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JULY 2017 FEATURES

BOOTS UNITED A collection from Old Gringo offers hand-tooled, intricately detailed boots with designs representing the culture of each and every state in the nation. Here are 24 of our favorites. by Victoria Mechler

COVER STORY: WILLIE NELSON The icon turned 84 in April. If anything, the healing hands of time have invigorated the Red Headed Stranger, whose incessant touring includes his 4th of July Picnic and the summer Outlaw Music Festival roadshow. Nelson’s sons and friends weigh in on his ever-evolving legacy. by Joe Leydon

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OUR OREGON TRAIL Old West meets the new Northwest in a state full of natural beauty, outdoor sports, rodeos, ranches, wineries, and so much more. Writer Chuck Thompson gives the lay of the land, and our editors recommend things to do, see, buy, eat, and drink in the Beaver State.

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24 THINGS TO DO IN THE WEST We’re not limiting our annual travel issue to a single state. In honor of C&I’s 24th anniversary issue, we present two dozen more worthy options across the West.

ON THE COVER Among the latest projects for cover star Willie Nelson is the just-released album God’s Problem Child, which deals with the subject of mortality in clever and entertaining ways. The songs “Old Timer” and “Still Not Dead” particularly stand out for their unsentimental takes on getting older. Order the new album at willienelson.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY: (THIS PAGE) KENJI SUGAHARA/COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON, (COVER) KMAZUR/GETTY IMAGES

DEPARTMENTS

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ART GALLERY Tom Browning’s cowboy paintings, David Grossmann’s plein-air landscapes, a retrospective of the work of the late Rick Bartow (Wiyot), and an exhibition on the western in films, paintings, photographs, and more. TRAVEL Rocky Mountain National Park and its gateway town of Estes Park, Colorado, are old favorites, but there’s always something new to discover. LIVING WEST Kelly Sutherland, the legendary patriarch of a Canadian chuck wagon dynasty, hopes his final race ends with his lucky 13th championship.

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HISTORY America’s oldest town, Sky City in New Mexico’s Acoma Pueblo, has a story that’s epic, tragic, and glorious.

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WESTERN GOURMET Cool off with refreshing cocktails — including one just for C&I — from bartender extraordinaire Aaron Kolitz.

30 Contributors 32 Editor’s Note 34 Letters 36 Open Range 44 Western Storefront 46 On the Horizon 50 Society 54 Happy Trails 142 Media Roundup 146 Cowboy Corner 148 Showtime 152 Live From

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The Ultimate Willie Nelson Playlist

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Editorial

E DITORIAL DIRECTOR SENIOR EDITOR M ANAGING E DITOR A SSOCIATE E DITOR A SSOCIATE E DITOR A SSISTANT E DITOR CONTRIBUTING E DITOR

Dana Joseph Hunter Hauk Holly Henderson José R. Ralat Victoria Mechler Kristin Brown Joe Leydon

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1. Charles M. Russell (1864–1926), Wild Horses, watercolor on paper, 20 × 29 in., Est: $400,000-600,000 2. William R. Leigh (1866–1955), Tidbits, oil on canvas, 28 × 22 in., Est: $250,000-350,000 3. Martin Grelle (b. 1954), Lost and Found, oil on canvas, 42 × 50 in., Est: $150,000-250,000 4. Carl Rungius (1869–1959), Out of the Canyon, oil on canvas, 28 × 36 in., Est: $300,000-500,000 5. Maynard Dixon (1875–1946), The Prairie, oil on canvas, 62 × 78 in., Est: $500,000-750,000 6. Howard Terpning (b. 1927), The Pipe Holder, oil on board, 30 × 24 in., Est: $150,000-250,000

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Contributors

“Diversity is what [Oregon] is all about,” says writer Chuck Thompson, who leads off this year’s travel issue feature (page 84). “Start at the spiritual center of Mount Hood and within a short drive you can be walking on a lonely Pacific beach, following Lewis and Clark’s route down the Columbia River, standing in one of the most pristine fly-fishing rivers on earth, hiking through oldgrowth rainforest, or horseback riding through surreal high-desert rock formations.” Indeed, C&I covers many of Oregon’s aforementioned highlights. But Thompson gives us a closer, more personal look at the Beaver State: He has traveled across and written extensively about Oregon for 30 years. “I started my story about traveling around the state at the Oregon Coast because it’s such a mammoth example of the legacy of land stewardship that’s been an important part of the state’s history, and one I think a lot of places could benefit from emulating,” he says. Thompson’s writing has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Outside, CNN, Salon, Men’s Journal, Esquire, Reader’s Digest, and the Los Angeles Times.

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY JOE LEYDON, COURTESY CHUCK THOMPSON

Near the end of a 2013 telephone interview with Willie Nelson — the subject of this issue’s cover story (page 74) — C&I contributing editor Joe Leydon couldn’t help himself. He knew the Red Headed Stranger was just a few days away from his 80th birthday, so Leydon impulsively launched into an enthusiastic (albeit slightly off-key) rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.” “And as soon as I finished,” he recalls with a laugh, “I was instantly embarrassed. I was afraid Willie would think I was presumptuous at best — and pretty dang crazy at worst. I can’t tell you how relieved and grateful I was when Willie said, ‘Aw, that’s great. Thank you. Thank you very much.’ ” Even so, Leydon didn’t press his luck when he visited Nelson’s Luck, Texas, spread two years later to do a location story on Waiting for the Miracle to Come, a movie Nelson was shooting. “That time,” he says, “I stayed away from serenading, and stuck to interviewing.” During his last day on the set, Leydon adds, “Willie was characteristically humble about his acting abilities. He loves to tell this story: ‘Somebody asked Slim Pickens about my acting one time. And Slim said, “He plays Willie Nelson better than anybody.” ’ ” Nelson added: “I have to agree with him on that one, I guess. I usually pretty much play myself, whoever I’m supposed to be. And that doesn’t require a lot of acting.” Leydon drew on these and other interactions he’s had with Nelson over the years while contributing to our cover-story package about the ageless entertainer who’s always ready to go on the road again.

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E D I T O R

’

N O T E

In The Journey

C O

I N D

W B

HIS MONTH WE CELEBRATE COWBOYS &

Indians magazine’s 24th anniversary — that’s two dozen years of telling action-packed stories of the American West, painting colorful portraits of unforgettable characters, and guiding readers to the best in fashion, food, travel, art, and entertainment. Although we’re one year short of our silver anniversary, we don’t take the 24-year mark lightly. That’s why on the cover of this edition we’re featuring one of the most prolific and enduring artists of any generation. At 84 years old, Texas’ beloved Red Headed Stranger Willie Nelson continues his ever-expanding legacy of authentic roots music and dynamic live performances — his 4th of July Picnic will return to Austin this year, and he’ll also be the focus of a festival tour featuring everyone from Bob Dylan to Sheryl Crow as co-headliners. Achieving the status of consummate road warrior and timeless musical icon has rarely been a solo journey for Nelson. Since before the country-outlaw days of 1970s Texas, he has surrounded himself with like-minded individuals who put true musicianship and good vibes first. Everyone seems to love the man, which is why Willie’s “family” comprises both blood relatives and bosom buddies. Like many a music lover, I’ve enjoyed heaping helpings of his tunes throughout my life. I’ve also heard impassioned fan stories from septuagenarian relatives, 32

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fellow middle-aged friends, and young’uns in the family who’ve only just discovered the magic of vinyl records. Willie’s appeal transcends age and status; the sight of his weathered face and the sound of his well-worn voice and Martin guitar evoke a bevy of emotions for fans of all stripes around the world. Whether it’s the classic anthem “On the Road Again,” the bookend barnburner “Whiskey River,” a pensive cover such as “Stardust,” or a tearful lament like “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” his songs make up the kind of catalog that could fuel a lifetime of diverse road-trip playlists. It’s serendipitous that Willie’s fronting this particular issue, because those playlists will come in handy as our hearts, minds, and itineraries turn to summer travel. In these pages you’ll find plenty of options to satisfy your warm-weather Western wanderlust. We take a deep dive into the adventure-filled offerings of Oregon, from Mount Hood and Cannon Beach to Portland and Crater Lake. Elsewhere, we offer 24 more fantastic year-round vacation ideas in other parts of the country — duly inspired, you might just find yourself planning an antiquing extravaganza for the fall in Round Top, Texas. If for some reason you can’t leave home and can only live vicariously via this summer travel edition, fire up our ultimate Willie Nelson playlist at cowboysindians.com and let the music take you away. Safe travels.

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L E T T E R S

Planning The Next Escape I loved the article “Great Big Sky on Long Skinny Skis” by Rick Bass [in the January issue]. Although I read it a couple of weeks ago, I find I now can’t get it out of my mind. Admittedly, I did a couple of those ubiquitous downhill-skiing ski-resort trips with friends in my youth. But the author’s description of granola-charged silent gliding winter afternoons sounds sublime. This has roused me to the planning stages of a snow-filled sabbatical for my own family. — Hilary Hileman-Hyacinth, via email C&I’s Friends On Facebook

Our readers shared their thoughts on our April cover man, Pierce Brosnan. Join the conversation at facebook.com/cowboysindians. Wow! And I thought he made a great 007! — Karen Welch I love this issue, and Pierce Brosnan is great in this role. Not many of the younger men actors can play in western movies. — Jennie Lou Crowder Giddyup! Looking forward to [AMC’s The Son]. — Kellene Jardine I love westerns. That’s all we had to watch when I was growing up. I can’t wait for this. — Peggy Sue Odneal-Kaiser

Errata The credit for the image used in the Art Gallery section on “Branding the American West” in the April issue (page 55) was incorrect. The featured painting is Roadside by Maynard Dixon (courtesy Brigham Young University Museum of Art). —The Editors

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ALI DEE VINTAGE Singer, songwriter, and TV personality Ali Dee has worn many hats. In 2013, she even launched her own fashion label, and in just three years it’s quickly become beloved for its colorful graphic tees, patterned bell-bottoms, and flowing dusters. Now, the Ali Dee Collection is further expanding with a line of vintage apparel and accessories. You can shop the fashionista’s latest one-of-a-kind finds online, like these vintage silver sunburst concho earrings ($59). alideecollection.com

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FENOGLIO KNOW-HOW The history of Fenoglio Boot Co. is deeply rooted in Nocona, Texas — and intricately tied to that of another one of the biggest names in the business. Also originally based in Nocona, Justin Boots indirectly gave rise to the Fenoglio label. When founder H.J. Justin died, his two sons took over and relocated Justin Boots to Fort Worth, Texas. But their sister, Enid, stayed behind, eventually launching her own label, Nocona Boots. Eighty years later when she passed away in 1990, Justin bought the sister label, bringing it to Fort Worth and back into the family. So Nocona’s skilled bootmakers branched out on their own. Keeping the tradition alive in the small Texas town, they founded Fenoglio Boot Co. — where every boot is entirely handcrafted, with a stacked leather heel and wooden pegs, just like they always have been in Nocona. fenoglioboot.com

BRIT EXOTICS Brit West is a name many cowgirls know well, especially those with a passion for turquoise. Designer Brittain Roberts is renowned for her chunky Kingman turquoise belts and bracelets. But she isn’t one to simply stick to what works. In recent years, Roberts has expanded her line to include leather apparel, handbags, and beadwork. Now she is taking on exotic skins. The latest from Brit West is a stunning variety of custom stingray, ostrich, and alligator cuffs. britwest.net

PHOTO © BOB WADE.COM

BLUE FLAX “As a child in the early 1960s, I was surrounded by the amazing art made by my father,” says jewelry designer Denise Hagood. “Although I never actually knew him, his prolific and highly original works were a spur to my own creativity. A necklace that he made from vintage metal resonated deeply with me, and it remains the bedrock of my inspiration today.” From her studio in Idaho, Hagood follows in her father’s footsteps, creating one-ofa-kind pieces that pull together “a natural mix” of gemstones, vintage accents, and leathers and are “designed for everyday adventure.” blueflaxstudio.com

BIG DISCOVERY Laura Ingalls is yet another jewelry designer exploring new territory. Making her name out West in natural boulder opal stones and silver charms, the Colorado artist has discovered a passion for leatherwork, adding repurposed tack-leather cuffs and long fringe earrings to her Eclectic Southwest collection. Now she is topping things off with hat designs, decking out Panama straws with the likes of bright leather stitching, braided horsehair bands, conchos, and feathers. “I have never done anything on a small scale,” Ingalls says. “As the oldest of six children, I became accustomed to cooking big meals. And I have continued to repeat the ‘big’ theme with any project that I have undertaken ... . What can I say — I dream big!” lauraingallsdesigns.com

ECLECTIC COWGIRL Western & Co. owner and designer Hailey Nelson draws each of her printed T-shirt designs by hand and then curates her collection. The result is an eclectic yet cohesive reflection of Nelson’s personal style — with retro, Americana, honky-tonk, desert gypsy, and Old West vibes. Among her latest original designs are the ’70s-inspired Rough Riders tee with baseball sleeves ($42) and the Sweetheart of the Rodeo tee, which feels well-suited for a modern-day Dale Evans ($40). westernandco.com

COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

SUNKA WAKAN Located in the famed rodeo town of Cheyenne, Wyoming Home is founded in a love of the history and culture of the American West. Among its latest Western additions, this war horse bust by Arich Harrison pays tribute to the Lakota people and their reverence for the equine. Meaning “sacred dog,” the term and title of the sculpture, Sunka Wakan, refers to the early Lakota’s reliance on the horse to travel and hunt. The horse also played a major role in tribal warfare, which is why the artist depicts his subject proudly decorated with war paint and feathers ($270). wyominghome.com

THE STOP “I’m always asked why I choose to paint horses,” Steve Taylor says. “I paint horses because they are magnificent creatures. You see, when I paint horses, I aspire to paint the soul and spirit of the horse.” We think Taylor hits his mark with perfection. In his original oils such as The Stop, Taylor depicts the grace, power, and untamed spirit of his subjects with authentic detail. “I’m always amazed how the application of color from tubes of paint can create something that allows the eyes to be a conduit to the heart and mind.” stevetaylorart.com

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AUTRY FAMILY TRADITION CE Autry Leather was founded in Fort Worth, Texas, by a cousin of the “Singing Cowboy” Gene Autry. Having more of a gift for leatherwork and taxidermy than for music and entertainment, C.E. Autry began his career as a traveling salesman, setting up shop at the biggest stock shows in Texas. In 1937, he settled in Cowtown to properly showcase his handmade leather goods and custom-mounted longhorns, and his storefront has been there ever since. As the years went by, the family grew and so did the business. The name was later changed to M.P. & K.D. Horn & Leather Shop, but the speciality has remained the same. Now fourth-generation craftsman and C.E.’s great-grandson Duane Miller holds the reins, masterfully crafting custom mounts with genuine horns and leather (from $55). hornandleather.com

HEADS OR TAILS When it comes to designing custom hats, you won’t find anyone who better fits the bill than Haskell, Texas-based hatter Rick Phemister. He’s been doing it now for more than three decades. After opening a Western retail store with his mother, Phemister got his start in hats when he began creating custom eyelets and bands for customers who wanted more fashion-forward toppers. Eventually Heads or Tails Hats was born. Now Phemister works on up to 100 hats a day and one of them just might be for the next Miss Rodeo America. For years, Phemister has been a hatter for Miss Rodeo Texas. Whether you want something classic with tooled overlays or something more over-the-top, he’ll assuredly design you a hat fit for a queen. headsortailshats.com

TRAIL RIDERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES “O Canada! ... glorious and free.” That’s what you’ll be singing in the saddle if you head out into the wilds of Alberta with the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies. The nonprofit club is in its 94th year of leading horseback adventures from a base camp at 3,500 feet out — and up — into the wonders of Waterton Lakes National Park, a UNESCO Heritage Site. “Every day of the trip, we’ll go 12 to 16 miles,” says Trail Riders president Stuart Watkins, who’s been doing these rides for years as his father, who also served as the group’s president, did before him. “We might ride to a lake, mountain pass, climb a ridge, ride along rivers, through the valley. Every day is different. There are two rides where we literally climb a mountain, right to the very top. The view is outstanding. You can stand on top of the mountain and look south to Montana and see Glacier National Park.” In Canada, Watkins explains, the national parks don’t allow roads to lots of areas. “If you want to see backcountry, you either backpack or ride a horse, or you don’t see it. On horseback, we go where nobody else goes.” In Waterton Lakes National Park, where the prairies of Alberta meet the Rocky Mountains, Parks Canada says you’ll encounter “clear lakes, thundering waterfalls, rainbow-colored streams, colorful rocks, and mountain vistas” as well as an exceptional diversity of wildlife and wildflowers. Watkins can corroborate: “We see grizzly, black bears, moose, elk, deer, Rocky Mountain sheep, Rocky Mountain goats.” Wildlife, sure-footed horses, spectacular scenery, tent and tepee accommodations, hot outdoor showers, great food, campfires, live entertainment, and the camaraderie of fellow riders, many of whom have been returning for years — it’s a riding holiday fit for celebrating the 150th anniversary of the confederation of our Canadian neighbor to the north. (Four-, five-, and six-day rides are available.) trailridevacations.com

Doub l e D R an chwear · Tash a Poli zzi R yan Michael · Lan e · Pin k Pana ch e

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406-322-6204

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Out here… all that matters is being on a Good Horse

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For raw cooking power, it doesn’t get any better than the American Muscle Grill, which goes from zero to 350 degrees in just two minutes. Or opt for Summerset’s latest addition: the Sizzler Pro, a freestanding stainless steel grill designed to ensure optimal airflow. summersetgrills.com

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Made in Bryan, Texas since 1983

800-976-7818 www.catalenahats.com

A FISHERMAN’S HAVEN Here, you will find the best of Big Sky Country. Nestled on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park in Emigrant, Montana, Hubbard’s Yellowstone Lodge is an outdoorsman’s oasis, offering plenty of recreational activities (including cattle drives), breathtaking views from every vantage point, and access to numerous natural wonders like Old Faithful and the Gallatin Petrified Forest. It’s also a luxury resort with upscale accommodations, gourmet dining, and massage services. But most come for the fly-fishing. Hubbard’s is a two-time Orvis Lodge of the Year award winner, and it’s easy to see why when you cast out into its trout-infested waters. Better still, the landscape offers a little bit of everything, from small-pocket fisheries to technical spring creeks. You can fish the Yellowstone River from drift boats in scenic Paradise Valley or hike in to wade-fish the more secluded Slough Creek while herds of bison graze nearby. hubbardslodge.com SUMMERSET ESSENTIAL As you gear up for summer, don’t forget about the season’s most important accessory: the grill. A good grill is a must for hosting poolside cookouts and Fourth of July barbecues, and Summerset Grills has just what you need to update your outdoor kitchen.

