CHUCK WAGON GATHERING &
CHILDREN’S COWBOY FESTIVAL
AT THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM
OKLAHOMA CITY,
OK— One of the nation’s greatest family friendly festivals is back
at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
The Museum is celebrating the 20th Anniversary Chuck
Wagon Gathering & Children’s Cowboy Festival presented by Dogwood
Foundation, May 29 and 30, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Children can participate in numerous
outdoor activities including pony rides, rope making, bandana
designing, horseshoe pitchin’, crafts and more. Stagecoach and
covered wagon rides around the festival grounds are a family
favorite. Photo opportunities are abundant and pictures taken with
Oreo, a Texas Longhorn steer, are popular. There will be
children’s storytelling that will share Charley & Amanda Meet
Rusty the Rodeo Clown.
The food is fantastic! Ten chuck
wagon crews cook such delicious fare as stew, brisket, sourdough
biscuits, beans, cobblers and rice pudding for visitors to sample.
Recipes are prepared hourly at a demonstration wagon by sisters
Sue Cunningham and Jean Cates, award-winning cooks from the C Bar
C Ranch, Hartley, Texas. The Cunningham wagon is still used during
spring and fall roundups. Demonstration recipes are free to the
audience and cookbooks are available for purchase at The Museum
Store wagon.
Western musical entertainment is
scheduled on two separate stages.
Don Edwards
will be on stage Saturday, May 29. Edwards’ career as a balladeer,
guitarist and composer has spanned more than three decades,
enriching audiences with his authentic Western music and his
extensive knowledge of cowboy lore. He played the role of Smokey,
Robert Redford’s best friend, in the motion picture “Horse
Whisperer.” Edwards was awarded the 2010 Chester A. Reynolds
Memorial Award in honor of the Museum’s founder.
Red
Steagall,
who will perform Sunday, May 30, has performed at the Chuck Wagon
event since 1991. The official Cowboy Poet of Texas is a master
songwriter, recording artist, author, actor, radio personality and
rancher. His career spans more than 25 years of performances at
rodeos, major fairs, poetry gatherings and worldwide tours.
Steagall was inducted into the Museum’s prestigious Hall of Great
Westerners during the 2003 Western Heritage Awards ceremonies. He
has received eight Wrangler Awards throughout the years for
outstanding Western albums. Brother Danny will accompany Steagall
on guitar.
Rich O’Brien,
well-known throughout the Western music world, will perform on
Sunday with Steagall. O’Brien has been involved as a guitarist and
producer on more than 150 recordings. He has received 13 Wrangler
Awards, more than any other person in the history of the Museum’s
Western Heritage Awards.
Chuck Milner,
cowboy singer, poet and songwriter will entertain as well as
introduce other performers on the platform stage at the south end
of the festival grounds. Milner, who has performed at many Western
events across the country, has entertained at the Museum’s
gathering since its inception 20 years ago.
Joining Chuck Wagon entertainment
again this year is the
A—Bar Bunkhouse Band,
a
Western swing band. These four talented young men range in age
from 16 to 22 and have
been individually recognized with several awards from music
writing to instrumental and vocal music competitions. They enjoy
Western swing music and the opportunity to carry on the tradition
of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.
Other festival entertainers include
talented Oklahoma Flyin’ Fiddler
Wayne Cantwell,
who plays Celtic, old time and bluegrass; cowboy singer
Jim Garling;
and working cowboy Gary Pratt
accompanied by bass player Doyle Ellis
and Susanne Woolley,
violin and harmonies. Pratt has performed for the RFD-TV series
“Best of America by Horseback,” and has appeared in “The Black
Marshall” and “Trail End” with actor Barry Corbin for which he
wrote the title song.
Dr. H.P. Hedgethicket III, Esquire
will hawk his many “remedies and cures” during a hilarious Old
West Medicine Show. Lisa Sorrell, Guthrie, Oklahoma, will
demonstrate boot making. Also returning is Oklahoma City Blazers
hockey coach Doug Sauter’s Express Clyde and Pony Show +1
featuring the Clydesdale Blazer, donkey Redhawk and
miniature horse Taxi.
When it’s time to cool off, families
can take kids up the hill to the Museum’s indoor Children’s Cowboy
Corral which offers plenty of hands-on entertainment. “Please
touch” is the mantra often heard in the children’s building where
activities include mounting real saddles, dressing up in cowboy
gear and pretending to cook at a real chuck wagon camp. From
howling coyotes atop a 20-foot rock mountain to oversized puzzles
of Museum paintings and interactive computer games, the Three C’s
Ranch is a fun place to be.
One of the best bargains of the day
is the chance to visit the Museum’s fascinating galleries that
tell the story of the West. Not only do children love the
activities at the festival and the Children’s Cowboy Corral, they
love to step back in time and walk down the streets of the
Museum’s turn of the century old Western town, Prosperity
Junction. A popular gallery with the adults, the Western
Performers Gallery, evokes fond memories of movie stars from the
silent era to the present. One of the most charming components of
the gallery is a 1930s replica theater where a short film,
narrated by Sam Elliott, captures the eventful history of
Hollywood Westerns.
Chuck Wagon activities, along with a
tasting bowl and Museum admission, are included in the price of
festival admission: adults $18, students with student I.D. $15,
seniors 62 and above $15, children 4-12 $6. Children three and
under are admitted free, as are members of the Museum. Two-day
passes are available for adults $27; seniors and students $22.50;
children 4-12 $9.00. Festival
hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Museum remains open until 5:00
p.m. No discounts or coupons will be redeemable during the
festival.
The festival with its mouth-watering
food, activities for children, musical entertainment for the
entire family and opportunity to browse the nation’s premier
Western heritage museum attracted the attention of the Food
Network which featured the festival on its “Top Five: Summer
Sensations” program.
Dogwood Foundation presents the 2010
Chuck Wagon Gathering in cooperation with major Sponsor Shawnee
Milling Co., in conjunction with Oklahoma City Convention &
Visitors Bureau, Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Oklahoma
Tourism & Recreation Department, The Oklahoman, Stillwater
Milling Company along with Wagon Sponsors Chisholm Trail Corral of
Westerner’s International, Arnold/El Reno Monument Company, Ramey
Steel Construction, Nuzum Wagon Works, Vox Printing, Osborn
Electric Co., Jennings Enterprises, Oklahoma State Builders
Association and Merritt Properties
with support from Museum Partners
Devon Energy Corporation, Chesapeake Energy Corporation and the
E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation.
The National Cowboy Museum,
America's Premier Western Heritage Museum™, is supported through
memberships and private and corporate donations. The Museum offers
annual memberships that include year-round admission for six
people, including the Chuck Wagon Gathering, subscription to the
award-winning, quarterly publication Persimmon Hill and
discounts for events and at The Museum Store. Nationally
accredited, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is
located in Oklahoma City’s Adventure District at the junction of
I-44 and I-35. For more information about the Museum or for a
calendar of events, visit
www.nationalcowboymuseum.org or call (405) 478-2250.
