Millers are Gold Discovery Days parade marshals

Roy and Joyce Miller have powered many past Gold Discovery Days parades with their horses. This year, they will be a part the parade once again, but this time as parade marshals. 

This year’s Gold Discovery Days Committee selected the Millers because of their history of involvement with the community and Gold Discovery Days in particular.

The Millers ran J.R. Bar Trail Rides of Custer for 28 years. They started the business in 1970 shortly after moving to Custer. It did not take long before the Millers became heavily involved in Custer’s Gold Discovery Days celebration. 

“It was a highlight to our summers,” both Millers said.

Their horses were a staple in the festival’s events, particularly the parade. “We always had a good selection of horses and employees in the parade, and different horse-drawn vehicles pulling our wagons, surreys, and stagecoaches,” Joyce said. 

The Millers gathered many memories over the years. During one of their first years of being involved in the pageant, a team of horses broke loose and nearly ran into the crowd, if not for the heroics of Larry Graves and several other handlers working for the Millers.

Their children, Jeff, Joni, Jacki, and Jay all remember performing in the pageant, though Jay had to sneakily ride his horse in because he was too young to take part in it.

One year, Roy was asked if one of his horses could be painted yellow for the parade. He agreed, as long as the horse was cleaned up afterward. The borrowers returned the horse and spent two and a half hours cleaning it up, until Roy eventually felt sorry for them and let them go.

“It took months before all the yellow was gone,” Roy said. “So next time, I gave them a grey one they didn’t need to paint. I got smart too late! But I learned real soon.”

Roy and Joyce began their relationship on the other side of the country. They met and married each other in Arizona, even though both grew up in the area. Roy grew up in South Dakota, and Joyce grew up in Minnesota. They lived for a while in Phoenix, until eventually deciding they wanted to be closer to their relatives. In 1969, the couple moved to Custer.

After retiring from the trail ride business in the late 1990s, the Millers began spending their winters back in Arizona. The couple still lives in the area in the summer months, having recently moved to Pringle.

The Millers both expressed a great deal of honor and gratitude at being selected as this year’s Gold Discovery Days Parade Marshals.

“We were thrilled. We were both very honored,” Roy said. “It’s almost more meaningful to us now than it would have been back when we were still involved in it.”