Trigger's happy trails to Omaha

Patrick Gottsch pulled the trigger.

The Elkhorn-area businessman snatched up a piece of Americana — the late Trigger, longtime horse of legendary movie cowboy Roy Rogers — with a winning bid at Christie's auction house in New York City on Wednesday.

Gottsch paid more than $266,000 for the golden palomino synonymous with one of America's most famous cowboys, according to news reports. Rogers and Trigger appeared together in movies and Rogers' 1950s TV series. When Trigger died in 1965, Rogers had the horse preserved through taxidermy. Rogers died in 1998.

Gottsch, who founded and runs a rural-themed TV network with national reach, plans to display the horse at RFD-TV's corporate headquarters in Omaha, said spokeswoman Stephanie Waters.

The network has a production studio in Nashville, Tenn., but is run out of One Valmont Plaza, near 144th Street and West Dodge Road. The company plans to build a new corporate headquarters here, though a location hasn't yet been announced.

Launched in 2000, RFD-TV initially reached 4 million homes through DISH satellite. Waters said it now reaches 40 million homes through major cable systems, DISH and DIRECTV. It recently joined the lineup on Cox Cable in Omaha.

RFD-TV identifies itself as a family-values network that is trying to bring country to the city and give viewers, through its mix of cattle auctions, “Hee-Haw” reruns and more, television “like it used to be.”

Waters said the purchase of Trigger is a perfect fit. She said the station will air Roy Rogers movies starting in November and that Rogers' son Dusty and grandson Dustin will be hosts for a regular program.

“We're thrilled,” she said. “We're very excited.”

Gottsch made another high-profile bid a year ago when he tried to offer the City of Omaha $3 million if it would undo its controversial 2007 annexation of Elkhorn. The city rejected the offer; the annexation had already gone through.

Contact the writer:

444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share