers moved 450 head of longhorn cattle up the historic Chisholm Trail from the Red River of Texas through Oklahoma to the end-of-the-trail town of Caldwell, Kan.

The almost drive went from Sept. 10 to Oct. 5.

Although a schedule of towns the cattle herd would go through was distributed ahead of time, local officials in those towns were warned: “Please keep in mind – all dates and times are ultimately determined by the 450 head of longhorn.”

Luster said the drovers and wagon drivers faced the elements and many of the same dangers original drovers faced. It rained all day on four days of the trip.

“It was wild and woolly,” he said. “It was the dream of a lifetime. This is a bunch of people who enjoy the old way of life.”

And although some injuries did occur, “nobody was seriously injured at all.” And, “the cattle didn’t cause any car wrecks.”

Bechdoldt and Luster drove the chuck wagon ahead of the cattle to a preselected camp each day to set up before the drovers arrived.

All cooking was over open fires in a camp with Dutch ovens for the baking. Neither Bechdoldt nor Luster cooked, but Luster raved over the fare.

He especially recalls the luscious peach, apple, blackberry and blueberry cobbler pies, as well as “worlds and worlds of steaks – T-bone steaks, all kinds of steaks, they’d grill ’em on the coals of the fire.”

Often for breakfast, the drovers and wagoneers would get “egg casserole with potatoes and onions, sausage and stuff in it.”

Bechdoldt’s big Percheron horses, Bill and Bob, had a full load with the camp stoves, cast-iron cookware and supplies in the chuck wagon. One incident that tested the strength of the horses was at the river crossing of the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River.

“This is exactly where the Chisholm Trail crossed,” Bechdoldt said.

The drive was documented by a film crew as well as by photographer D. Levi Clifton, who jokingly referred to herself as “the paparazzi of the Plains.” She said that she shot more than 6,000 frames of film and is editing them for a book about the cattle drive.

“They did a lot of filming so it could be documented for the school children of Oklahoma,” Luster said. Those involved hope the documentary will be aired on PBS, a rumor they heard on the trail.

“The best thing about it was the people,” Luster said. “They turned out for it. … It was clickity click of cameras from the time we left the border of Texas to Kansas.