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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Ranch Event Takes You To Time of Cowboys

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
      It's time to grab some Western gear, holster a pair of six-shooters and head for the hills.
    Starting today, End of Trail, an annual four-day Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) event is open to the public at the worldwide organization's property south of Edgewood. The event ends Sunday.
    Fashioned after a grand party cowhands would have after a long cattle drive, the event is held each year at Founders Ranch in the hills of Torrance County. The ranch includes 1800s-style clapboard storefronts, tents and the facade of a Spanish church. There are also several buffalo and there will be horses and cowboys and girls and old Western guns galore.
    Around 1,000 contestants — some of them from Canada, Europe and even Australia — attended last year's End of Trail competition, which includes timed shooting events and mounted shooting, where contestants gallop around a course to destroy balloons by shooting them as fast as possible.
    In addition to shooting, there will be a number of games and other activities. Awards are given for best costume (the shooters dress in clothes from the 1800s), there is a card playing championship and prizes for best “sutlers” (settlers) are also given.
    In addition, there will be a constant stream of Western singers, cowboy poets and storytellers and world champion trick gunslinger Joey Dillon will spin and juggle his silver guns and a chuck-wagon cook-off. There will even be a Gatling gun from 1883, which members of the public were invited to shoot for a fee of $1 a bullet.
    According to SASS Marketing Assistant LouAnn Hunt, there will also be more activities for the young buckaroos and buckarettes this year, with a kids' rodeo and a demonstration from rodeo cowboys from Moriarty High School.
    Victorian era underwear will also make an appearance.
    On Friday and Saturday afternoons, Sharon Guli, aka Miss Tabitha, will demonstrate how a Victorian lady would have dressed, from a chemise, bloomers and corset to petticoat, bustle, headpiece and accessories, giving historical information and anecdotes along the way.
    Other entertainment over the weekend will include Dr. Buck's Wild West Comedy Gunfight and Stunt Show and performances by TC Thorstenson and his trained buffalo, Harvey Wallbanger Jr. As a calf, Wallbanger was orphaned by poachers and Thorstenson bottle fed him to keep the baby bison alive, according to the SASS Web site.
    To get to Founders Ranch, go south of Old Route 66 on N.M. 217 for about five miles, then head east on Juan Tomas Road for 1½ miles to Barton Road. The turn off for the ranch is on the right, about three-quarters of a mile north of Juan Tomas.
    For more details and a schedule of events, go to www.sass.com and click End of Trail or call (877) 411-SASS.
   

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