Recording helps wild mustangs stay on range

"I moved here because I wanted to live where horses run free," she says. I’m a Western kind of girl."

It seems totally appropriate that the original "Hillbilly Girl With the Blues" has taken up the plight of the Comstock’s endangered wild horse herd.

Dalton is the same irresistibly gracious woman with the unruly hair and amiable dimples whom Santa Cruz fans and friends once knew as Jill Croston.

When Dalton moved from Santa Cruz County, her beloved home for 26 years, she lit out for the bright lights of Nashville. In 1980, with the release of her Columbia debut, "Lacy J. Dalton," the singer’s career blossomed. She lived in Music City for almost 20 years, when she wasn’t on tour, treating audiences to her warm and welcoming voice.

Dalton moved to Storey County’s Virginia Highlands in the Comstock Mine region of Nevada about two years ago. She says locals call the area an "island in the sky." The rough and rocky land of canyons and crags located between Reno and Virginia City, is also home to a rare endangered treasure: one of the largest wild horse herds left in America.

The wild mustangs that roam the range are protected from danger on public lands, but not on private property. Even before 33 wild mustangs were found tortured and slaughtered in nearby Devil’s Flat, in December 1998, Dalton organized the Let ‘Em Run Foundation, a non-profit corporation committed to raising money to advance the work of the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association, or VRWPA.

The VRWPA’s mission is to educate the public and assist in the range management of the free-roaming horses and other local wildlife. Through them, Dalton adopted a wild horse of her own, a six year old stallion (now a gelding) she named Comstock Mackey. The spunky, yet trainable horse is also the mascot for Let ‘Em Run.

The Foundation’s first project is the CD "Wild Horse Crossing." The disc celebrates the mustang’s beauty, mystery, nobility and outlaw nature with music and poetry by Lacy J., and a few of her friends, colleagues, and Nevada neighbors. The country flavored disc has sold more than 2,000 units over the internet. CD sales and two sold out concerts at Virginia City’s historic Piper Opera House in October, filled the VRWPA coffers with a $14,000 windfall.

The grand plan of Let ‘Em Run and the VRWPA is to create a wild horse preserve, with a museum and wild horse adoption center, centered in Virginia City.

"We want to see this project become a tourist attraction for Virginia City, which is a wonderful, historic town," says Dalton. "It’s like discovering another gold strike. We found something we thought was a lump of coal and found it to be a diamond. We want the horses to run wild into perpetuity."

And "Wild Horse Crossing," is just the beginning. Dalton has recruited friend and KTEH Vice President of Operations Marty Collins and his crew to film the horses roaming free for an upcoming PBS documentary. The film will splice footage of the wild horses with live musical performances from "Wild Horse Crossing." A video for the song, "The Escape," and a public service announcement for "Let ‘Em Run" are also in the works.

"Lacy is just on fire over this," says Ginny Mitchell, Lacy’s good friend and fellow singer. Mitchell also sings backup on the CD and a line producer for the documentary.

Let ‘Em Run has earned the support of Nevada’s Lieutenant Governor and Dalton is pleased to report that the state government is taking their cause seriously.

"I’ve never been involved in a project in which doors open so easily. We want it to be a pilot program to show what an incredible asset these horses can be. Those horses helped us build this country from the beginning, so we owe them. Nevada is one of the last really wild places. We want to preserve a piece of the old west for years and years to come."