The Hailey Public Library will host “Stories from My Early Days as a Sheepherder,” a virtual conversation with local financial planner Alberto Uranga, on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 5:30 p.m. Originally from the Basque country of Spain, Uranga will share sheepherding stories from years in the mountains of Idaho over half of the century ago.
RSVP to kristin.fletcher@haileypubliclibrary.org.
“The Hailey Library is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Trailing of the Sheep by hosting a conversation with Alberto Uranga, the last of the original Basque sheepherders,” said HPL’s programs and outreach manager, Kristin Fletcher. “Alberto traveled to the United States as a 22-year-old adventurer in 1968 and took the only job he could find—sheepherding in the mountains around the Wood River Valley. He worked three lonely, yet adventurous, years and will share some of those stories with us.”
Uranga was born and raised in a small Basque village in northern Spain, founded in 1209 with an economy tied to the sea. After serving in the Spanish Navy, he decided to seek a life of adventure and made his way to Idaho, not speaking a word of English. He became a U.S. citizen in 1974 and started selling insurance door to door before opening his own financial services business in 1984. He has been a board member of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival for 20 years and is the founder of Lasaii Benefits, a financing company that helps clients purchase real estate.