AMPED-UP RAMBLERS “Yeti Jugs are ready for anything you can throw at ’em,” says Matt Reintjes, CEO of the elite outdoor cooler and drinkware company. “Whether you’re working the ranch, paddling whitewater, or out on the rig — no matter the pursuit, Yeti Jugs will stand tough and keep you prepared for any adventure.” Available in two sizes to hold a halfgallon or 1 gallon of liquid, the new Rambler Jugs will also keep you wellhydrated. You can fill the stainless steel jug with water and set out on the trails without any worry of running out. Or you can use it to keep the margaritas cold and flowing all weekend long. ($99 – $149.99). yeti.com

Cavender’s Stock Yards

575-772-5157

GeronimoRanch.com 1 Wall Lake Rd. Winston, NM 87943 44

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avender’s is one of the most prominent Western retail chains in the country. Luskey’s (which became Luskey’s/ Ryon’s when buying the adjoining saddle and tack shop) has been a Fort Worth, Texas, institution for nearly a century. Now, these two Westernwear legends have come together on Main Street. The name on the door that once read Luskey’s/Ryon’s is now Cavender’s Stock Yards Outfitter. The neighboring saddle shop was remodeled as an extension Boot Room and sitting area for customers making selections and being fitted for custom boots. Reopened after renovations this past December, it marks the 75th Cavender’s store, but this one stands apart due to its historic location and new partnership with fellow Texans. “We did our best to pay tribute to this area,” says Clay Cavender of the top-to-bottom remodel. “The building dates back to the late 1800s, and we tried to restore it to its original state.” Inside, the décor is enhanced by an assortment of nostalgic memorabilia from the Luskey, Ryon, and Cavender families. As for the inventory, it consists of both Cavender and Luskey signatures. Cavender’s large stock of Westernwear staples — jeans, shirts, hats, and boots from top brands like Wrangler and Resistol — is accompanied by a selection of the high-end merchandise Luskey’s was known for. The famed Boot Room — a new concept design featuring stained paneled wood walls, stone, and rustic flooring — features premier designs from Lucchese, Black Jack, Old Gringo, and Corral Boots, as well as the Luskey’s/Ryon’s custom handmade collection. “It’s a unique store with a unique atmosphere,” Clay says. “We’re getting the old-school Western customers that have always shopped with us, and tourists from everywhere. ... It’s a fun store to work. And we are very fortunate to have Mike and Alan Luskey on board to continue running the business.” Cavender’s Stock Yards Outfitter, 2601 N. Main St., Fort Worth, Texas, 817.625.2391, cavenders.com.

Montana Rustic Accents

estled on the north bank of the Yellowstone River in Montana sits the quaint little town of Columbus. It may seem an unfitting name being that the explorer never made it to the American Northwest, but it does roll off the tongue much more smoothly than the original: Sheep Dip. Wendi Wetzel, however, is proud of her hometown under any name, and its enthusiastic response to the business she opened with her husband in 2012. Prior to opening Montana Rustic Accents, Wetzel spent 20 years working in distribution and customer service for a wholesale gift company. “The company was sold, but I wasn’t ready to be done yet,” she says of her career. “I heard about this storefront space opening up, and everything fell into place.” The business was originally conceived as a place to go for furnishings and home accents, including paintings, sculptures, and decorative pillows. But since then the store has evolved into one of those places where customers can find just about anything, from cookbooks featuring favorite Big Sky Country recipes to locally made souvenirs and gifts. “We’re a little bedroom community, but with our fishing and summer sports and winter sports, it gets a lot of traffic,” Wetzel says. Recently Wetzel has also branched out into fashion, adding designer apparel lines such as Double D Ranch and Tasha Polizzi, Old Gringo boots, and a selection of accessories. “We wanted it to be really unique, and that is the comment we get the most,” Wetzel says. The store itself is designed to reflect the rustic attributes of its surroundings and the local culture, but she keeps the inventory versatile and diverse to suit ranch and city folk alike. “We’re Western people, but my store caters to everyone.” Montana Rustic Accents, 637 Ninth St., Suite 150, Columbus, Montana, 406.322.6204, montanarusticaccents.com. — David Hofstede

JerrY TucKer

www.jerrytuckerjewelry.com

Charlie Favour

www.charliefavour.com COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

VINTAGE ART This whimsical custom wall hanging depicts a horse in scraps of leather and felt. vintagesculpture.com COMPANION ACCESSORIES To deck out horse and rider, Rafter T Ranch designs chic leather tack and accessories like the Beaded Inlay Collection headstall ($160) and matching spur straps ($70). raftertranchco.com WINNING DESIGN The Triple Crown buckle by Ben Nighthorse Campbell is beautifully handcrafted with a scalloped edge and inset with turquoise, rosarita, and onyx ($3,500). sorrelsky.com TIED RACE Both of these handmade silk ties are perfect for a summer day at the races ($85 each). birddogbay.com BITS OF CARAMEL This clutch/organizer is handmade in caramel leather and embossed with bits ($150). doublejsaddlery.com BUTTERFLY BOOT Working with the expert bootmakers at Rios of Mercedes, you can design a boot for summer in your favorite sunny color combo. riosofmercedes.com 46

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Visit our world-famous woolen mills, home of the beautiful Pendleton blanket. FREE TOURS Monday - Friday WASHOUGAL WEAVING MILL Washougal, WA | (360) 835-1118

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PAMPLONA This refined riding boot from the Two24 collection is handcrafted in Spain by fifth-generation bootmakers ($599). ariat.com BOVA BUCKLES These elegant buckles feature the original equestrian prints of interior designer Julie Browning Bova ($45 each). juliebrowningbova.com NEEDLEPOINT PACK A vintage needlepoint was repurposed to create this oneof-a-kind backpack. totemsalvaged.com HORSE AND BARN A majestic pastel print is mounted on a recycled barn-wood pallet ($439). adobeinteriors.com WED WEST This custom hand-engraved buckle ring makes for a fitting cowgirl wedding band or anniversary gift. readjewelers.com ECO THROW The Bits Reversible printed throw blanket is handmade from recycled and organic cotton ($150). cowboysindians.com/shop 48

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Handcrafted Doxie is the long “paw” of the law!

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Shown slightly larger than approximate size of 4" high

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Handcrafted ﬁgurine from Hamilton! Now, say “howdy” to this proud pup for yourself! Entirely crafted and painted by hand, it’s the extra accents that’ll keep this Dachshund furrever in your heart. From his big brown eyes to the tip of his “furry” tail … from his bolo tie to his vest and hat … not a single detail is missed. He’s even sporting a little extra “fur” with his twisted moustache!

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Handmade In Jackson Hole Since 1970

Sonya Terpening

Andrew Peters

Masters of the American West

80 Center Street Jackson Hole, Wyoming 307.733.5599

PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK BEDOR

he Masters of the American West Art Exhibition and Sale celebrated its 20 years of dedication to Western art February 11 through March 26. Seventy-six of the best Western artists in the country displayed nearly 300 paintings, sculptures, and other works inspired by unique stories of the American West. “It’s the thrill of a lifetime,” says artist Andrew Peters, who has been displaying his paintings at the event for more than a decade. At the end of the event, a select few artists were awarded for their talents. Bill Anton’s painting A Fresh Grizzly Track won the Spirit of the West Award for the top work in cowboy subject matter. Cranes Amused by Small Birds by Thomas Quinn won the Wildlife Award, while the Purchase Award went to John Moyers for The Elders’ Walk. Overall, George Carlson won the Gene Autry Memorial Award for the best presentation of three or more works. theautry.org — Mark Bedor

Bill Nebeker, Bill Anton

Kim and Maria Wiggins

Angie and Luke Frazier

Dallin Maybee, Richard West

Helen and Mian Situ

Logan and Wild Maxwell 1 0 0 0 s O F B E LT S & 1 0 0 s O F B U CKLE

Brittany Weistling

COWB OYS & INDIANS

Gary Allegretto, Ian Espinoza, Don Edwards

Waddie Mitchell

National Cowboy Poetry Gathering

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE EKBURG

housands turned up in Elko, Nevada, January 30 through February 4 to participate in the 33rd annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The “granddaddy” of cowboy poetry events featured a diverse lineup of poets, musicians, storytellers, gear-makers, and craftspeople sharing the arts of the rural West. The theme of this year’s gathering was “Real Stories. Straight Up,” celebrating the long tradition of storytelling in the West. Elko was alive with humorous and heartfelt firsthand accounts of lessons learned, horse wrecks, and heroes. Storytellers from The Moth joined other artists onstage for a memorable performance that demonstrated how stories connect us. Young buckaroos, including many who have grown up with the Gathering and for whom cowboy poetry and music is a family tradition, performed in a talent show just for them. Braiders twisted and tied rawhide to make lariats and bosals, demonstrating their art in an exhibition titled Horses in the American West, curated by the Nevada Museum of Art and the Western Folklife Center, which produces the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. nationalcowboypoetrygathering.org — Darcy Minter

Thatch Elmer

Andy Hodges, Dom Flemons, Pip Gillette

Doug Moreland and the Flying Armadillos

Dom Flemons

R.P. Smith

in many diverse roles throughout his decades-long career in film and television. But he was particularly proud of his performance in the 2015 miniseries Texas Rising as the legendary Sam Houston — a role, he jokingly conceded in our May/June 2015 issue, that he may have been born to play. “As it turns out,” Paxton said, “Houston’s mother’s maiden name was Paxton, and she was from Rockbridge County, Virginia. So I’m actually in the same family line. She would have been a great-aunt of mine, which makes Houston — well, they told me we’re second cousins, three times removed.” C&I readers also remember Paxton for his performances as Morgan Earp in the popular 1993 western Tombstone and Randolph McCoy in the 2012 epic miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. Chief among the Fort Worth, Texasborn actor’s many other film credits: Aliens (1986), One False Move (1992), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), and A Simple Plan (1998). He earned critical acclaim as the director of Frailty, a 2001 psychological thriller in which he costarred with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe, and Golden Globe nominations for his lead performance as Bill Henrickson in the 2006 – 11 HBO series Big Love. Paxton was 61 when he died February 25 in Los Angeles. HADLEY BARRETT, one of the coun-

try’s most popular rodeo announcers for more than 50 years, was a familiar voice at events ranging from the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas to the Sidney (Iowa) Championship Rodeo. He was named PRCA Announcer of the Year on four occasions and was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1999.

In a prepared statement, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo praised Barrett for his “unique ability to explain idiosyncrasies of rodeo to those less familiar with the sport — he intimately knew the résumé of the contestants, would explain the scoring system, and even knew the demeanor and habits of the bucking stock. With kindness and humor, Hadley was an amazing professional — he had the capacity to maintain the same high level energy and engagement for 21 consecutive performances [in San Antonio, Texas].” Barrett was 87 when he died March 2 in Denver. ROBERT JAMES WALLER captivated millions of readers with his phenomenally popular 1993 novel The Bridges of Madison County, the sentimental tale of a neglected Italian-American farm wife who has a brief but passionate affair with a National Geographic photographer on assignment in 1960s Madison County, Iowa. Clint Eastwood directed a well-received 1995 film adaptation of the book, in which he costarred opposite Meryl Streep. More recently, Waller’s novel was the basis for the 2013 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same title. The author was 77 when he died March 10 in Fredericksburg, Texas. LOLA ALBRIGHT memorably costarred in the popular TV series Peter Gunn (1958 – 61) as sultry singer Edie Hart, the romantic interest for the eponymous private eye played by Craig Stevens. The role led to an Emmy nomination in 1959 and a recording contract with Columbia Records. C&I readers may recall her appearances in the western films Sierra Passage (1950), The Silver Whip (1953), Treasure of Ruby Hills (1955), Pawnee (1957), Oregon Passage (1957),

PHOTOGRAPHY: © HISTORY CHANNEL/PHOTOFEST, WATERLOO-CEDAR FALLS COURIER

BILL PAXTON distinguished himself

Seven Guns to Mesa (1958), and The Way West (1967), and her guest-starring roles in episodes of Wagon Train, Rawhide, Laredo, Branded, and Cimarron Strip. Albright died March 23 in Toluca Lake, California, at age 92. CLIFTON JAMES was born in Spokane,

PHOTOGRAPHY: © NBC/PHOTOFEST, © UNITED ARTISTS/PHOTOFEST, © ABC/PHOTOFEST

Washington, but made his mark as a character actor in film and television primarily by playing fast-talking, easily excitable Southerners. He arguably is best-known for providing comic relief as Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper opposite Roger Moore’s James Bond in Live and Let Die (the 1973 action-adventure that was Moore’s first outing as 007) and The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), and he played a similar character in Superman II (1980). A decorated World War II veteran, James also costarred in such films as Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964), Will Penny (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kid Blue (1973), Rancho Deluxe (1975), and Lone Star (1996), and appeared in the TV westerns The Virginian, Cimarron Strip, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Young Maverick. He was 96 when he died April 15 in Gladstone, Oregon. VAN WILLIAMS costarred in two

Warner Bros.-produced private-eye TV series (Bourbon Street Beat, Surfside 6) before landing the title role in The Green Hornet (1966 – 67), in which he played the titular masked crime-fighter opposite Bruce Lee as the formidable Kato. He also appeared as a guest star in the TV westerns Lawman, Colt .45, Cheyenne, Temple Houston, The Big Valley, and Gunsmoke, and he had a continuing role in the ABC series How the West Was Won (1976 – 79). Williams died November 28 in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 82. COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

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SUNWEST ON THE PLAZA 56 -58 LINCOLN AVE 1-505-984-1364 E W M E X I C

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Tom Browning

OU MIGHT ASSUME ARTIST TOM BROWNING WAS A COWBOY BY HIS DAILY WORK ATTIRE — JEANS AND

Western shirts. Or his favorite films — Little Big Man and The Cowboys. But what ropes him firmly into the cowboy tradition is a tireless work ethic. One of the most successful Western painters of the day — in 2009 he joined the elite Cowboy Artists of America — Browning still puts in steady 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. days in front of his easel. At any given time he might be working on three or four different paintings, and he completes about 30 a year. The beloved creator of romantic-realist Western scenes was born in 1949 in Ontario, Oregon, on the Idaho border. He’s since lived all over the state, residing now in central Oregon. “Where we are now is just wide open and lots of sagebrush and sunshine,” he says. There’s lots of dust out that way, too. That dust, in fact, has become a hallmark of paintings that bring astonishing life to the cowboy scenes he’s been drawing since he was a boy.

PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM BROWNING

C&I: Are the landscapes in your paintings specific places or general scenes? Tom Browning: It depends on where I am at the time. Some of them were done in Arizona, some Texas. But the majority are central Oregon. Sure Sign of Winter is right out my back door. I look and check out that scene every morning.

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C&I: Why is there rarely inclement weather or hardship in your paintings? Browning: You are looking at my “ideal” portrayal of the West. I try to keep for the viewer an experience that is uplifting. I don’t go after the violence or true hardships of the West. ... I’m looking for something that comes across as a statement that characterizes the romance of the West.

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ABOVE: Sure Sign of Winter.

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C&I: That comes through a lot in the texture of your skies. Browning: My main goal in a painting is capturing proper light. Over here in central Oregon, I can count on a pretty good light in the evening. One reason I moved out of the [Willamette] Valley is the light was so horrible. C&I: Is it true you worked in a taxidermy shop? Browning: My first job out of college. The idea was so that I could learn animal anatomy. I worked with a guy who was exceptional at what he did. I skinned animals and fleshed out the hides. After that, I’d watch him work, taking his fiberglass forms and molding them and talking about muscle structure and that sort of thing.

