Susan Marquez
BIGHORN BLUEGRASS CAMP The Big Horn Mountains and Big Horn National Forest in Wyoming are big draws for tourists each summer for their recreational offerings. Fishing, camping, hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, picnicking, sightseeing, and photography are just a few of the activities people enjoy doing in the scenic area. And for a week every summer, the sound of bluegrass music fills the air when students at the BigHorn Bluegrass Camp start pickin’ and singin’. Once an ancillary event to an annual bluegrass festival held in Buffalo, Wyoming, the bluegrass camp came into its own in 2017 under the leadership of Karen Blaney. “The festival was the main attraction, and a company was hired to do the children’s music camp,” she says. “Five years ago, we decided it would suit our community better to do the camp ourselves.” The festival has 10
been on hiatus for three years, but the camp continues to go strong. Karen is the director of the camp which drew 60 students, ages seven to 18 (and up), this year. “That’s our largest number of campers so far,” she says. Held each July at
the Johnson County Fairgrounds, the camp draws campers from around the county and neighboring counties, as well as students from other parts of the state and as far away as Nebraska. For years, Karen has taught high
school and she is the high school drama director. She got into directing the festival by accident, she says, but now she can’t imagine not being involved. “I have three children, and my middle child, Morgan, was a very shy and anxious child. I sent her to the bluegrass camp, and she fell in love with the upright bass. She came home after the first day and told me she had found her ‘thing.’” Morgan played piano a bit before the camp, but she had never played a stringed instrument. She is now in college at the University of Northern Colorado at Greenlee majoring in jazz studies, and she is the bass player for a bluegrass band named Prairie Wildfire. The band is on teaching staff at the camp. “In the past, we’ve had a professional band come to the camp each year,” says Karen. Horseshoes and Hand Grenades,
