Oklahoma hosts Children’s Cowboy Festival

One of America’s greatest family friendly festivals is back at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The Museum will be celebrating the 19th Annual Chuck Wagon Gathering & Children’s Cowboy Festival presented by Dogwood Foundation, May 23 and 24, 2009.

Children can participate in numerous outdoor activities including pony rides, rope making, bandana designing, horseshoe pitchin’, leather crafting and many more. Stagecoach and covered wagon rides around the festival grounds are a family favorite.

The food is fantastic as ten chuck wagon crews cook such delicious fare as stew, brisket, sourdough biscuits, beans, cobblers and rice pudding for visitors to sample. 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 23. 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 “Horse Whisperer” film

Red Steagall, who will perform Sunday, May 24, 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.

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.

For more information, visit nationalcowboymuseum.org.