C&I: What singular element in your painting stands out? Browning: People are always asking about the dust. Again that’s just the idea of putting together [light] where you get the most impact. For me, the best way to do that is have a figure in front of a cloud of dust. I really enjoy creating that impact. It’s mainly to get someone’s attention when they go into a large gallery or museum. I want them to see that painting across the room. C

C&I: What else do people tend to comment on? Browning: People always tell me they love the detail in my work, but when they go right up to the painting there really isn’t so much. I just play with light and get the right values and colors. I’ve never wanted an overwhelming amount of detail in my work. I want to give the implied impression of detail.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM BROWNING

C&I: The horse musculature in your work is startlingly accurate. Browning: I started drawing horses when I was in the fourth grade. I have just studied them over and over. I have books that I “watch” them in time-lapse photos, watching their gait, making sure there’s always correct muscle structure, and that I get the differences in individual horses.

Expect the Unexpected Z C&I: What themes are important to you right now? Browning: I’m working on a project that involves the migration west. I’m doing a lot of studying and reading journals [for it]. ...There were people who tried to hold onto a view of a bright future — they saw a lot of promise in the future if they went out West. Most of them didn’t have any idea what they were going to encounter. They found it difficult, but they persevered. That is what is still different about people out West. They seem to be heartier. — Chuck Thompson Tom Browning’s paintings will be on view at the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale, June 9 – 10 (exhibition through August 6), and the Cowboy Artists of America Sale & Exhibition, October 6 – November 26, both at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. nationalcowboymuseum.org, tombrowning.com

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OPPOSITE: Stirrin’ It Up. THIS PAGE: High Country Crossing, Out of the Draw.

A N S

916.354.3900 - www.themurietainn.com 7337 murieta drive, rancho murieta, ca 95683

C&I: But the detail is right in terms of accuracy. Browning: My paintings aren’t historical-type paintings. The cowboys that I do now in the way of dress are anywhere in the last 20 years to today. Though I’m noticing styles are changing a little bit in the last couple years with hats and dress.

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David Grossmann the serenity and loveliness of life. Time spent gazing on his poetic paintings might be just the thing to help advance that aim. Born in Colorado, Grossmann grew up in Chile, where “the drama of the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean are an ever-present part of life” and where his mother and grandmother mentored him in capturing that beauty in drawing. Much of his early adolescence was spent developing his craft in a local painting class. “Somewhere along the way,” he says, “I decided that working as an artist would be my ideal career, so the pursuit of that dream has formed much of the trajectory of my life.” When he was 14, his family moved to the United States, where he continued taking art lessons and also did freelance jobs and commissions. After graduating from college with a business degree, he went to the Colorado Academy of Art, a small school based on the European atelier style of training. “It was there that I first began painting landscapes on location,” he says. “I was immediately hooked. I loved the thrill of trying to capture the emotion of a place, feeling part of it, caught up in the changing light and the shifting shadows around me.” Since his return from Chile, it’s been nearly two decades of finding inspiration in Colorado and elsewhere in the West, including New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Texas, and Wyoming. “Colorado is especially inspiring to me because of the variety of landscape I can find within a few hours of driving,” Grossmann says. “The vast open plains, the canyons, mountains, and forests are all continually inspiring. The changing of seasons in Colorado is also striking, from the blossoming trees and migrating birds in the spring to the wildflowers in the summer to the vibrant colors of autumn foliage, and the deep snow in the mountains in winter.” It took years of trial-and-error experimentation before Grossmann developed the ultimate surface for rendering those landscapes in his ethereal layered oils: a birch panel prepared by hand with sealant, linen, and many layers of sanded gesso. The painstaking process requires so much time that Grossmann delegates the preparation to his dad (who also makes the frames that his mother gilds by hand with 23kt gold leaf). Capturing nature’s beauty on that surface might involve hours of standing in the rain, wet feet, swarming insects, numb frozen fingers, or unrelenting heat. To paint en plein-air during Colorado winters, Grossmann bought snow

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PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID GROSSMANN

RTIST DAVID GROSSMANN LIVES BY AN UNPRETENTIOUS HOPE: THAT PEOPLE WOULD EXPERIENCE

boots designed for polar expeditions. “They’re rated up to minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit, so now I can stand in the snow for hours while I paint and my feet stay warm.” He’s also been experimenting with painting night scenes on location, for which his dad invented a portable LED light so he can see the colors he’s mixing without interfering too much with his night vision. When he’s really connecting with a place while painting, Grossmann can become so engrossed that he might grow oblivious to other aspects of his surroundings. A cow once licked his sketchbook, and a horse once reached over a fence and bit his painting. Then there was the time that he was concentrating so hard on his canvas he didn’t realize that a herd of bison had snuck up on him. “I get lost in the vastness and beauty of nature,” Grossmann says. “It is there that I feel most connected with God. I am especially drawn to paint moments that capture the sense of time passing, moments that vividly remind me of the beautiful brevity of life.” Melding his emotions with the breathtaking scenes he paints — from Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to the whole of the American West — comes down to this: “Peace and beauty always surround us. Take a moment to observe and listen.” — Deanne L. Joseph

David Grossmann is represented by Altamira Fine Art in Jackson, Wyoming, and Scottsdale, Arizona; Gallery 1261 in Denver; Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles; Oh Be Joyful Gallery in Crested Butte, Colorado; Simpson Gallagher Gallery in Cody, Wyoming; and Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery in London. He will have a solo show with Altamira Fine Art in Jackson July 17 – 29 (artist reception during the Art Walk on July 20) and will exhibit at Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis in September. His ﬁrst international solo show will take place in June 2018 at the Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery in London. davidgrossmann.com I N D

OPPOSITE: Grazing at Dusk. THIS PAGE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): Robin and Blue Sky, Late Afternoon Light Near Antelope Flats, Across the Spring Patchwork.

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Rick Bartow

HEN ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT AND REVERED NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS PASSED

away last year, the international art world mourned. Now comes the chance to celebrate a career that stretched from a humble 12-by-16-foot wooden studio on a sparsely populated piece of coastal Oregon all the way to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. After he died at age 69 in April 2016, eulogies for Rick Bartow, a native Oregonian and member of the Wiyot tribe of Northern California, paid tribute to a soft-spoken soul with a sly sense of humor and generous nature. Paradoxically, beyond all of these mild-mannered descriptions, Bartow was a tremendously physical artist, a man who loved getting dirty while exploring gritty subjects related to Native Americans and humanity as a whole. “What was important to Rick was the process of making art,” says Danielle Knapp, the McCosh associate curator at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene. “On a painting or print, you’ll see his fingerprints on the page, those signs of a very active process.” “For me, it’s really hard to try to figure out what the hell I’m doing unless I just start doing it,” Bartow once said in typically self-deprecating style. “Work is the blessing.” As a tribute to his seminal achievements, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art has organized Things You Know But Cannot Explain, a major traveling retrospective of more than 120 sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints that recounts a nearly 40-year career. Bartow didn’t make “pretty pictures,” Knapp says. Instead, his works often present characters in turmoil. Take in the exhibition and you’ll see lots of bared teeth and contorted figures with titles such as Frog Has Reason to Fear and True Dog Fear Real. The latter is a wooden sculpture of a dog nailed crudely to a post.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: DEER SPIRIT FOR FRANK LAPENA, 1999, ACRYLIC ON PANEL, 24 INCHES BY 24 INCHES; © RICK BARTOW/PRIVATE COLLECTION

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GALLUP NATIVE ARTS MARKET AUGUST 10–12, 2017

PHOTOGRAPHY: CROW’S CREATION V, 1992, PASTEL, GRAPHITE ON PAPER, 26 INCHES BY 40 INCHES; © RICK BARTOW/PRIVATE COLLECTION

Native Artist Managed 46 Native American Artists 1 Destination The acrylic painting PTSD I, II, III is self-explanatory for those familiar with Bartow, who did a 13-month tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Vietnam between 1969 and 1971. Though he didn’t see combat, Bartow worked as a teletype operator and musician in a military hospital, where he was regularly exposed to the indescribable horrors of war. “He struggled with that, he lost people close to him, and through his art you see him laying it all bare,” Knapp says. The pinnacle for Bartow came in 2012, when We Were Always Here, a pair of 20-plus-foot wooden poles he chiseled and carved from a 350-year-old Pacific Northwest cedar, was erected at the entrance of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Because his Wiyot ancestors didn’t have a tradition of totem poles, he called these post sculptures, not totem poles. Bartow’s father died when Bartow was just 5. In coastal Newport, Oregon, he was removed from his family’s tribal land but became deeply involved with the local Siletz tribe, going to the sweat lodge, dancing, and playing music until his final days. “The Siletz were his community — it was important to him. It’s one reason he never left Newport,” Knapp says, noting that Bartow’s work is permanently held in more than 60 public institutions in the United States. — Chuck Thompson Things You Know But Cannot Explain is on view at the Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art in Phoenix through July 9; at Boise Art Museum in Boise, Idaho, August 11 – December 16; and at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, May 12, 2018 – January 6, 2019. In 2019, it will also travel to the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, and C.N. Gorman Museum at the University of California, Davis.

GallupNativeArtsMarket.org

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OPPOSITE: Deer Spirit for Frank LaPena. THIS PAGE: Crow’s Creation V.

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E X H I B I T I O N

The Western: An Epic In Art And Film

OR THE CURATORS OF THE WESTERN: AN EPIC IN ART AND FILM, THE WIDER THE NET, THE BETTER TO

illustrate the western’s far-reaching variety. Thomas Brent Smith, director of the Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art, and Mary Dailey Desmarais, curator of International Modern Art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, collaborated on the show, which is the first major exhibition to examine the construct of the western and its evolution from the mid-1800s to the present through fine art, film, and popular culture. You’ll find everything from the artworks of Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Remington to the classic films of John Ford and Sergio Leone, the contemporary works of Ed Ruscha and Kent Monkman to the modern films Django Unchained and No Country for Old Men. With a genre so adaptable and long-lasting, there’s something for everyone. “No matter what your age,” Smith says, “there’s a western you identify with.” The variety is so astonishing that the question for the curators became how to frame an exhibition that would include the photographs of Carleton Watkins, the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, movies like Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider, and the paintings of Ed Ruscha all in the same show. They did it through 160 works across many mediums, exploring not just cowboys and American Indians, bandits and brawls, pursuits and duels, but also gender roles, race relations, and gun violence. If there’s a common denominator beyond the variety and adaptability of the western over more than a century and a half, it might be its function — and complexity. “The western always seems to be the place that America goes to raise its issues and work through them, which is pretty remarkable,” Smith says. “It’s a mirror through which the country looks back at itself.” And what we see, he says, isn’t necessarily clear-cut. “Anyone who goes into the exhibition thinking the western is a simple story of the cowboy in the white hat and the cowboy in the black hat will quickly realize the western was never that. It has never been simple.” — Dana Joseph

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The Western: An Epic in Art and Film is on view through September 10 at the Denver Art Museum (denverartmuseum.org). Read our complete interview with Thomas Brent Smith at cowboysindians.com.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: EMIGRANTS CROSSING THE PLAINS, 1867, BY ALBERT BIERSTADT, OIL ON CANVAS; NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM, GIFT OF JASPER D. ACKERMAN/IMAGE COURTESY THE DICKINSON RESEARCH CENTER

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EVENTS Through June 30 The Cowboys of Central Montana: 50 Portraits After seven years of capturing on ﬁlm rugged men and women who have run Montana cattle ranches for decades, photographer Robert Osborn has released a coffee-table book titled The Cowboys of Central Montana: 50 Portraits. This exhibition comprises 40 large framed art portraits from the book. Sundog Fine Art Gallery, Bozeman, Montana, 406.587.0500, sundogﬁneart. com, robertosborn.com Through July 9 Henry C. Balink: Native American Portraits The Dutch-born artist Henry C. Balink immigrated to America in 1914 and soon became infatuated with Taos, New Mexico, and the Southwest, where he focused mainly on painting Native American people and their culture. His vibrant paintings were so successful that the Taos Society

of Artists tried to have him deported. This exhibition features 32 paintings and four etchings. Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona, 520.624.2333, tucsonmuseumofart.org Through August 6 The Golden Twenties: Portraits and Figure Paintings by Joseph Kleitsch The ﬁrst museum exhibition to focus on the work of Hungarian-born portraitist and California impressionist Joseph Kleitsch, this show features 42 of his expressive paintings and offers a glimpse of Southern California during this “golden” decade through depictions of its movers and shakers. Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, California, 626.568.3665, pmcaonline.org Through August 27 Plains Indian Art: Created in Community Exploring certain individual artists and the special role of artists in Plains

communities, this exhibition highlights some of the most talented Plains artists throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Organized within cultural and historical contexts, it examines art and artisan works from western Oklahoma through South Dakota, the Northern Plains, and Northwestern Plains, as well as the influence of Woodland tribes on Plains art. Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 918.596.2700, gilcrease.org Through September 10 North of Ordinary: The Arctic Photographs of Geraldine and Douglas Moodie Between 1903 and 1909, the husbandand-wife team of Geraldine and Douglas Moodie made three photographic expeditions to Hudson Bay. She was western Canada’s first professional female photographer; he was a Northwest Mounted Police officer. She shot intimate portraits of the local Inuit community; he documented the remote landscape and his work with

David Grossmann In Search of Stillness /Solo Exhibition July 7-29, 2017 • Artist Reception: July 20, 5-8pm

“I paint in search of stillness, reaching for an inner calm that overcomes the upheaval of life. My hope is to connect with the peace and the beauty that surround us, and to convey that connection to anyone else who might also be searching.” ~ David Grossmann

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EVENTS

June 10 – August 20 Joel Sartore Photo Ark To date, and over decades, National Geographic photographer and fellow Joel Sartore has made portraits of more than 5,000 creatures to show they are worth saving. This exhibition features many iconic images, often taken at zoos and aquariums. Witty and charismatic, the portraits make endearing ambassadors of the animals central to Sartore’s critical mission. “Every year I see more habitat loss, more species consumed for food, medicine, or simply decoration,” he says. “The Photo Ark was born out of desperation to halt, or at least slow, the loss of global biodiversity.” National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, 307.733.5771, wildlifeart.org June 29 – October 8 Painting Red Rocks Country, Past and Present Artists have been painting the red rocks of the Four Corners region of the Southwest for more than 100 years. This exhibition celebrates the area and the artists with 45 artworks. Five of the pieces are by two famous 20th-century painters: Maynard Dixon and Edgar A. Payne. Additionally, there are 10 works each by current masters G. Russell Case, Denise Mahlke, Ray Roberts, and Matt Smith, all of whom will visit the museum to lead workshops in conjunction with the

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exhibition. Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, Georgia, 770.387.1300, boothmuseum.org

basket-weaving. Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona, 928.445.3122, sharlot.org/piam

July 7 – 16 Calgary Stampede Art & Lifestyle Show In between rodeo events and chuck wagon races, visit one of the major destination areas of the legendary Calgary Stampede, the Art & Lifestyle Show. You’ll be treated to the Stampede’s new Maker Market, a juried sales area of local and regional artisans (next to the culinary stage Kitchen Theatre in hall A); and an art exhibition (everything from paintings to photographs, traditional to contemporary) and auction (night of the 13th) with an associated soiree. Western Oasis (halls A, D, and E of the BMO Centre), Calgary, Canada, 403.261.0251, westernshowcase.com

July 15 Native POP: People of the Plains: A Gathering of Arts and Culture This juried Native American fine art show and cultural celebration features original work by established and emerging Native visual artists focusing on Great Plains culture. The fifth annual festival includes Native performing artists, a fashion show, and a Native film showcase. Main Street Square, Rapid City, South Dakota, 605.394.4101 ext. 212, nativepop.org

July 7 – August 31 Pageant of the Masters Experience the Grand Tour art-pilgrimage tradition of 17th- and 18th-century Europe by heading to California for the annual Festival of the Arts of Laguna Beach and its signature event, the Pageant of the Masters. Themed “The Grand Tour,” the pageant will feature tableaux vivants of classic paintings one might have seen on a European art trek centuries ago as actors silently recreate motionless masterpieces in the 90-minute spectacle. Irvine Bowl, Laguna Beach, California, 800.487.3378, foapom.com July 8 – 9 Prescott Indian Art Market Featured artist Virgil Nez (Navajo) is among more than 100 American Indian artists celebrating the 20th annual juried art market featuring arts from 40 different tribes and pueblos. A myriad of cultural experiences includes Native food, dancing, entertainment, and a gamut of demonstrations: from Navajo silversmithing, ﬂute-making, and glass blowing to rock-art petroglyphmaking, Hopi katsina-carving, and

July 21 – 30 Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show & Sale Paintings, sculpture, and carvings in wood and alabaster by 60 top cowboy artists (including four new ones) pay homage to the heritage and legacy of the American West. Opening weekend activities include an art preview, meetand-greet with artists at the Historic Governor’s Mansion, and Western dinner. CDF Old West Museum, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 307.778.7202, cfdrodeo.com August 3 – November 5 American Plains Artists Annual Juried Exhibition & Sale America’s Great Plains stretch from the Missouri River at Kansas City westward to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Texas Panhandle northward into Canada. In this juried art show, about 110 two- and three-dimensional realistic and representational artworks in traditional media depict the landscape, wildlife, people, and way of life of the region. New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 308.249.1488, americanplainsartists.com — Michele Powers Glaze For a full listing of Western art galleries and events, visit cowboysindians.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY: MONARCH BUTTERFLIES © JOEL SARTORE/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK

the Mounted Police. The exhibition includes more than 70 of their photographs, glass-plate negatives, journals, and a digital re-creation of a lantern slide show. Glenbow Museum, Alberta, Canada, 403.268.4100, glenbow.org

F A S H I O N

OLD GR I NG O BOO T S H A S DE SIGN ED A PA I R FOR E V ERY S TAT E I N T H E U N ION. H ER E A R E 2 4 OF OU R FAVOR I T E S.

