If you tell someone you are from Logansport, Louisiana, the likely response is “I know where Logansport is, isn’t that where the Bucking Horse is on that building?” So it is with this in mind that a decision was made to include our famous Bucking Horse in the Historical section of our web pages.
The story is that Coy Pace, owner of Pace’s Hardware, saw a potential opportunity to cash in on the marketing of the molded animals available for distributorship. Because of Logansport’s colorful history as a town of lawlessness and actual gunfights in the streets in the early 1900’s, he purchased the Bucking Horse and gave it the job of riding herd over the Town of Logansport. He had it securely mounted on the upper story of the Pace Hardware building. Now everyone that has a horse has a legend to tell about it. This spirited steed also has a history to tell and brought its master much attention. The sight of the horse hanging outside caught the eye of someone passing through. She stopped to inquire about the horse and eventually she purchased a very large chicken (larger that the horse) to be delivered to her in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. The story goes that the chicken arrived and shortly was stolen. Friends of the distraught lady “well maybe I should say, very good friends of the lady” separately and unknown to each other contacted Coy Pace and each made arrangement to have another chicken delivered to their good friend. The chickens were ordered and shipped as agreed; in the meantime the original stolen chicken was recovered. Now the lady in St. Tammany parish had a flock of chickens. Obviously, Coy would have been pleased; his investment had paid off and just not in chicken eggs!
Coy Pace is no longer with us, but his unknowing gift to the Town of Logansport has been the notoriety the Bucking Horse has brought to our town and it will continue to delight visitors and those that drive by for generations to come. The reins of ownership of Pace Hardware were eventually passed to his son Mallory Pace, and the horse remained above the entrance to the hardware store.
The building is no longer occupied by Pace Hardware, but is still referred to as the Pace Hardware building if anyone local is giving directions to somewhere near the Historic building. The building is owned by Don Paul, and still retains many of the old hardware store’s features lovingly restored to pristine conditions. Stop by, take a look up at the cowboy, who still hangs on for all its worth. He has continued to watch over our town through all of the changes as years have gone by.
The crowds brought by the Old Spanish Trail Ride and the Frontier days celebration that would fill the Main Street of Logansport, from store front to store front, with residents dressed in western and frontier attire. Mock gunfights with authentically dressed Cowboys and outlaws, thrilling everyone as gunshots were heard throughout the town. Little cowboys and cowgirls would grab their cowboy hats and pistols and head to town to join the celebration. The Frontier Days would bring Governors to our streets, where they would ride their fancy palominos and serenade the parade watchers with “You Are My Sunshine.” Governor Jimmy Davis was a frequent visitor to Logansport, back in the day.
I wonder what that cowboy and his bucking steed think now as they watch our Main Street highway crowds passing by. But the crowd now is in the form of Oil and Gas related vehicles as they rush to and from the many new Gas wells and new well sites throughout DeSoto Parish as they pass through the Town of Logansport. New excitement has come to the Town of Logansport from the discovery of the Haynesville Shale and Logansport hopes the bucking horse, with heels kicked high for all to see, remains as a reminder of Years Gone BY!
It would be interesting to have people send us their photographic rendition of this iconic land mark, so we could see just how far reaching it is. Please email us if you are so inclined.
