Another bit of the old west bites the dust.

AP reports:

GARY, S.D. — Horseback riders have driven more than 500 cows and calves through a South Dakota town in what is likely the last installment of a three-decade tradition.

One day each fall, rancher Dennis Kamrath and dozens of friends, relatives and volunteers drive his herd from pasture land west of Gary to the family farm in Canby, Minn.

The 15-mile trek has become a tradition for Gary, population 227, but the 59-year-old rancher says the expense of calving across the border in South Dakota is getting to be too much.

Gary Historical Association President Roger Baer says the drive has blossomed into a tourist draw. He said seeing cattle hustling down a town's main thoroughfare recalls days gone by. More than a hundred onlookers lined the route Saturday.

Dirk Lammers / AP

A rider leads a herd of more than 500 cows and calves through the main downtown street of Gary, S.D., Saturday, Oct. 29. Hundreds of residents came out for the annual Gary Cattle Drive, which made its final run after more than 30 years.

Dirk Lammers / AP

Riders lead a herd of more than 500 cows and calves into the town of Gary, S.D., Saturday, Oct. 29 en route to the animals' winter home in Canby, Minn. Rancher Dennis Kamrath said this year's Gary Cattle Drive will be the last, as he no longer plans to bring his cows to South Dakota each spring to calf.