By Victoria Mechler

TEX AS

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PHOTOGRAPHY: JASON MICHAEL BRYANT/COURTESY OLD GRINGO BOOTS

AKING BOOTS THAT WILL STAND THE

test of time and sustain the treads of daily wear takes effort to perfect. Adding art and craftsmanship to that equation ups the ante, yet creates the potential for a unique, never-before-seen product. If all is done well, it can result in wearable art. Old Gringo Boots has done just that with the new State Boot Collection. The popular Western brand worked for 18 months to produce a collection of 50 pairs that represent the 50 states (plus an additional all-over tooled Texas pair). Each pair has hidden, inside pull straps, meaning the exterior shaft is a full canvas available for statespecific details. The delicate, soft leather is handtooled and hand-painted, paying homage to each state’s most defining symbols and cultural icons. Although the boots all share common themes — state name, outline, seal, and flag — each pair is customized to reflect the state and its people. The Texas boot features the Alamo. (The bonus all-over tooled Texas boot has a portrait of C&I cover man Willie Nelson.) New Mexico has a turquoise naja. New York, the Empire State Building. Georgia, peaches. And while state flowers and birds are motifs across the boots, more customization is included on the collars. Some feature intricate filigrees or state flowers, while others celebrate local industry. “I love [the California boot],” says Fred Gibbon, vice president of product development for Old Gringo. “I’m a Napa Valley-wine guy, so the collar is a great themed collar — the vine of grapes.” Other standouts: The Arizona collar resembles the state’s flag, and Tennessee’s pays homage to its bustling music industry. Although the hand-painted and -tooled shafts of each pair are specialized by state, the boots all share classic exotic vamps. Three shades of Colombian crocodile skins were chosen to complement the intricate details of each design. The boots retail for $5,000 per pair and take about six months to be completed, and though they can’t be personalized with collegiate logos and mascots, each pair can be customized with toe shape and heel. The company’s website lists them for men only, but Old Gringo would be happy to make the boots for ladies as well — or a full set for anyone looking to collect the West’s most wearable art.

U TA H

NEW MEXICO

ARIZONA

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OKLAHOMA

CALIFORNIA

OREGON

For more information or to order a pair from the collection, visit oldgringoboots.com. COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

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GEORGIA

K ANSAS

N E VA D A

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N E W YO R K

TENNESSEE

ILLINOIS

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By Joe Leydon ILLIE NELSON ARGUABLY IS THE MOST ENERGETIC OCTOGENARIAN IN COUNTRY

music. But even he admits that aging into the role of gray eminence has its downside. Indeed, the celebrated Red Headed Stranger repeatedly addresses the subject throughout God’s Problem Child, his most recent album, which Rolling Stone writer Jeff Gage aptly and admiringly described as Nelson’s “stark, honest, sometimes bleak, and often funny look at mortality and the specter of his own death.” In “Old Timer,” one of the album’s most poignantly melancholy cuts, Nelson sings: “One by one, your friends have crossed over. You pray for mercy and a few more days. Still got dreams inside your head. Some days it’s a struggle just to get out of bed.” COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

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He’ll be doing just that, again, this summer as the headliner of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour, a multi-genre traveling concert that kicks off July 1 in New Orleans, and continues on to Dallas (July 2); Rogers, Arkansas (July 6); Detroit (July 8); Milwaukee (July 9); and Syracuse, New York (July 16). Among the rotating array of artists who’ll be joining Nelson: Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, The Avett Brothers, My Morning Jacket — and Nelson’s son, Lukas Nelson, who’ll be performing with his father and his own band, Promise of the Real. Lukas, whose group has also toured with Neil Young, says that he has learned from his father some invaluable lessons about sustaining his enthusiasm, and his sanity, while on the road for lengthy stretches. “Exercise is important,” he says. (Willie Nelson, it should be noted, celebrated his 81st birthday by earning his ﬁfth-degree black belt in Gong Kwon Yusul, a Korean martial arts discipline.) “And having a routine that you stick to really helps you keep your head on straight. When you’re on the road, all your surroundings are changing all the time, and it can feel chaotic. You can lose your sense of balance. So you need to have a set routine: You wake up, you work out a little bit, you go to sound check, you kind of do the same thing every day. And that really helps.” Also — and don’t try this at home, kids — there is an occasional indulgence that has famously worked for Willie Nelson. “You try and keep it pretty mellow,” Lukas concedes. “And weed is pretty mellow. ... But that’s pretty much the only thing he does. He doesn’t drink. And he also keeps his family around him. He makes sure he’s got good folks around him that don’t sap his energy too much. They give him inspiration.” Another musically inclined Nelson offspring, Micah Nelson, also tours with Dad when he isn’t busy with his own endeavors. (In addition to sometimes playing with Promise of the Real, he divides his time between the group Insects vs Robots and, more recently, his “experimental

“

I run up and down the road, making music as I go. They say my pace would kill a normal man. But I’ve never been accused of being normal anyway. And I woke up still not dead again today.” – From “Still Not Dead”

PHOTOGRAPHY: (PREVIOUS SPREAD) RODNEY BURSIEL, (THIS PAGE) JASON JANIK

On the other hand: Don’t assume he’s looking to quit cheating the reaper anytime soon. Another album cut, “Still Not Dead,” which Nelson co-wrote with Buddy Cannon, comically insists that reports of his impending demise are way too premature. “The internet said I had passed away,” but pay that no mind. “I run up and down the road, making music as I go. They say my pace would kill a normal man. But I’ve never been accused of being normal anyway. And I woke up still not dead again today.” So there. Listening to those lyrics, I was reminded of the day in April 2015 when I got to hang out in Luck, Texas — the faux Old West town Nelson maintains on his ranch near Austin — and watch while the Country Music Hall of Famer and occasional actor ﬁlmed Waiting for the Miracle to Come, a still-unreleased indie feature costarring Charlotte Rampling. Even then, mortality was on Nelson’s mind. But not so seriously that he couldn’t shrug it off. “Honestly, and I mean this sincerely, I do 150 shows a year or whatever, and we do some recording in there, and we do a movie here and there, or a video,” Nelson told me after wrapping up the day’s shooting. “And I’m always amazed that I wake up the next day feeling good and ready to go do it again. I’m 82 years old, so that’s kind of a miracle in itself.” Nelson is now 84. And judging from a recent TV interview he did in Luck with veteran CBS newsman (and, not incidentally, longtime country music aﬁcionado) Bob Schieffer, he continues to feel pretty dang miraculous. “Everything’s going good,” Nelson told Schieffer. “I think age is just a number. It’s the way I’ve heard it all my life: It’s not how old you are, it’s how you feel. And I’ve been lucky with [everything], health-wise and career-wise.” Laughing, he added: “I haven’t really got anything to bitch about!” In other words, life is good. And as anyone who knows anything about Willie Nelson can tell you — go ahead, cue the “On the Road Again” lyrics — the life he loves is making music with his friends.

musical identity,” Particle Kid.) Last year, when he recorded a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God on Our Side,” he updated the classic protest song with slightly altered lyrics to make it more relevant to contemporary events. It’s an approach, he says, partially inspired by his father’s willingness to keeps things fresh by mixing things up while on tour. “For the most part,” Micah says, “it’s been kind of the same show for decades now. But at the same time, he never plays the same show twice. It’s always like he’s playing it for the ﬁrst time. He’ll throw in new songs. He’ll kind of skip verses. He’ll extend things. He keeps it fresh every night.” If you’re performing with him, “You’re never allowed to just be phoning it in. He’s never going through the motions — even though he’s basically doing the same show. “That spontaneity, that energy, that sense of anything can happen at any minute is not only what keeps an audience captivated, and keeps them coming to the shows night after night. It also keeps you engaged, and keeps the band engaged. It keeps 78

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every show fresh and different and unique.” Echoing his brother Lukas, Micah says that, while on the road, his father “finds his routines. He likes to play chess and poker. He likes to smoke cannabis, and he likes to watch western films. He keeps the news on most of the time. He has his bike out on the road, so he’ll ride his bike around if he can and try to stay fit. “I think there’s something that seems to be in our blood, where if we’re home long enough, we’re antsy and restless, and we need to get back on the road. Then, if you’re on the road long enough, it’s really great to come home and just chill and not think about playing shows for a minute. It’s kind of this symbiotic relationship between the road and being at home. They bleed into one another.” Willie Nelson has told me that, yes, he truly does appreciate downtime on his ranch. On a typical day there, “I go look at my horses. I can look at the weather. There’s a lot of beautiful things out here to see.” But after a while, he can’t resist the siren call of the road because, well, he’s still not dead.

PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES MINCHIN/COURTESY SHOCK INK, EBET ROBERTS/GETTY IMAGES

These days, Willie Nelson’s sons Micah (pictured in black) and Lukas (in plaid) often tour with their dad and play with him onstage.

PHOTOGRAPHY: RODNEY BURSIEL

“

Yeah, you know, you look around and you don’t see too many guys out here as old as I am still doing one-nighters and still enjoying it. Still having good crowds. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

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“There’s a certain kind of energy exchange that takes place in a concert no matter who it is, me or whoever,” Nelson believes. “People pay money to come see it, and for some reason, they usually all are clapping their hands, and they’re singing. And for some reason, I enjoy it too. When we can all get together and exchange that good positive energy, it makes for a good show. “Yeah, you know, you look around and you don’t see too many guys out here as old as I am still doing one-nighters and still enjoying it. Still having good crowds. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.” And he remains thankful to the folks who have made it all possible. “Willie reminds me of Walter Cronkite,” Schieffer says. “When people used to ask me what Walter was really like, I always said, ‘He’s just the way you want him to be.’ He was without question the most famous and recognized man in America — but he always had time for the folks who wanted an autograph or a handshake. That’s Willie.” Schieffer recalls that after wrapping up their Luck conversation, Nelson “didn’t know we were following him, but we wanted a picture of him leaving. So we went down to the place where the bus was waiting to take him to the next show. Now keep in mind: He had been up past midnight doing a show the night before, he was dead tired and had a six-hour bus ride ahead of him. But as he was getting on the bus, a guy appeared out of nowhere with three or four items to sign. And then he asked Nelson for a selﬁe. Most celebrities would have brushed the guy off. But as tired as he was, and as anxious as he was to get going, Willie stood there, talked to the guy, signed all the stuff, and took three or four pictures. Finally his wife made him get on the bus. “I love the guy. When I asked him when he was going to retire, he said, ‘All I do is play golf and music. Why would I want to quit either of those things?’ Pretty good philosophy.”

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hen it comes to acting in feature ﬁlms and TV movies, Willie Nelson is game for just about any sort of role — as long as the role allows him to more or less be himself. “I pretty much play whatever I am or whoever I am,” he told us a while back. “And that doesn’t require a lot of acting.” So where would he place acting on his lengthy list of achievements? “Probably at the bottom. I’m probably the worst actor ever.” Sorry, but that’s not an appraisal we would echo. Indeed, we would go so far as to say that Shotgun Willie is his own harshest critic when it comes to evaluating his work on screen. Among the memorable titles on his résumé:

STAGECOACH

The Electric Horseman (1979) CreditThe Sundance Kid as the one who ﬁrst recognized Nelson ought to be in pictures. As the singer recalls in his 2015 autobiography It’s a Long Story: My Life, he and Robert Redford were seated together on an L.A.bound plane after a New York beneﬁt when Redford suggested that Nelson’s “naturally relaxed” style would serve him well on screen. Director Sydney Pollack agreed — and cast Nelson in The Electric Horseman as a laid-back pal of Redford’s over-the-hill rodeo champ, who gallops out of Las Vegas with a prizewinning horse. “I didn’t plan and I didn’t rehearse,” Nelson recalls. “I learned my lines, but tended to bend them my own way — or borrow from writer friends.” 82

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Honeysuckle Rose (1980) Nelson didn’t exactly stretch himself in his ﬁrst star vehicle, a musical dramedy in which he was cast as “a Willie Nelsonstyled character” (his description, not ours ) who’s torn between his love for his wife (Dyan Cannon) and his affair with his girlfriend (Amy Irving). While ﬂying on a private plane during pre-production location scouting, producer Pollack and director Jerry Schatzberg encouraged him to write a song about being on the road during a concert tour. By the time the plane landed, Nelson had completed the lyrics for — yes, you guessed it! — “On the Road Again.” As he relates in his autobiography: “That simple song, a part

Thief (1981) Nelson proved he had the right stuff as a serious character actor in director Michael Mann’s violent caper thriller, in which he played the mentor and former cellmate of the film’s protagonist, Frank (James Caan), a veteran jewel thief who desperately wants to start a family even as he plies his illegal trade. Critic Roger Ebert wrote in his original Chicago SunTimes review: “If Thief has a weak point, it is probably in the handling of the Willie Nelson character. Nelson is set up well: He became Caan’s father-figure in prison, Caan loves him more than anybody, and when he goes to visit him in prison they have a conversation that is subtly written to lead by an indirect route to Nelson’s understated revelation that he is dying and does not want to die behind bars. ... But then the Nelson character quickly disappears from the movie, and we’re surprised and a little disappointed. Willie has played the character so well that we wanted more.” Barbarosa (1982) New York Times film critic Janet Maslin aptly described this exceptional TexMex border western — directed by Fred Schepisi (Roxanne) and written by Bill Witliff (Lonesome Dove) — as “a film that uses one American legend, Willie Nelson, to create another.” In the title role of a celebrated outlaw who alienated himself from his Mexican wife’s family by killing a few of his in-laws (in self-defense) on his wedding night, Nelson comes across as a sad yet proud folk hero who proves to be an invaluable resource for fellow outcasts like the fugitive farm boy played by Gary Busey. Songwriter (1984) Director Alan Rudolph (Trouble in Mind, Love at Large) and screenwriter Bud Shrake brought out the best in co-stars Nelson

PHOTOGRAPHY: CBS/PHOTOFEST

WATCHING WILLIE

of my nightly repertoire since I wrote it back in 1979, has had a longer battery life than the ﬁlm it was written for.”

and Kris Kristofferson during this amiable comedy-drama about a country singersongwriter (Nelson) who relies on help from a fellow entertainer (Kristofferson) and an up-and-coming singer (Lesley Ann Warren) to turn the tables on an a slick operator who controls the rights to his songs. Ebert again proffered praise: “[I]t’s interesting how subtle his acting is. Unlike a lot of concert stars whose moves tend to be too large for the intimacy of a movie, Nelson is a gifted, understated actor.” Stagecoach (1986) Veteran actor Thomas Mitchell earned an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a hard-drinking doctor who earns the respect of his traveling companions in John Ford’s original 1939 Stagecoach. Nelson didn’t receive a comparable accolade for playing essentially the same part in this made-for-cable remake, in which he co-starred with fellow Highwaymen Kristofferson (in the John Wayne

role), Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings. On the other hand, thanks to some revisionist scriptwriters, Nelson didn’t play just any doctor — he was Doc Holliday. No kidding. Red Headed Stranger (1986) Witliff wrote and directed this independently produced western, loosely based on Nelson’s 1975 album of the same title. Critics weren’t kind, and audiences were scarce, but Nelson — who credibly played the lead role, a preacher in need of a shot at redemption after killing his treacherous wife — managed to make a proﬁt for his investors. More important, he continues to use Luck, the western town set constructed for the ﬁlm near Austin, Texas, for musical and movie events. The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) As Uncle Jesse in this big-screen version of the 1979 – 85 TV series about good ol’ boys in souped-up cars, Nelson saunters

through the proceedings with the goodhumored élan of someone picking up an easy paycheck for doing somebody else a favor just by showing up. For those of you who have always wanted to see him punch out Burt Reynolds — and you know who you are, so don’t be coy about it — well, this is the movie for you. Angels Sing (2013) Originally known as When Angels Sing, the 1999 Turk Pipkin novel on which it’s based, director Tim McCanlies’ familyfriendly dramedy has Nelson perfectly cast as Nick, a cheery old fellow who might be Santa Claus, or even an angel — or, really, anything else that bah-humbugging college professor Michael Walker (Harry Connick Jr.) might need to jump-start his seasonal ho-ho-hoing. Would he agree that he was cast against type in this one? “Oh, sure,” Nelson says with a chuckle. “Me as an angel? Yeah, this could be the hardest part I’ve ever played.” – Joe Leydon

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PHOTOGRAPHY: SEAN BAGSHAW/OUTDOOR EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY

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Sticking out of the sidewalk at the end of a short street that dead-ends right at the coast in the small town of Cannon Beach, it’s easy to overlook. The story it tells, however, is anything but modest: the legend of the Oregon Beach Bill. Passed in 1967, HB 1601 is a landmark piece of legislation guaranteeing free and open public access to all 363 miles of Oregon’s undeveloped coastline. “Of all the U.S. coastal states, the state of Oregon may have the best legal protection for the public’s use of and access to its coastal land,” the Surfrider Foundation has proclaimed. Only Texas and Hawaii have public beach access laws that compare to Oregon’s.

