A five-day sojourn to live in Reno’s past may not be at the top of a business marketing plan, but taking the cowboy’s view of the sagebrush hills and shimmering playas is an uncommon networking opportunity that offers insights into what Northern Nevada’s business life is really about.

For 16 years, “wanna-be” cowboys and cowgirls from around the world have gathered for the annual Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. They feast on gourmet chuck wagon cuisine, consume more than 750 pounds of meat and swill 100 gallons of cowboy coffee, all while the buckaroos’ luggage is transported in eight 1800s-style wagons. They’ll sleep out under the stars and ride a sturdy mountain horse over 100 miles during the event, traversing 2,300 acres of Northern Nevada and paying $1,600 each for the opportunity. But most importantly, the 49 “guests” and their cowboy “drovers” delivered more than 400 head of cattle that participated in the annual Reno Rodeo last month.

While it’s a little bit more strenuous than a pro-am foursome at the Reno-Tahoe Open happening this month, in some ways it serves the same bottom line of networking and community involvement that’s characteristic of every successful business.

“We heard the cattle drive needed some support last year,” says Lebo Newman, co-owner of Signature Landscapes, presenting sponsor for the 2006 Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. “It took us about 20 seconds to say yes.”

Newman says the company picks events and projects that give good exposure. “They must match up to the values we have as people, as well as a value to our business,” Newman says.

Profits from the Cattle Drive are funneled into the Reno Rodeo Foundation’s Grants Program, which distributes funds into the community by means of financial awards to deserving nonprofit service organizations. The Reno Rodeo Foundation distributes more than $100,000 annually to local nonprofits, including the Angel Kiss Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Northern Nevada RAVE Foundation for Respite Care, Kids and Horses and the Girl Scouts of Sierra Nevada. It also funds scholarships for University of Nevada, Reno students.

“The Rodeo Association does so much … to be connected with that goes well beyond advertising,” says Signature’s co-owner and two-time Cattle Drive guest cowboy Rick Clark. “It’s leveraging the dollars we commit into so much more. We are making connections out here with people who hold the same values, and they support the same causes and projects that are important to our community.”

Adds Newman: “We could give $50 to each of the charities, but being with the Association, the donation becomes so much more.”

Signature’s total commitment to this year’s Cattle Drive exceeded $20,000, Newman says. In business locally for just five years, Signature specializes in commercial, construction and major landscape maintenance. The firm just completed the Carson-Tahoe Hospital and is working on the ReTRAC Project in downtown Reno.

Trevor Riches, an Oregon-based international commodities broker and five-time Cattle Drive cowboy, was working a more subtle business angle — he was test riding a horse.

“I’m introducing one of the horses from my ranch, Cymry Farms. It is a Welsh Cob Horse,” Riches said before the event. “If Duchess handles this [the event] successfully, it will be part of my Web site. The fact we have horses on the cattle drive and that we’re part of the Reno Rodeo, that’s strong marketing.”

The Welsh Cob breed is more associated with dressage and carriage rides than cattle herds and cutting, he says.

Riches adds that one could compare the cattle drive to a pro-am golf tournament, but believes it’s much more. “The guests are all successful, from all walks of life and there’s a lot you can learn from them,” he says.

The challenging part comes from the fact that most folks aren’t real cowboys, and there aren’t too many of those left.

“It’s an exercise in management,” Clark says. “We have five days to learn how to handle a horse and cows, [coordinate] the 40 or so volunteers feeding and taking care of the guests, and then working together to bring the herd to town.”

Before the event, guests were divided into teams of seven or eight and then were given a quick class in Cattle Roundup 101. They learned some basic herding and roping skills and, together with an experienced drover, negotiated the 100-plus miles from Antelope Valley to the Reno Livestock Events Center.

The route along the Beddell Flat mirrors the route Nevada ranchers from just over a century ago would use to deliver their herds to Reno, which was a bustling rail head for the beef industry.

Indeed, dependable shipping to California via the Central Pacific Railroad and growing demand for beef was Reno’s main economic endeavor from the end of the Civil War up through the turn of the century, according to historian John M. Townley.

While not as large as the Goodnight and Chisholm Trail roundups of Lonesome Dove fame, stockmen trailed herds from virgin grasslands on either side of the Humboldt River and into the farthest reaches of northern Washoe, Sierra Valley, Honey Lake Valley and even Oregon. They would deliver the stock to the Truckee Meadows, fattening their herds on the lush meadows that produced almost 5,000 tons of hay each year.

The market became so lucrative that a small consortium was formed in 1877, according to Townley, in order to build a meat-shipping plant. The plant was constructed along the Truckee River across from the current Reno Gazette-Journal building. However, after a few years in operation, adamant opposition from San Francisco meat packers killed the business, along with the lack of reliable refrigerated rail cars to keep the meat from spoiling en route during summer months.

While the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive re-enacted a bit of that economic history, it’s also part of today’s tourism and special event industry that keeps casino coffers full. Even before the first steer was lost in the sagebrush this year, 27 guests already had signed up for the 2007 Cattle Drive, event organizers report.

But for businessmen like Newman and Clark, supporting the Cattle Drive is the right thing to do and the right thing for business.

“This is a place where you build great relationships, and that’s what business is all about,” Newman says. Adds Clark: “We wouldn’t have a business without relationships.”