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     Good things, the old adage goes, come in small packages, and while the festival may be small compared to something like the Cheyenne Frontier Days, there’s nothing small about the enthusiasm for the 5th annual Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering July 18-20, 2008 in Encampment, Wyoming.
     For three days, friends, families and visitors come together to celebrate the rich heritage of this former copper mining town in south-central Wyoming, population about 500 full-time residents. The Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering is organized by local ranchers, musicians, poets and writers as a way to help preserve and promote ranching and cowboy culture and lifestyle.
     Festival activities range from an old-time melodrama put on at the Grand Encampment Opera Hall to cowboy music and poetry performances.
     The Gathering opens on Friday, July 18, with a gunfighter re-enactment at 6 p.m. at the Encampment Opera House followed by an old-time melodrama presented by the Grand Encampment Opera Company, and a campfire poetry and music jam session at Grand View Park immediately after the melodrama. Anyone interested in sharing music or a poem is encouraged to attend.

     On Saturday, July 19, events begin at the Grand Encampment Museum with a book signing at 10 a.m. The Cowboy Outfit will hold the annual Stick Horse Rodeo for kids of all ages beginning at 11 a.m. at Grand View Park in Encampment. Cowboy music and poetry will be presented on the stage in Grand View Park beginning at 11:45 a.m. with performances by Darrin Little, Steve Moulton, Yvonne Hollenbeck, the Encampment Community Choir and the night show entertainers. The Encampment-Riverside Lions Club will serve lunch at the park beginning at 11:30 a.m.
     The stick-horse rodeo provides a fun time for kids and parents. Children are encouraged to bring their own stick horse, but if they don’t have one the group has a remuda of stick horses available for the rodeo. Events for the kids include pole bending, barrel racing, a keyhole race, and a jug race. Prizes are handed out to winners, and events are held by age categories. Even some of the adults try their hand at a bit of stick-horse racing.
     An evening concert on Saturday features Dave Stamey, the 2006 Entertainer of the Year and 2006 Male Vocalist of the Year for the Western Music Association; Chris Isaacs a cowboy poet/humorist from Arizona, Carin Mari and Pony Express, the up-and-coming youth group from Buena Vista, Colorado, and cowboy poet Chuck Larsen from Saratoga, Wyoming. The concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Encampment School. Tickets are $15 and are available in advance or at the door. Cowboy Gathering memberships are also available with prices beginning at $25.
     On Sunday, July 20, events include a cowboy breakfast to be dished up from the back of a chuckwagon from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the museum grounds. Cowboy church will be conducted by Ken and Becky Kreusel in Grand View Park beginning at 10 a.m. The Grand Encampment Museum will have living history, from noon to 5 p.m.
     South Dakota poet Yvonne Hollenbeck will present a program on historic quilts at 1 p.m. and Dave Stamey will conduct a song writing workshop. Re-enactors will be on hand in the museum’s buildings that include a one room school, print shop, tie hack cabin, homesteader’s house, and livery stable.

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The Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering is co-sponsored by the Grand Encampment Museum with assistance from the town of Encampment, Wyoming, the nearby town of Riverside and many businesses and individuals in the Platte Valley.

For more information on any of the events contact the Saratoga-Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce at (307) 326-8855. The event’s Web site is located at: www.grandencampmentcowboygathering.org