The Beach Bill was no sure thing. Debate over commercial development of the shoreline consumed Oregonians. It’s still regarded as the largest legislative issue in the state’s history. The effort to get it passed brought together an unlikely coalition of environmental activists, conservative Republicans, and a governor committed to “raising hell” (as one fellow pol of the day said) to protect shores to an unprecedented 16 feet above sea level. During the political to-and-fro, publicity-savvy Gov. Tom McCall made a showboating appearance at the coast, arriving by helicopter to personally assist in the effort to survey boundaries for the new law. Public ownership of beaches, he said, is something “we cannot live without as Oregonians.” I’ve been in awe of these beaches since first tumbling down the velvety slopes of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area in the 1980s. Stretching for nearly 40 miles along the central coast, it’s the largest dunescape in the country. It’s easy here to sink into the sand halfway up your calves. About three-fourths of Oregon’s coastline is wide and flat and filled with the kind of fine sand you normally find in an hourglass. Remaining sections are a mixture of theatrical cliffs, headlands, and gravel. One of the best places to snap an “Oh, wow!” panoramic photo is from Ecola Point, just north of that sign in Cannon Beach. I’ve long maintained that if you could actually swim in the Pacific here — the water temperature is fit mostly for sea lions, migrating whales, and unusually plucky surfers — Oregon’s beaches would be the most crowded in the world. Thankfully, they’re not. This is also because the entire state is a lot like that little Beach Bill sign. Out of the way, dangling on the edge of the continent, it gets comparatively little attention. Unassuming as it may be, however, it speaks to a grander idea of an indomitable human connection to a landscape like no other. 86

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TIMBER TIME

PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE TERRILL PHOTOGRAPHY

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are justly proud of their record of conservation, and not just for beaches. Plenty of everyday types wear the “tree hugger” slur like a badge of honor. But the state is equally defined by the other side of that equation. Almost 50 percent of Oregon is still covered by forest. Logging remains an important part of the economy and culture. At last check, Oregon owns 28 of the nation’s largest examples of various tree species. The biggest is the Doerner Fir, a 327-foot monster in Coos County. It’s the planet’s tallest non-redwood tree. My favorite place to get a quick fix of the logging life — a place I’ve taken countless out-of-state visitors — is a roadside attraction called Camp 18. Eighteen miles inland from the coast on Highway 26, Camp 18 is the brainchild of a local logger named Gordon Smith. Back in the 1970s, Smith, now 85, embarked on a mission to preserve the state’s timber heritage by collecting all manner of logging equipment. Today, his grounds are a veritable museum of artifacts — steam donkeys, railroad cars, every type of saw you can think of. Although Camp 18’s giant cinnamon roll is enough to feed two starving loggers, the real reason to stop is the dauntless log cabin-style restaurant. The dining room is dominated by the biggest ceiling beam you’ll ever see: an 85-foot Douglas fir ridge pole that weighed about 25 tons when cut and has 5,600 board feet of lumber in it. “Gordon brought it in on two trucks, one going forward, one going backward,” says wife Roberta, who with Gordon still runs the place on a daily basis. They were both born in the Coast Range and have stayed there for their entire lives. All of the lumber used in the building was logged and milled by Smith himself. As far as I know, there’s no one-man operation in the country like it. “He just wanted to build something out of logs and do something for the loggers,” Roberta says. “There were no plans to the building. It’s something he designed in his mind — there was nothing on paper. He just put the big log up in the middle and went from there.”

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OREGON WONDER

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wallowa mountains

(September 28 – October 1), complete with yodeling and alphorn playing. Joseph is also one of the largest bronze-producing areas in the world. Visitors can tour the foundries and browse the life-size wildlife and Western sculptures that line Main Street. The events and shops of Joseph don’t disappoint, but the real star here is the Oregon outdoors. At least 18 different peaks in the Wallowas rise above 9,000 feet, including Sacajawea Peak (9,838 feet) in the adventure-ﬁlled Eagle Cap Wilderness, which boasts 500 miles of marked trails and 52 lakes. To take full advantage of crown jewel Wallowa Lake, there’s the breathtaking and familyfriendly Wallowa Lake State Park. Hiking and camping, horseback riding and go-carting, boating and ﬁshing, water skiing and wakeboarding, white-water rafting in Hells Canyon (where you can explore historical Native American sites) — there’s so much to do outdoors in the Wallowas. For a truly memorable view, take the Wallowa Lake Tramway to the top of Mount Howard; then stick around to take it all in from an outdoor table at the Summit Grill and Alpine Patio. There you can have an Oregon microbrew and a bite to eat while overlooking the lake and the wondrous peaks. josephoregon.com, traveloregon.com — Kristin Brown

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON

hen Travel Oregon came up with its award-winning Seven Wonders of Oregon ad campaign, it wisely made sure the Wallowa Mountains made it through the winnowing process for the ﬁnal list. The wonder of this range in the Columbia Plateau of the northeastern part of the state is its natural beauty — it is, after all, known variously as America’s Little Switzerland and Oregon’s Alps. But it’s also wonder-worthy for its many outdoor attractions and special place in Western history. Long before they became a tourist destination, the Wallowa Mountains were home to the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce tribe. In 1834, French-born Capt. Benjamin Bonneville of the U.S. Army, traveling through the Wallowas, ran into the Nez Perce on his way to Fort Walla Walla and developed a trading relationship with the tribe. After settlers invaded the land for gold, the Nez Perce, under Chief Joseph, took active measures of resistance, resulting in the Nez Perce War of 1877. Chief Joseph, who was born in the Wallowa Valley, is the namesake of the town of Joseph, Oregon, which is nestled in the valley just a mile from Wallowa Lake. Once called Silver Lake and Lake City, the town was ofﬁcially named after the great Nez Perce leader in 1879. In late July, Joseph puts on the Nez Perce Tamkaliks Celebration (this year, July 21 – 23) and the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo (July 25 – 30), but it’s also a hub of activity in August, when it hosts the Bronze, Blues & Brews Festival (August 11 – 12) and again in the fall when it stages Oregon’s Alpenfest

Painting the Texas Landscape on Live edge Mesquite and canvas.

OREGON WONDER

smith rock state park

119 W. Alamo St. Brenham, TX 77833

PHOTOGRAPHY: SATOSHI ETO/COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON

www.aliciategg.com his is the kind of landscape that would look right at home in a classic western. You can just picture a posse on horseback chasing outlaws holed up among 600-foot-tall rock spires that look like a craggy cathedral with a river running through it. There’s a ton of geology to thank for the dramatic, cinematic Smith Rock scenery: the eroding action of the Crooked River slowly cutting its way through eons of layers of rock, old ash and tuff formations, basalt lava flows, calderas, and lava chambers to make deep canyons, cliffs, and gullies. But Smith Rock is beloved as more than a geologist’s paradise and super selfie backdrop: It’s a premier destination for freshair-and-sunshine activities. A 35-minute drive from the adventure gateway of Bend in Central Oregon, Smith Rock is widely considered the high-desert birthplace of the sport of rock climbing. The state park boasts several thousand climbs, more than 1,000 of which are bolted routes. It’s also a Mecca for hikers and mountain bikers (with many miles of trails to accommodate them, too) and campers. One of the best, if tough, hikes follows the Crooked River, climbs to the top of Misery Ridge for a 360-degree view from 3,360 feet, and finally takes you on a loop of the park. Whatever you do in Smith Rock State Park, keep your dog leashed, your feet on marked trails, and your eyes and telephoto lens peeled for golden eagles, prairie falcons, mule deer, river otters, and beavers. (Note: Climbing closures are periodically in effect in areas where golden eagles nest within 1,100 feet.) oregonstateparks.org — Dana Joseph

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OREGON WONDER

rater Lake National Park, established in 1902, has one of the most iconic views found in the American West — a wide lake encircled by cliffs and a single, conical island poking out from the middle. Originally known as Mount Mazama, an active volcano, Crater Lake now consumes the volcanic basin with the peak of the mountain resting as Wizard Island. It’s the deepest lake in the country and fed almost completely by precipitation, giving it a brilliant blue hue. But Crater Lake is more than an opportunity for splendid postcard-worthy pictures. Open 365 days a year, the park is always accessible to visitors. Although some roads may be closed due to snow and the lake might be difﬁcult to spot with low cloud coverage at times, camping and hiking are always options for the adventurous. The national park has two campgrounds and two lodges open in the summer season, but during the winter, only backcountry camping is permitted. For a different view of the park, consider a volcano boat cruise, taking visitors around the lake. Or opt for the Wizard Island exploration trip for an opportunity to stomp around on the mysterious island at the center of the lake. Only available during the summer months, the tours offer a chance to get up close with the formations and geological wonders of the lake. nps.gov/crla, craterlakelodges.com —Victoria Mechler 90

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PHOTOGRAPHY: SATOSHI ETO/COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON

crater lake

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ucked away in the Illinois Valley of southwest Oregon, Takilma offers an experience unlike any other. Considered an artists’ haven, the small town is home to one of the country’s most incomparable destination resorts: the Out’n’About Treesort. It’s a bed-and-breakfast in the sky, made up of treehouse bungalows built on 36 acres of private pasture and woods bordering the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. It’s a true oasis for owner and master builder Michael Garnier, a treehouse pioneer who has overseen custom builds all over the world. And enjoying the great outdoors is exactly what this resort is all about. You won’t ﬁnd a television in your luxury treehouse suite, but you certainly won’t be bored. There are plenty of what the resort calls “activitrees” to keep you engaged. Embark on horseback and river rafting adventures through the valley, hike along the nearby Redwood Coast, or sign up for any number of the resort’s workshops and courses, from treehouse construction to cooking up the perfect s’more. But the highlight of the property is the Mountain View Zipway — a zip-line course that takes approximately three hours to complete, ascends 75 feet in the air, and hits speeds up to 45 mph. treehouses.com/joomla — Holly Henderson

Branding the American West: Paintings and Films, 1900 – 1950 On view through Sept. 9, 2017 • Stark Museum of Art • Orange, TX

Ernest Martin Hennings (1886-1956), Indian Horsemen (detail), c. 1925, oil on canvas, 35.5625 x 39.4375 in., Diane and Sam Stewart Art Collection

See a Side of The West You’ve Never Seen Before. . . Explore an exhibition of more than 80 works of art and related ﬁlm content highlighting the changing brands, or imagery of violence, beauty and celebration of the American West. starkmuseum.org Organized by the Brigham Young University Museum of Art and the Stark Museum of Art, and made possible in part by generous grants from the George S. and Delores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and the Utah Division of Arts & Museums. COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

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(continued from page 87)

PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE TERRILL PHOTOGRAPHY

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visitors to Oregon will eventually pass through the city of Portland — since we’re on Highway 26, we might as well stop — if only because it’s hard to resist a town with its own off-kilter TV show. The city of aggressively political bicyclists, where diners obsess over the provenance of their chicken entrees (his name was Colin) and young people go to retire — this is the gristle of Portlandia. Comedian John Hodgman has perfectly and hilariously described the scathing parody as “playing directly to Portlandians’ desire to be offended at all times ... but at the same time you’re also playing into their desire to be recognized and congratulated at all times.” In fact, it’s a terrific city filled with hipster treasures from goat yoga (yoga, in a barn, with goats) to restaurants where the kale revolution is in full swing. But let’s face it, craft-beer-and-adult-kickball-league culture can be found in just about any American burg these days. To longtime locals, what makes Portland exceptional is its proximity to nature. From the center of the tree-filled downtown it’s just 90 minutes west to the coast or east to the Cascade Range, which runs from Northern California to southern British Columbia and divides the state along an exceptionally scenic volcanic spine. The focal point for Oregonians is Mount Hood. At 11,235 feet, it’s the highest peak in the state, easily visible on clear days from Portland and a year-round draw for hikers, paddlers, fishers, and skiers. But the area I keep returning to is the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, south of Mount Hood. With 163 miles of forested trails, 150 lakes, five glaciers, rocky cliffs, and no end of hidden meadows, even on summer weekdays it’s not hard to find solitude. Recently I had an intimate encounter with a majestic barred owl. It sat on a low cedar limb eyeing me mysteriously for a prolonged period before swiveling its head 180 degrees and flying off backward with a nearly silent flap of wings that had to have spanned 4 feet. Portland attracts visitors with cultural eccentricities like Voodoo Doughnut — sugar, pink box, big deal. But it’s experiences like my owl communion that turn them into locals. Same goes for the state’s 111,000 miles of rivers. For many, this is where the essence of Oregon is found. My new favorite place to shout above the applause of rushing rapids is the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway, a 172-mile stretch of road in southern Oregon. That I first made it to this wonder only last summer says less about my dogged pursuit of adventure and more about the many rivers to cross before one’s Oregon résumé is complete. Oregon Route 138 between Glide and Diamond Lake is dubbed the Thundering Waters. The high-drama two-lane road hugs the Upper Rogue and North Umpqua rivers as it serpentines through emerald forest, 9,000-foot peaks, and hundreds of campsites. There are 18 marked waterfalls along the way. Watson Falls is the highest. It drops 272 feet over the edge of a basalt lava flow and is reached by a trail less than half a mile long. Small effort, big payoff. You find that all over the state. (continued on page 96)

OREGON WONDER

mount hood he most recognizable peaks in Oregon, Mount Hood and its surrounding territory are full of adventures for every season. During the warm summers, the Mount Hood Railroad takes daily trips from Hood River to Parkdale Station near the base of the mountain, taking riders on scenic routes of the region’s blooming fruit trees. Festivals are also a big part of the green summers in Oregon. With all the fresh ﬂowers, visitors can see the natural beauty of the state. In the festival lineup is Pickathon, a four-day music event at Pendarvis Farm, where bluegrass, Americana, and country artists gather and celebrate roots music. With mostly melted snow in the summer, the Timberline National Historic Trail becomes a popular hiking trail for backpackers and day hikers. The route circumnavigates the mountain and can take a few days to complete in whole, or hikers can take shorter trails for day trips. In the heart of Mount Hood National Forest, the trail passes through glacial-fed streams and crevices — which provide the surrounding farmlands mineral-rich irrigation from runoff. Come winter and snow, the area heats up with skiers from around the world visiting the slopes of the longest ski season in North America — Olympic hopefuls and medalists can be found zipping downhill on skis or testing new snowboarding tricks. The historic Timberline Lodge, known for its architectural design, has been hosting guests since opening in 1938 and is open year-round. Hit the slopes during the day or at night, or swing by Mount Hood Skibowl for more night skiing and tubing. If alpine skiing is too much, the area boasts snowshoeing and cross-country skiing routes as well. mthoodterritory.com —Victoria Mechler COWB OYS & I ND I A NS

The Portland Culinary Experience Iranian. Mexican. French. Local. Japanese. The Portland, Oregon, food landscape is a

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Oregon Wine Country

ortland may be known for its bustling craft beer scene, but Oregon has more to offer than just hops. A little way south of the ale-ing city, the Willamette Valley is rich with vineyards and winemakers fermenting a different crop: grapes. The hills of wine country are flooded with the delicate pinot noir grapes. Tasting rooms beckon tourists and locals alike to enjoy a glass — or a flight — of the fruity red wine and share thoughts on different flavors that stand out depending on the harvest year. Amid more than 80 wineries in the Newberg area is a boutique hotel with a vineyard of its own. The Allison Inn & Spa blends naturally into the rolling hills of the countryside, and with its 85 rooms and suites, the hotel offers luxury accommodations, an expansive spa, and a world-class restaurant — not to mention the fine art. The hotel grounds are decked out with paintings and sculptures by Oregon’s own, including one work by Jay Noller that incorporates soil found on The Allison’s land. The 15,000-square-foot spa offers classic and specialty services, but reservations fill up quickly. At JORY, chef Sunny Jin and his team create flavorful dishes inspired by and made with locally sourced ingredients. The Allison’s garden and hazelnut orchard produce much of the kitchen’s supply, but Jin also has a selection of local purveyors he relies on for other crops. Whether you sit in the main dining area, the open bar peering into the busy kitchen, or one of the private dining rooms, your dining experience is complete with a wine list offering nearly 800 different labels. Choose a glass or bottle for yourself, or ask the server for a recommendation of what will pair best with the meal. To help guests experience the beauty and flavors of the wine region, the hotel offers a Lexus partnership program, allowing guests to take out a vehicle from the fleet for a few hours, plenty of time to stop by a few of the nearby wineries. theallison.com —Victoria Mechler

