Oklahoma City KEY - Cover Story

Museum Festival Cooks
Up Fun Cowboy Style

One of the nation’s greatest family friendly festivals returns to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City May 23 and 24. The 19th Annual Chuck Wagon Gathering & Children’s Cowboy Festival offers mouth-watering food, activities for children, musical entertainment and opportunity to browse the nation's premier Western heritage museum.

The list of awards for the festival is distinguished. Just recognized by American Cowboy magazine as a Top 3 pick for Best Family Event, the 2008 event was recognized by central Oklahoma’s Frontier Country Marketing Association as Outstanding Children’s Attraction. The best endorsement is that the festival is again expected to attract more than 8,000 visitors over two days to partake in memory-making activities spread across the Museum complex.

Headlining the stage entertainment will be balladeer Don Edwards on Saturday, May 23 and acclaimed Western singer and poet Red Steagall Sunday, May 24. Also returning are singer/songwriter Chuck Milner of Oklahoma, who has performed at 19 years of the festival, and Gary S. Pratt, recipient of the Museum’s latest Wrangler Award for Outstanding New Artist. New to the festival in 2009 is Devon Dawson, the singin’, yodelin' voice of “Jessie,” on the Grammy-winning recording "Woody’s Roundup featuring Riders In the Sky,” a Walt Disney Records release based on characters of “Toy Story 2.”

The young men of the A Bar Bunkhouse Band are returning with their popular Western swing sound. Other entertainers include Wayne Cantwell, Jim Garling and Dr. H.P. Hedgethicket III, who performs a hilarious Old West Medicine Show. Another returning favorite is Oklahoma City Blazers hockey coach Doug Sauter with his Express Clyde and Pony Show +1.

Festival 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.

Children can participate in numerous outdoor activities: pony rides, rope making, bandana designing and leather crafting, to name a few. Stagecoach and covered wagon rides are offered around the festival oval.

Admission covers entrance to the festival, food tastings and the Museum. Adults are $14; seniors 62 and over, $12; students with ID, $12; and children 6-12, $5. Children ages five and under are admitted free, as are members of the Museum with current card. Memberships and two-day passes are available for purchase. Festival hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the Museum is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The event Associate Sponsor is Remington Park. Additional cosponsors include The Oklahoman, KKNG 93.3 FM and Great Plains Coca-Cola, with support from Museum Partners Devon Energy Corporation, Chesapeake Energy Corporation and the E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation.

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. call (405) 478-2250 or visit www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.

This website designed, hosted and maintained for KEY of Oklahoma, Inc. by

...when it's time to establish an Internet presence.