PHOTOGRAPHY: BARBARA KRAFT/COURTESY THE ALLISON INN & SPA

culinary Disneyland — not only reﬂective of the city’s current international makeup but also of its founding. The city is home to renowned chefs who emphasize the local or look beyond the horizon, including Naomi Pomeroy, who before opening her award-winning restaurant, Beast, owned and operated the historically focused Clarklewis. Andy Ricker doles out Thai street food favorites at Pok Pok. And Rodney Muirhead does Texas barbecue at Podnah’s Pit and Tex-Mex at La Taq next door. Spirited accompaniments are well-represented in the Multnomah Whiskey Library, an exclusive whistle-wetting joint accessible by reservation (for members) or waiting list, home to nearly 1,600 bottles of distilled spirits, most of them whiskey. It’s a brown-water aﬁcionado’s sanctuary. Craft beer lovers are also a happy lot. The Portland Metro area is home to 105 breweries, according to the Oregon Brewers Guild, making it one of the densest craft brewing capitals worldwide. And being the No. 2 state for hops production, Oregon — and Portland — is heavy on the resin-lapped, citrus-twisted India pale ales. Arguably more diverse than the restaurant and bar scene is the food cart phenomenon making Portland a mobile food vending hot spot. Indeed, the Alder Street pod (a cluster of food carts) that rings a downtown parking lot offers customers everything from gourmet grilled cheeses to Japanese dumplings. Take your order to go and sit a spell in the 12-acre Portland Japanese Garden with meandering streams, intimate walkways, and a picture-perfect view of Mount Hood. Don’t skip Portland’s International Rose Test Garden, the oldest continuously operating rose garden in the United States. Stroll along paths featuring more than 10,000 roses and learn why Portland is known as The City of Roses. If you’re like us, that’s barely a day’s worth of sightseeing and sustenance, which is why we recommend picking up a handcrafted chocolate bar or two from Cacao and a cortado from Stumptown Coffee Roasters before hopping to your next Portland destination. travelportland.com — José R. Ralat

OUT HERE WE DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T MEASURE SPACE IN SQUARE FEET, WE MEASURE IN ACRES

OUT HERE

WHISKY

(continued from page 93)

RANCHERS, GARDENERS, AND GURUS Ĺvõïf ĮĮËõï

Here we are deep into a tour of Oregon, and we’ve barely covered a third of the state. My bias as a “ﬂatlander” — as many people east of the Cascades call everyone west of them — is showing. The Cascades don’t just divide the state topographically. They represent a cultural boundary as well. While two-thirds of the state lies east of the mountains, only about 17 percent of the population resides in central and eastern Oregon. And in proudly rural fashion. As one local posted on a message board in response to a prospective newcomer: “If you don’t garden out here, you would be [one] of the few [who] don’t.” Cross the Cascades and you really do feel you’ve entered a different world. Dense woodlands give way to a sprawling, arid landscape dotted with farms, cattle ranches, and tiny towns spaced far apart. This is cowboy country, a lot of rangeland with few people, a place where outliers of all stripes have become part of Oregon lore. In the early 1980s, cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and 2,000 red-clad followers moved into a cattle ranch near Antelope (population 50) and attempted to create a desert utopia that came to include 93 Rolls-Royces for the Bhagwan. The group was eventually driven out of the state for legal issues. The normally sedate Malheur National Wildlife Refuge gained notoriety last year as the site of a takeover by anti-government activists. The New York Times noted that the entire affair “had a Wild West quality, with armed men in cowboy hats taking on federal agents in a tussle over public lands.” It was a contentious issue, but no one could argue with that description. But for the most part, a consistently congenial Western personality prevails across this part of Oregon. The state hosts a number of cowboy events — the spectacular Pendleton Round-Up (this year September 13 – 16) is the most well-known. I’m also partial to the annual late-spring Spray Rodeo, which claims, rightly in my mind, to be the best little rodeo in the country. Tickets are a mere $10 and worth it for the setting alone. With a population of 160 souls, Spray occupies a land of sagebrush, juniper, rim rock, and ponderosa pine. Its rodeo grounds are framed by the Blue Mountains of the Umatilla National Forest. Perhaps because they spend the winter seeing so few unfamiliar faces, locals don’t tend to be tightlipped with visitors. Spray and other barely there settlements of Wheeler County — also home to the magniﬁcent red-clay Painted Hills — are some of the most relaxing and amiable places in the state. (continued on page 101)

OREGON WONDER

painted hills ocky hills striped with vivid red and orange and splashed with black and murky brown create a geological wonderland outside the town of Mitchell. The painted rock formation, understandably known as the Painted Hills, is one of three units in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in the John Day River Basin. With their tie-dye-like walls, the Painted Hills have become an attraction for adventure enthusiasts and landscape artists alike. The seasons alter the look of the hills, creating one-of-a-kind experiences on each visit. Winter brings snow drifts, blanketing the hills in white with peekaboo pops of color, and wildďŹ&#x201A;owers bloom in spring as the temperature begins to warm. The hues and tones of the rocks also change seasonally with variations in precipitation levels and the angle of the sun. The longest trail on the grounds, the Carroll Rim Trail, leads to panoramic views of the painted ridge. The other trails, though shorter in length, lead hikers through the colorful rocks to more breathtaking vistas. The area that was once rich with fossils and the site of paleontological research along the Leaf Hill Trail no longer has visible fossils, but instead offers an exhibit with samples of leaves once found there. Although camping is not permitted in any of the three units in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, there are several campgrounds and lodging options nearby. Pack a picnic and spend the day watching the colors transform as the sun passes over the hills. nps.gov/joda â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Victoria Mechler COWB OYS & INDIANS

hen the snow begins to melt in the West, lavender farms in Oregon prepare for their most popular time of year: blooming season. From the time the ﬁrst purple starts to pop in spring to the time it peaks in summer, visitors from all over the world come to experience picturesque, fragrant ﬁelds blanketed in lavender. Oregon is home to some of the most breathtaking lavender farms in the world, with seven major growing areas: in the northwest, Sunset Corridor, Chehalem Mountain and Yamhill Valley, North Willamette Valley, Central Willamette Valley, Central Oregon, and Hood River Valley; in the southwest, Southern Oregon. One of the best times to visit the lavender regions is the second weekend in July, during the annual Oregon Lavender Farm Tour, put on by the Oregon Lavender Association. Held this year July 8 – 9, it features lavender farms and nurseries all over Oregon, with lavender-related activities like workshops on cooking and healing with lavender and celebrations with music, 98

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food, and vendors selling every lavender ware imaginable. The Southern Oregon region has its own lavender festival — this year June 23 – 25 and July 7 – 9 — when the farms and nurseries on the Southern Oregon Lavender Trail turn out with all things lavender. It’s a summer festival atmosphere that might ﬁnd you making wreaths, drinking lavender lemonade, and picking your own bouquet. A couple of notable Oregon lavender farms that are gorgeous destinations unto themselves include Hood River Lavender Farms, three organic farms in the scenic Hood River Valley that grow lavender and produce products like Lavender Cherry Pear Marmalade and lavender shea balm; and the family-run English Lavender Farm, set high in the mountains of the Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon, where they sell products ranging from heat rolls, neck wraps, and sachets to lavender soy wax candles, lavender calming dog collars, and dog shampoo. oregonlavenderdestinations.com — Kristin Brown

PHOTOGRAPHY: (PREVIOUS SPREAD) CHRISTIAN HEEB/COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON, (THIS PAGE) BRIAN CHAMBERS

Lavender Farms, Fields, and Festival

The Pendleton Round-Up’s 1910 Room Gourmet Experience

ALWAYS ON

he Indian relay racers rode too hard and fast for my smartphone’s video setting. Their mounts’ hooves sent the rodeo arena’s track dirt into fits and poofs under the metal bars separating guests of the Pendleton Round-Up’s 1910 Room, a gourmet experience, from the thrilling action. Those of us in the 1910 Room were powering through our own feat of athletic prowess: a multicourse meal that paired dishes with an Oregon craft beer, a signature cocktail featuring Pendleton Whisky (the official whiskey of the rodeo), and a local wine with a round of rodeo events — all of the events. It’s a five-hour trackside meal with state- and Westerninspired dishes such as Oregon smoked salmon, silky but substantial, during the tie-down roping and saddle bronc contests. The chef behind this rodeo mettle-testing feast was Max Germano of Portland. Assisting him were Pendleton High School culinary arts program teacher Kristin Swaggart as sous-chef and a team of Swaggart’s culinary arts students. The results included a caprese salad of golden heirloom tomatoes and pillowy mozzarella capped with ribbons of basil bound by rivulets of balsamic vinegar served during the bareback riding competition. And for the Indian relay racing: a smoked pork chop given a brilliant wash of Pendleton Whisky blackberry-barbecue sauce. This test of our endurance was well-rewarded with a spin on a classic fireside treat, s’mores. In the case of Germano and team, it arrived at our tables composed of house-made graham crackers with a dark chocolate and chile torte, brûléed fresh marshmallow, and a chocolate wine sauce. We savored our victory just as the rodeo cowboys celebrated theirs. This year’s Pendleton Round-Up, running September 13 – 16, will once again host the 1910 Room with Germano returning alongside Swaggart and her students. When asked how 2017’s menu will differ from last year’s offerings, Germano says, “Last year we did a five-course meal through the rodeo. This year we are moving more toward doing some fun hors d’oeuvres, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. All of the dishes we will be serving will be completely different from last year, so anyone who will be there for a second year will be in for an entirely new and unique experience.” What else can we expect? “This year I am inspired by Western culture being kind of a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities,” Germano explains. “The dish I am most excited for this year is one of the main course plates: crispy pork spare ribs, a sweet and tangy whiskey-barbecue sauce, braised kale, pickled chiles, and creamy grits.” The meal will be capped with a whiskey and honey cake with a lavender crème anglaise and candied orange. “Oregon culture definitely plays a part in all of the dishes,” he says. “Being able to get amazing seafood and fish from the coast while bringing in fresh seasonal and local produce is inspiring,” Germano says. And if you haven’t noticed by now, there will be whiskey. Lots of whiskey. In nearly everything. pendletonroundup.com — José R. Ralat

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PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON

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Spray it’s a quick drive north to Oregon’s pièce de résistance: the Columbia River Gorge. Extending more than 100 miles along the run that forms the Oregon-Washington border, it’s the largest national scenic area in the United States. In 1805, by the time Lewis and Clark floated down this portion of the Columbia, Native Americans had been living in the area for 10,000 years. My favorite way to take in the gorge’s sheer vertical walls is east to west, hitting the road around Umatilla at sunrise. Both sides of the gorge are stunning, but I like driving the Washington side, along Highway 14, which follows the river. This allows a full view out the driver’s window of the Oregon side, which traverses a landscape from high desert to alpine meadow to rainforest. Dams have turned the river’s once-treacherous waters into a series of docile reservoirs. The Columbia River Basin — which spreads into neighboring states far beyond the gorge itself — provides more than 40 percent of total U.S. hydroelectric generation. Yet even with all the environmental changes, when the early light glows across the ancient rock crevices towering above the river, it’s hard not to feel something in common with those early peoples and explorers. I usually dip back into Oregon at the Bridge of the Gods, a high cantilevered span from the 1920s that also serves as the Pacific Crest Trail link for hikers crossing between the two states. The bridge is a point of pride to Oregonians. It costs just two bucks to cross, and from the middle of the river you get one of the best views in the state down either side of the gorge. Fans of the movie (and book) Wild will recognize the bridge from the final scene of the film. “The Bridge of the Gods, I think, is significant to so many people who live in this region,” author Cheryl Strayed has said. “It has such personal meaning to me because of course it’s the place where I ended my 1,100mile hike on the PCT.” Symbolic as it is for Strayed, this sacred spot is hardly the end of most Oregon trails. From here, in fact, Oregon travelers must contemplate a nearly impossible raft of choices including such heavy hitters as Multnomah Falls, the wine country, Bend, Crater Lake, Hells Canyon, and dozens more iconic sites and experiences. But since most road trips usually end about where they started, I’ll bring this one back to the coast, just north of Cannon Beach, to Fort Clatsop, near Astoria. Here, Lewis and Clark finished their own odyssey down the Columbia River Gorge. “Ocian in view! O! the joy!” wrote Capt. William Clark in his journal on November 7, 1805, when, after trekking 4,000 miles across North America, the expedition party reached the Columbia River estuary and eventually those pristine Pacific beaches. As you’d expect, exhibits at today’s Lewis and Clark National Historical Park present a fascinating look into the past. But the whole place embodies the spirit that makes Oregon special to this day. Like the rest of the state, these replicas of the humble log dwellings where Lewis and Clark hunkered down for the winter belie a larger message of grandeur and connection to a still mostly primeval land that, to echo the promise of Gov. McCall, we cannot live without as Oregonians.

OREGON WONDER

PHOTOGRAPHY: ZACHARIAH SCHNEPF

columbia river gorge s you wind your way westward along the southern bank of the Columbia River, the river is everywhere. It’s below you, behind you, and always before you, cutting through more than 80 miles of the Cascade Range’s terrain with a climate that shifts from high desert in the east to temperate rainforest in the west. For more than 13,000 years, humans have gazed upon this landscape that forms the border between Washington and Oregon. They have called it home, have charted it, and they trapped, traded, and settled it during the age of westward expansion. Today, large swaths are enjoyed as the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, designated as such by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. “The scenic area is important to Oregon and the West for so many reasons,” says Susan Buce of the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum. “I could go on for hours. But to whittle it down to three things, let’s say the gorge’s Native American history, its environment and ecology, and its outdoor recreation.” She mentions the resurgence of the bald eagle, the importance of salmon and salmon ﬁshing to the Native Americans, Multnomah Falls — the most visited natural recreation site in the Paciﬁc Northwest — the Ice Age Floods National Geological Trail, and the Historic Columbia River Highway. Outdoors-minded folks are drawn to the hiking. The BalfourKlickitat Area & Trail is primo bald eagle sighting real estate. Meanwhile Husum Falls on the White Salmon Wild and Scenic River is a Class V waterway best used by experts and with guides. Rather kick back and enjoy the scenery or live the good life in the region? We recommend a leisurely drive on the Historic Columbia River Highway, relax on a riverboat cruise in the Cascade Locks, raise a glass of craft beer at Full Sail Brewing Company, or raise a glass of red at a Columbia Gorge American Viticultural Area winery — because there is something for everyone in the Columbia River Gorge. fs.usda.gov/main/crgnsa — José R. Ralat

PRCA Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year

Pendleton, Oregon TIX: pendletonroundup.com SHOP: leterbuck.com

OREGON WONDER

ou can experience the Oregon coast in all its wondrous windblown glory the easy, relaxing way — with a getaway to any of a dozen or so terriﬁc beach towns — or the energetic, invigorating way — by hiking a portion of the 382-mile Oregon Coast Trail. Whether you loaf it or hike it, you’ll see everything from craggy headlands and sandy beaches to forested corridors and picturesque seaside enclaves. Out of a dozen or so primo West Coast beach towns handpicked by Sunset magazine, half were in Oregon — and that’s with stiff competition from California and Washington. Making the list from the Beaver State were Bandon, Astoria, Depoe Bay, Cannon Beach, Newport, and Port Orford, each of which has its own character — and its own take on coastal weather. String a few of these Oregon pearls on your West Coast necklace, and sea stacks and tide pools, ice cream cones and saltwater taffy, inns and art galleries, fresh oysters and crab cakes, cliffs and lighthouses, picnics and Frisbees, and, of course, spectacular sunsets are on your itinerary. No list of Oregon coastal musts would be complete without Yachats, which Frommer’s travel guide founder Arthur Frommer listed as No. 7 of his 104

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10 favorite destinations in the world. A charming town whose Chinook Indian name means “dark water at the foot of the mountain,” Yachats (pronounced YAH-hots) earns its reputation as “the gem of the Oregon Coast” with its stunning location on the water at the base of the Oregon Coast Range, lovely hotels, art galleries, pastel-painted shops, and, 2.3 miles to the south, Cape Perpetua Scenic Area — the highest point on the Oregon Coast and a great spot for walks and getting in on guided naturalist programs through the visitors center. The U.S. Forest Service entices you to Cape Perpetua thusly: “Towering trees looming through a coastal fog. Frothy

surf crashing upon jagged shores. Majestic headlands offering clear views for miles. ... [T]his coastal wonderland — where the forest meets the sea — captivates locals and visitors alike.” Like you needed a hard sell. Between Yachats and Cape Perpetua, there’s a 3.8-mile stretch of the Oregon Coast Trail called the Amanda Trail. Known for both for its arduous beauty and its even more arduous past, it’s named in honor of Amanda De-Cuys, a blind elderly Native American woman who had escaped deathly conditions on an Oregon reservation and made a life in Coos Bay. Found living there with a white man and their 8-year-old daughter, De-Cuys was forcibly removed by the U.S. military and

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTIAN HEEB/COURTESY TRAVEL OREGON

oregon coast

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Indian agents and marched for 10 days and 80 miles — with no eyesight and no shoes — over sharp rocks and forbidding terrain. The section of trail named for her marks the ﬁnal leg of that treacherous 1864 journey. De-Cuys’ ultimate fate remains a mystery, but stories about the trail never fail to mention that she could be tracked by the blood from her wounded feet. Oregon owns up to the sad history of violent and unjust treatment of its original inhabitants with a statue of De-Cuys and a sign along the Amanda Trail. It’s a sobering story to consider while intoxicated by all the beauty. oregonhikers.org — Dana Joseph

he thrill of Shakespeare and of the theater in general is alive and well in Ashland, just north of Oregon’s southern border, where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s been putting on plays — by the Bard and others — since 1935. A Beaver State institution with 83 years and tons of plays (including every single one Will ever wrote) to its playbill credit, it’s not just one of the nation’s oldest theater institutions, but it’s also one of the most important (says no less than The New York Times). And, we might add, most proliﬁc: Running from February to early November, OSF puts on performances six days a week and about 800 annually. ’Tis deﬁnitely not your high school production of William Shakespeare here. By its own description, the renowned festival is a “compelling mix of classic, contemporary, and world premiere productions in three unique theaters.” The open-air Allen Elizabethan Theatre is Ashland’s answer to London’s Globe Theatre, but the plays aren’t ohso-17th-century — they’re very now. This summer through fall, expect everything from Henry IV, Part Two to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to the musical UniSon, which brings to life the poetry of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. In 2018, the schedule includes productions as edgy and diverse as Othello; a same-sex Oklahoma!; and Manahatta, by Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and executive director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. When you’re not enjoying plays, explore Lithia Park’s 93 acres of forested canyonland around Ashland Creek and other Ashland pursuits like river rafting and tubing, beer and wine tasting, and breakfasting and brunching at local favorite Morning Glory. Whatever you do, pack rain gear because, whatever the weather, the play will go on. osfashland.org — Dana Joseph

Made in Oregon S OM E OF T H E MO S T R E C O G N I Z E D BR A N D S I N T H E WOR LD H A I L F ROM T H E BE AV E R S TAT E . A F E W H IGH LIGH T S :

Folks who take pride in being handy most likely own or covet a Leatherman multi-tool or two. Known for packing many functions into intuitive, travel-friendly contraptions, the Leatherman brand is named after its creator, Tim Leatherman, an Oregon native and graduate of Oregon State University. He worked on his first multi-tool for several years before Cabela’s placed the 1983 order that helped create his company. Now Leatherman has grown to one of the most recognized toolmakers of its kind. It manufactures a wide variety of pocket-size products in Portland, including a bracelet that performs 29 functions. leatherman.com Ever since settlers in the mid-1800s figured out how well cows thrived on the Tillamook Valley’s abundant green grass, the area has produced top-quality dairy products. The rest of the world caught on when the area’s creameries came together to create the Tillamook County Creamery Association in 1909. That was the beginning of the Tillamook brand, which now ships cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream, and sour cream to stores all over the globe. tillamook.com Perhaps the best-known worldwide brand to originate from Oregon, Nike rose to prominence in the ’70s after building its business on the shoe designs of a former University of Oregon track coach (Bill Bowerman) and athlete (Phil Knight). Now with revenues in the double-digit billions, Nike continues to recognize both its Oregon roots and the culture that surrounds its home. Among the outreach programs to come from Nike’s Beaverton, Oregon, campus is the N7 Fund, a project that connects Nike and its products to Native American and aboriginal communities. nike.com With experience in the grain industry and time on his hands, Bob Moore couldn’t resist buying an old mill in Oregon City, Oregon, shortly after moving there in 1978. There have been ups and downs since, including a fire that forced Moore to start over from scratch in the late ’80s. But Bob’s Red Mill is stronger than ever now, producing a wide range of grain, oat, and cereal products in a Milwaukie, Oregon, facility that’s open to public tours and even has its own restaurant. bobsredmill.com Columbia Sportswear Company chairman Gert Boyle has been in charge of the widely recognized activewear brand for more than four decades. And she’s kept the mission simple: Make goods that keep you “warm, dry, cool and protected.” The company, now reaching customers on a global scale, has been headquartered in Portland since Boyle’s German immigrant parents arrived in the late ’30s, bought a hat company, and named it after the Columbia River. columbia.com It’s not difficult to see why Pendleton Woolen Mills has become synonymous with the culture and people of its home state — the textile and apparel company has stayed in the same family and grown consistently for six generations. And its aesthetic is as well-regarded as its stability — you can identify Pendleton trading blankets, apparel, and more by the colorful, traditional designs and patterns, valued and inspired by the Native communities with which Pendleton works closely. And tied as it is to tradition and family, Pendleton hasn’t been afraid of unique partnerships with the likes of Nike, Ugg, Timberland, and the American Indian College Fund. pendleton-usa.com — Hunter Hauk

Pillars of Rome

ioneers on the Oregon Trail saw them rise out of the landscape in southeastern Oregon as they neared the last stretch of their pilgrimage. These unusual 100-foot-high cliffs towered above the sagebrush and mesquite of the valley floor in white clay columns that reminded travelers of Roman ruins, which led to their name, Pillars of Rome. The formation then gave the nearby town of Rome in Malheur County its moniker. Covering an area approximately 5 miles by 2 miles, the Pillars of Rome attract artists and photographers as the geologic formation changes hues throughout the day with the rising and setting of the sun. If you’re nearby fishing the Three Forks area or hiking the Painted Canyon, be sure to take a detour and snap some awe-inspiring pictures of your own. The chalk and clay bluffs are home to fossils, wildflowers, birds, and various wildlife, but they’re also brittle, so visitors are advised to use caution and keep a respectful distance. Remnants of the old stagecoach highway are still visible there today. The Pillars of Rome are on the edge of the Owyhee Canyonlands, a scenic, secluded desert region along the Owyhee River. The river got its name from an early spelling of Hawaii in honor of three fur traders from the Pacific Islands who disappeared during an 1819 expedition, likely killed by native Bannocks. Today, it is a destination for white-water rafting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreation. Rome is located near Burns Junction, the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and State Highway 78. To get closer to the pillars, take the Rome Road (on the opposite side of the highway from the Rome Station) for about 2 miles. Take a right on Old Ion Highway, then a left on Kiger Road. Kiger takes a southward curve, at which point you should begin to see the Pillars of Rome. traveloregon.com — Jesse Hughey COWB OYS & INDIANS

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Things To Do In

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C&I readers know that Oregon, while rich and plentiful, makes up but a fraction of the American West’s endless travel options. So to continue our travel spectacular and to honor the magazine’s 24th anniversary issue, we’re including two dozen more worthwhile road-warrior options from around the West. You might want to go ahead and open up that calendar.

FILL UP ON KANSAS’ SMOKED MEATS You could spend an entire vacation touring Kansas City’s barbecue circuit, but if you want to dig into the best on arrival, Joe’s Kansas City Bar-BQue is the local favorite. Don’t let the gas station exterior deter you, nor the signature dish. Joe’s burnt ends are incomparably ﬂavorful and tender. If you’re hungry for more while in town, also try Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue and Q39. joeskc.com

PHOTOGRAPHY: (OPPOSITE) STEVE RAWLS/COURTESY FREDERICKSBURG CONVENTION AND VISITOR BUREAU, (THIS PAGE) COURTESY THE MURIETA INN & SPA, COURTESY CITY OF STURGIS

SIT IN THE STANDS AT A WYOMING RODEO INSTITUTION Celebrate the holidays early on the Cowboy Christmas rodeo circuit and catch a performance at Cheyenne Frontier Days, where all the big names in rodeo compete for their chance to visit Las Vegas later in the year. cfdrodeo.com

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNIN’ IN STURGIS Take a scenic road trip through the Black Hills for the 77th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Kicking off August 4, the 10day affair in Sturgis, South Dakota, includes a hill climb along the historic Black Hills Run, motocross races, and stunt riders, as well as festivities such as a street food competition and tattoo contest. sturgismotorcyclerally.com

RELAX AND RIDE IN CALIFORNIA Horse people and wine lovers rejoice: The brandnew Murieta Inn & Spa capitalizes on close proximity to both the Murieta Equestrian Center, which attracts 150,000 people annually for horse shows and other equestrian events, and the adjacent Amador County wine region, which boasts rich history and rich reds. Nestled between the rolling hills of Rancho Murieta and the panoramic Sierra Nevadas about 25 miles outside of Sacramento, California, the Murieta Inn riffs on classic Spanish hacienda style in public spaces and beautifully appointed guest rooms and suites. The property also boasts a full-service spa and salon at The Cupola and ﬁne dining at The Gate. themurietainn.com

PRETEND YOU’RE A WESTERN STAR When it comes to celebrating the Old West, California’s hidden gems reveal the state’s western heritage in unique ways. Pioneertown, located on Route 62 in the town of Yucca Valley, began as a live-in Wild West motion-picture set built in the 1940s. The set, most known for the film The Cisco Kid, stands today as a popular tourist attraction with much of its original charm intact, including an old saloon, a bank, and the town jail. visitcalifornia.com

HAVE SUMMER ADVENTURES AND SINGALONGS IN NORTH DAKOTA Head to Medora, North Dakota, this summer for a worthwhile twofer. Spend your day hiking and exploring in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which brings in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year but still retains its awe-inspiring beauty. And when it gets dark, head into town to revisit history via the nightly Medora Musical, which celebrates the legacy of the 26th president (and park namesake). nps.gov/thro, medora.com COWB OYS & INDIANS

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GO TO A GHOST TOWN IN MONTANA Feel the spirit of the Old West with a trip to Garnet Ghost Town — a painstakingly preserved historic town named after the semiprecious stone mined in the area. garnetghosttown.org

SLOW DOWN AND SIP IN FREDERICKSBURG The Texas Hill Country is home to beautiful state parks and relaxing sulphur springs, but some of the most alluring options are in and around the quaint town of Fredericksburg. The epicenter of the area’s wine region, it’s home to more than 45 wineries and vineyards, most of which offer visitors the opportunity EAT MODERN IN ARIZONA to tour their property and sample their Tucson, Arizona, is the first U.S. wares. visitfredericksburgtx.com metropolis to be designated a Creative City of Gastronomy by UNESCO. Joining a list of globally acclaimed culinary capitals, the city was given the honor in part because of its 4,000 years of agricultural history — as vibrant today as it was millennia ago. Enjoy Tucson’s signature Sonoran hot dog, fine dining integrating local crops once cultivated by the original indigenous settlers, and many offerings on the city’s official 23 Miles of Mexican Food map. visittucson.org

EMBARK ON AN OKLAHOMA ADVENTURE Canoe and trout-ﬁsh while staying in ﬁve-star air-conditioned cabins or primitive hike-in spots at Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park on scenic Broken Bow Lake. beavers-bend.com

PHOTOGRAPHY: BLAKE MISTICH/COURTESY FREDERICKSBURG CONVENTION AND VISTOR BUREAU, CARRIAN CHENEY/OHSWEETBASIL.COM

EXPLORE NATIVE HERITAGE IN UTAH Unlike any other, Frontier Homestead State Park & Museum is a living history destination that re-creates what life was like for early Cedar City, Utah, colonists brought to the area by Brigham Young. Recently opened as a new addition to the park, the Native Heritage Exhibit takes you back in time even further, replicating the Native vegetation, wickiup huts, and village mounds of southwestern Utah pre-Euro-American settlement. frontierhomestead.org

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Kippy Marrika Nakk Pat Dahnke Patricia Wolf Ryan Michael Vintage Collection Double D Ranch

Liberty Black Boots Old Gringo Barbosa Jewelry Consuela Corral Boots Bronte Peyote Bird Jewelry

142 East Main Street Fredericksburg, TX 78624

www.cowgirlkim.com J U LY 2 017 112 thru Sunday Thursday 10 am till 5:30 pm Friday and Saturday 10 am till 7 pm

BATHE IN A FOREST IN ARKANSAS Forest bathing isn’t about shedding clothes and taking a dip among the trees. It’s about stripping off stress, stopping the striving, and relaxing mind and spirit by walking in a forest awash in the curative effects of nature. A great state to experience this sensory reboot is Arkansas, more than half of which — 18 million acres — is forestland. With three national forests and dozens of state and local parks full of leafy trails, you’re all set for some wonderful woodland wandering. Arkansas Tourism especially recommends the Ozark Highlands Trail, Lake Ouachita Vista Trail, Louisiana Purchase Baseline Trail, and Wattensaw Bayou Water Trail. Earthy smells, dappled light, tweeting birds, leaves underfoot, and green all around — you remember how good this used to make you feel, right? arkansas.com

14 GO PHEASANT HUNTING IN SOUTH DAKOTA There is no better place for a bird hunter to get away in the fall than South Dakota, deemed the Pheasant Capital of the World. With the exception of designated wildlife refuges and parks, the state is an open hunting ground for pheasant (as well as a plethora of other waterfowl and small game birds) from mid-October through early January with plenty of luxury lodges and outﬁtter groups to accommodate you. gfp.sd.gov/hunting

PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT SCHMIDT/COURTESY SKI TAOS

One of the Hottest Stores in the Golden Block of Main Street Fredericksburg!

HIT THE SLOPES IN NEW MEXICO With hundreds of inches of snow every year and trails for all experience levels, Northern New Mexico’s Taos Ski Valley maintains its natural splendor and doesn’t allow much to get in the way of its premier activity. The typical season lasts from December to April. skitaos.com

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GO FULL-TOURIST IN MISSOURI Spend a day stepping back in time at Silver Dollar City, an 1880s theme park complete with roller coasters and rides for the whole family. Then head into nearby Branson, Missouri, for a show. silverdollarcity.com/theme-park, explorebranson.com

REVISIT HISTORY IN NEVADA Tour the preserved and reconstructed adobe buildings from the 1855 missionary settlement that birthed the City of Lights at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort. Or check out artifacts from the Pueblo Grande de Nevada archaeological sites and prehistoric Pueblo Indian ruins saved during construction of the Hoover Dam at the Lost City Museum. nvdtca.org/ lostcitymuseum, parks.nv.gov/parks/ old-las-vegas-mormon-fort

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PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY SILVER DOLLAR CITY, COURTESY LOST CITY MUSEUM

SEEK WELLNESS, PET CHICKENS IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO In the high desert of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, rests a 90,000-square-foot spa retreat that you might never want to leave. Sunrise Springs is not only beautifully manicured for maximum reﬂection and relaxation with quiet casitas and walking trails, it’s highlighted by outdoor pools and heated soaking tubs. You can also de-stress by petting puppies and Silkie (sometimes silly) chickens. sunrisesprings.ojospa.com/resort

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PHOTOGRAPHY: DOUG MERRIAM/COURTESY SUNRISE SPRINGS

SHOP ’N’ SNOWSHOE IN COLORADO If you’re in Winter Park, Colorado, for its namesake season, consider the humble snowshoe as a practical and enjoyable way to go for a walk, preferably in fresh powder, at 9,000 feet. Winter Park Resort offers rentals and guided snowshoe tours and a one-time lift pass (reserve ahead: 888.221.1806), and Rocky Mountain National Park gives free ranger-led snowshoe tours for beginners and intermediates (bring your own snowshoes and poles and reserve in advance: 970.627.3471). You’ll ﬁnd trail systems in Arapaho National Forest and at Granby Ranch, YMCA of the Rockies — Snow Mountain Ranch’s Nordic Center, Grand Lake Nordic Center, and Devil’s Thumb Ranch Resort & Spa. If you’ve got the gear and the gumption, you might try tromping the Fraser River Trail to the Cozens Ranch Museum. The ﬁrst homestead of the Fraser Valley, the old Cozens Ranch is now a fascinating museum showcasing pioneer life in the late 1800s. If you’re persuaded that webbed walking is for you, keep right on stepping to the boutiques and shops of Winter Park, where you can pick up anything from a pair of snowshoes, outdoor equipment, and apparel to art, jewelry, and other unique items. playwinterpark.com

BECOME A “COOKIE” Perfect the skills of outdoor and Dutch oven cooking at Camp Cook School in the Montana Rocky Mountains, where you can learn backcountry techniques. campcookschool.com

60 East San Franciso Street Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505.983.4562 SantaFeGoldworks.com

RENEW AND RECHARGE IN IDAHO Take a dip (or a tour of dips) into Idaho’s treasured hot springs. With 130 usable hot springs — more than any other state in the country — there’s sure to be one just right for you, whether in the expansive Lava Hot Springs, managed by the state, or the remote getaway of Burgdorf Hot Springs in McCall. idahohotsprings.com

ENJOY THE VIEW AND THE SOUNDS IN WASHINGTON STATE Gape at awe-inspiring views of the Columbia River while listening to a marquee concert or attending a music festival at Gorge Amphitheatre in the punnily named city of George, Washington. georgeamphitheatre.com

HOST A LADIES’ RANCH WEEKEND IN ARIZONA The authentically Western town of Wickenburg, Arizona, has options for devoted C&I readers of all ages. If you happen to be looking for an immersive but relaxing ranch experience for a cowgirls’ trip, check out Rancho de los Caballeros. Its Giddy-Up Gals experience is built on desert cookouts, stocked casitas, spa treatments, hikes, and guided trail rides. ranchodeloscaballeros.com 116

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GO TREASURE HUNTING IN CENTRAL TEXAS Need an iron bed, tribal rug, one-of-a-kind armoire, unique jewelry, piece of high-end decorative art, or shabby-chic anything? Have we got the collector’s paradise for you. Every fall and spring between Austin and Houston, the countryside turns out with more treasures than wildflowers when the small Central Texas communities of Round Top and Warrenton — and seemingly everything around and in between — swell with an antiquing phenomenon that attracts more than 2,000 vendors and 100,000 far-flung visitors. The ever-growing Antique Week, with editions in late September/early October and late March/early April, began as the Round Top Antiques Fair almost 50 years ago. Now transformed into a shopping mecca filling barns, tents, fields, warehouses, and malls with antiques, Americana, collectibles, and square miles more, Antique Week is a misnomer: The sensory overload of fun and shopping actually lasts about three weeks twice a year. You need comfy shoes, a water bottle, an itinerary, and a gypsy’s love of wandering to really take it all in. Speaking of, the Junk Gypsies set up shop in Round Top in 1998, and their Junk Gypsy World Headquarters store and new Wander Inn hotel (opening this summer) in Round Top are musts. Perennial favorite Marburger Farm Antique Show is 43 packed acres of things you want (with “marburitas” at Bingo Hall afterward). New on our list is Market Hill by Paul Michael — 130,000 square feet of indoor air-conditioned shops and outdoor covered breezeways complete with an on-site restaurant, tons of free parking, and loading and unloading areas for that cypress paneling and those custom barn doors you just bought. Make sure to hit The Compound, where “fine antiques and uniques” imported from 15 different countries rule the day — and maybe your wallet. Zapp Hall in Warrenton (the site of the memorable Junk-O-Rama Prom) boasts Junk Gypsy items, a satellite location of Royer’s Round Top Café for yums that run from famous pies to beef tenderloin to the locally famous shrimp BLT, The Bubble Lounge for champagne, and the Zapp Hall Beer Garden for brews and live music. If you’re looking for the show where the dealers shop, the Old Depot’s the place where several dozen veteran vendors offer an eclectic mix worthy of the big truck(s) you’ll wish you’d rented; also on the grounds are the Stone Cellar Pub & Pizzeria (offering wine, craft beers, pizza, and live music in a refurbished 1861 train depot moved from nearby LaGrange), The Stone Cellar Annex Café, and the historic Round Top Dance Hall. When you finally decide to call it a day, you might do so at your own “indoor glampsite” at the Lone Star Glamp Inn in Warrenton and kick up your poor, tired feet in one of seven restored vintage “glampers” (or the 16-foot bell tent) parked inside for maximum AC and Wi-Fi accommodation comfort. roundtop.com, roundtop.org

PHOTOGRAPHY: APRIL PIZANA/COURTESY JUNK GYPSY

HIT THE WINE TRAIL IN NEBRASKA The Cornhusker State is home to 25 wineries that have been quietly racking up awards at regional and international competitions. Among its lauded wine producers is James Arthur Vineyards. Near Lincoln, the vineyard, which is noted for its hearty white Edelweiss and Vignoles grapes, is one of eight stops on the Southeast Nebraska Winery Trail. senewinetrail.org

ROCKY MOUNTAIN RAPTURE I T ’ S ON E OF T H E W E S T ’ S MO S T BE L OV E D A N D AC C E S S I BLE N AT U R A L DE S T I N AT ION S . BU T T H E R E ’ S A LWAY S S OM E T H I NG N E W A N D DI F F E R E N T T O DI S C OV E R I N RO C K Y MOU N TA I N N AT ION A L PA R K A N D I T S GAT E WAY T OW N OF E S T E S PA R K .

PHOTOGRAPHY: (ALL IMAGES) COURTESY VISITESTESPARK.COM

By Jordan Rane

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T R A V E L

celebrated its centennial in 2015. But all “Rocky A small group of visitors is gathered Mountain High” (now an official state song) lyrics at the trailhead near an old retired ranch aside, what did I really know about one of the on a quiet edge of Rocky Mountain West’s first and still-foremost alpine tourism hubs National Park— when Kirk Bien, our fly-fishing guide, prior to my own first and long-overdue visit? walks over from his truck, casually lobs this question at Mainly all those generously bolded guidebook us, and waits for a volunteer. To take Dwight. bullets that say just enough about a place from afar It takes a few moments for any response. It’s early. to make you think you know much more about it We just got here. Everyone is still busy yawning, than you really do. A few highlights: acclimating to 8,400-plus feet and staring off with Rocky Mountain National Park (I’d read, several glazed eyes at a spectacular horizon of Colorado times) has been called “the Switzerland of America” peaks glowing in the freshly risen sun. Plus, none of since at least the 1860s — half a century before us knows who Dwight is. officially becoming a national park in 1915. “I’ll take Dwight,” pipes a fuzzy voice, which Trail Ridge Road, which spans the park between turns out to be mine. its east and west gates, is the highest continuous Dwight is even fuzzier than paved road in America — tracme at this hour — a fluffy ing a path used by Ute Indians white llama with tolerant and other Native American eyes, a perma-smirk, and the groups for millennia. thankless task of hauling loads Longs Peak (14,259 feet), of Orvis waders, river boots, the park’s highest mountain, fishing tackle, and turkey-pesto has been tapped by SummitPost wraps to a remote creek hidas the most popular 14er ing in the park’s northeast climb in Colorado — a corner where the trout, Bien state furnished with more assures us, will be biting today. 14,000-plus-foot mountains Because they’re biting out there (by far) than any other in the every day. country. “Everyone’s catching a Estes Park’s wealth of fish,” Bien says, casually tossoutdoorsy tourism amenities ing me Dwight’s lead like a includes the iconic YMCA of labradoodle’s before turning the Rockies (America’s highest back to the llama trailer to and world’s largest YMCA — a fetch a couple more woolly full-fledged rustic resort in sherpas for the journey. the mountains), the historic “Who wants to take The world-famous Stanley Hotel overlooks an Stanley Hotel (the inspiration elk-covered golf course. Hector and Bruce?” for Stephen King’s The Shining), and enough adventure outfitN A WORLD-FAMOUS NATIONAL PARK ters, spa facilities, golf fairways, zip-line runs, craft just 80 miles from Denver that now beer patios, fine-dining options, premium ice cream ’n’ draws more than 4 million annual visi- saltwater taffy shops, and summer festivals to keep one tors, it may not be such a secret anymore of the most hallowed mountain vacation towns in the that llama-supported fly-fishing treks are just one of West buzzing through July, August, and beyond. the many bucket-listable activities available to more But enough armchair factoids. than 2 million summer guests. But this and various Entering this picture for real invites a scale of other eye-opening experiences in Rocky Mountain unbounded beauty that can leave Lonely Planet ediNational Park and its gateway resort town of Estes tions in the dust. Including the view I’m now taking Park had somehow escaped my boot prints until now. in along the park’s pine-studded North Boundary If you can name a single John Denver song, Trail on a 75-degree August day under a cloudless you know about the grandeur of this park, which Colorado sky with a trout-filled creek somewhere HO WANTS TO TAKE DWIGHT?”

COWB OYS & INDIANS

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With some help from local guides, visitors can find and fish some of the most abundant spots in Rocky Mountain National Park.

ahead. And a warm, curiously moist breeze tickling my neck from behind. Or is that llama exhaust? “We’re actually a smaller park, at least compared to places like Yellowstone and Yosemite — and we get about as many visitors as they do,” Bien says, guiding the way up a winding mountain path that gets steep enough to induce heavy breathing, even from my sure-footed trail buddy Dwight, who could use a mint. “But if you hit the right places at the right times, you can have it all to yourself.” Clambering up an unpeopled trail flanked by aspens, ponderosas, and tall granite cliffs on a weekday morning, any day-tripper or camelid would agree this is one of those places at one of those times. “It’s pretty crowdproof over here because we’re away from the main gates, the trailhead lot is small, and once it’s filled up, that’s it — no one else is coming,” adds Bien, who grew up in nearby Loveland, logging years of local hiking and fishing intel before realizing his lifelong dream of opening a fly shop in downtown Estes Park. “I always just knew that’s what I wanted to do, even when I was a little kid,” says the natural-born Colorado outdoorsman, sporting a casual goatee, an old ball cap, and an aptitude for holding conversations while scaling big hills. Years ago, his parents agreed to help support the fly-shop project — if he went to college first. “I’m sure their thinking was I’d finish college and forget that whole crazy idea,” he says. Fortunately, they were mistaken, and now Kirk’s Fly Shop & 120

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Mountain Adventures is a 15-year-old fixture in downtown Estes. Its specialty: helping experienced and novice fly-fishing groups discover some of the best trout hide-outs in and around the park. “So most of you have never fly-fished, then?” Bien asks us. “Technically, no — but I’ve watched A River Runs Through It at least three times,” quips a guest. “Does that count?” “They were casting way too long in that movie,” Bien volleys back, like he’s heard this one before and was waiting for it. “It looks great on camera, but you’d never actually wanna do that. You’d wrap your line around every tree.” Soon thereafter, we arrive at our public but private-looking fishing grounds, West Creek Falls, a short but picturesque cataract feeding a string of riverbeds divvied like loose pearls among giant boulders and fallen logs. No one is here except for us, a trio of dozing llamas, and untold numbers of elusive rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, and a distinguished subspecies called the greenback cutthroat — the Colorado state fish. Hooking all four of these trout up here in a single fishing day is called a grand slam, Bien tells us — which, of course, invites a round of painful baseball metaphors after we gear up in our waders and boots and start our first inning of trout fishing in a visibly inhabited pool of them just below the falls. “Swing and a miss.” “Hey, choke up on that rod.” “Watch for the steal.” Needless to say, no one will be grand-slamming today. But whoa, here comes a short-hop single. It’s a brookie — a small fry, but a pretty one — suddenly leaping from the end of my line within the first few minutes of

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my quick intro lesson with Bien. How easy was that? “Nice!” Bien says, generous enough to give me way more credit than I deserve. Still, this is auspicious, right? If you’re not a brook trout. “It’s a game of patience, but not too much patience — you don’t want to stay in any one place for too long,” Bien coaches, setting us up at various points along the river. “The fish are always facing the current. You want to lay low and sneak up from behind. They’re pretty smart.” For the next hour or four — one naturally loses all track of time out here — I lay low and sneak up from behind. I wade furtively upstream through cool thigh-deep trails of murmuring mountain water. Past whispering pines and heckling mountain jays. Assuring my trout brethren that we’re all just having a friendly pickup game of catch-and-release here. C’mon, fellas. Let’s play ball. Again and again, I’m smoked by smarter fish looking the other way. Soon enough I begin forgetting about the mission altogether. Just being here, basking in this hypnotic setting, is the only bite that really matters. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself, the rest of the group (all catching fish), and my future grandkids. “Find any more?” Bien asks as I retire, troutless, to a riverside rock for turkey and pesto. “These fish know how to field,” I hedge. “Wouldn’t be any fun otherwise,” he says. True enough. You can get the waders beaten off you by the cutthroats here and still feel victorious enough just playing in the same park. F IT’S ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEY —THE LONG,

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winding road itself and not the destination — then certain sections of the American highway grid are better reminders of that than others. Take the 48-mile stretch of U.S. Route 34 between Estes Park and Grand Lake — aka Trail Ridge Road — which rises and sweeps up and across the spiny breadth of Rocky Mountain National Park with the sort of eye- and ear-popping topographical drama you would never confuse with some other

48-mile portion of U.S. Route 34 in, say, central Nebraska. “It is hard to describe what a sensation this new road is going to make,” National Park Service director Horace Albright would promise during construction of what remains the country’s highest continuous paved auto route. Once part of an ancient Native American trail identified by Arapahoe elders as Taieonbaa — or “Where the Children Walked” (because it was too steep here for their folks to carry them) —Trail Ridge Road would be dubbed a “scenic wonder road of the world” by the Rocky Mountain News when it opened to engine-equipped travelers in 1932. Eighty-five summers later, the awed seasonal motorcade along this bucket-list mountain drive (closed between October and May) has evolved a tad. Priuses from Pennsylvania. Audis from Arkansas. Subarus from Saskatchewan. They whiz through an Alaska-scale canvas of glacial valleys and alpine panoramas on a smooth two-laner as straight as cooked linguine. Convoys of fluorescent-green park tour jeeps are here. So are the requisite Harley riders and spandexed masochists on bicycles. All winding their way up and up — past shimmering aspen groves, thick pine forests, billows of loose clouds and away into the treeless tundra where about a third of the park resides. “This is the highest sandwich I’ve ever eaten,” observes a freckled boy lunching with his family at the busy Alpine Visitor Center. Perched at 11,796 feet — above an oversize geology lesson of massive cirques, moraines, alluvial fans, and other loose glacier change — it’s indeed the loftiest place you may ever find yourself jockeying for a parking space, browsing for fridge magnets, ordering soup, or watching a herd of elk graze for their own midday meal nearby. Head a few more miles west from here and the road crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass before eventually passing a trailhead that leads hikers to the headwaters of the Colorado River. Circle back east toward Estes Park, and Trail Ridge Road hits its highest point at 12,183 feet before weaving down through several vista-point pull-offs that will challenge the most FOMO-resistant driver. At the Forest Canyon pullout, a short paved trail leads to a massive glacialscape framed by the park’s signature Front Range peaks and autographed by the Big Thompson River snaking below. Here, clusters of park visitors gather at a circular stone wall, quietly marveling in at least five different languages upon a panorama too big for words. A plump, furry head darts in and out of some nearby boulders in the foreground. “Vut in the vurld is that?” says someone. “That’s a marmot,” says someone else. For the next several minutes, a United Nations of marmot spectators watches transfixed as a chunky rodent pokes aimlessly around in old glacial debris. Not because it’s all that fascinating. But along this spectacular stretch of U.S. Route 34, it’s one of the few scenes that a random gathering of humans can collectively grasp.

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Later, a scenic hike through the park’s central valleys will reconfirm that the best spots to get immersed in all this is away from the car crowds on miles of open trails — home to wilder, more elusive company. “We’re probably being watched right now by mountain lions,” says Tom Dewitz, a guide with Footpaths of the World, an Estes Park outfitter (headquartered at local outdoor retailer hub The Warming House) that specializes in European-style inn-to-inn tours in and around the park and beyond. “But the biggest predators you’re likely to see today are up there,” he adds, pointing at a golden eagle hovering above. More park residents turn up along pine cone-flecked paths between Horseshoe and Moraine Parks. Red-tailed hawks. Cottontail rabbits and pine squirrels. And many a munching elk. Once hunted nearly to extinction here before being reintroduced, elk populations have jumped in a park that has instituted fencing areas both to prevent and study the effects of overgrazing. Summer guests are a bit early for the park’s favorite annual elk show during early fall mating season, when droves of competing bulls turn Moraine and Horseshoe parks into a feisty symphony of bugle calls and antlered machismo. Estes Park will be hosting its 19th annual Elk Fest (September 30 – October 1), attracting thousands of visitors, a team of “Bugle Corps” volunteers, and (every year) a few folks who get a little too close to all the action. “The general rule of thumb about being too close to an elk is this,” says Dewitz, a wellspring of all facets of park intel past and present. He lifts his thumb near a lone elk sitting regally on a hill about 100 yards from us. “If your thumb is bigger than the elk, you’re OK. If not, move back.” We move on. Through a wonderland of geological mass movements: “Those boulders over there are called glacial erratics,” Dewitz says. And human history: “Down there was the site of an old Civilian Conservation Corps camp.” And wilderness health and hygiene tips: “Common yarrow is one of the world’s most multipurpose medicinal plants — a natural painkiller, disinfectant, and astringent,” our informed guide notes. “And this fuzzy leaf over here is mullein, which has also been called ‘cowboy’s toilet paper.’ ” Stopping for lunch in a tilted meadow sprinkled with wildflowers and stocky old pines, we soak in a southward view dominated by the park’s premier 14er, Longs Peak. Its stark summit and famous beaver-shaped southern ridge dominate a sea of lowly 13ers. “According to Arapahoe legend, when that beaver climbs its way to the summit, the world is going to end,” Dewitz says, casually eating an apple. Thankfully, the beaver appears to be in no great hurry today. And neither are we as we slowly wind down toward Beaver Meadows, where people and cars reappear like the fulfillment of some other legend.

OU’D THINK IT MIGHT GET TOUGH AT TIMES

being that visitor-magnet existing right beside (and largely for) one of the most popular national parks in the country. Then you talk to people in Estes Park, and you think again. “Once I went off to college, my dad did not expect me to move back here and take over the place,” says Ty Nagl, burly owner of the Wheel Bar, a three-generation local watering hole in the center of town with walls covered in family heirlooms and dog-eared photos of Estes Park regulars over the decades. “But I was like, Where else am I gonna go to have all this right at my doorstep? And [laughs] what else am I gonna do to make a decent living and be able to live in Estes?” Nagl isn’t alone. Estes Park, one of the most industrious park-crowd-serving towns on either side of the Rockies, has been going strong in its various phases since the mid-19th century. A federal buyout of nearby interior park lodgings in the 1930s would in turn seal the little mountain town’s future as a bona fide outdoor vacation resort. Today, Estes still feels welcomingly small enough while packing in its own wealth of big offerings to be experienced outside the park gates. “I think Estes has gotten classier over the past several years,” a regular visitor from Denver confides along the town’s busy Elkhorn Avenue thoroughfare. “It’s not the saltwater-taffy-andT-shirt stop you might have remembered from last time.” Given that this is my first time and I’ve got nothing against barrelfuls of colorful chewy candy in a pleasant mountain town on a sunny day in late August, it’s all gravy. But, yes, stay awhile, poke around, and those tee ’n’ taffy stops barely scratch the surface here. Some of my favorite experiences collected over several early mornings, late afternoons, and later evenings in Estes Park will include my favorite batch of blueberry lemon pancakes at Claire’s on the Park, a filet mignon to be remembered at Twin Owls Steakhouse, and a ghost tour followed by a premium whiskey-tasting at the vaunted (and reputedly very haunted) Colonial Revival classic, the Stanley Hotel — home of the largest whiskey collection in Colorado and the inspiration for Stephen King’s notorious Overlook Hotel. Capping it off with a chuck wagon dinner and live music show at the historic Lazy B Ranch — an Estes institution since the 1960s, dedicated to preserving Western heritage with (what else?) fine cowboy grub and music — is the perfect way to end a perfect first visit. Especially with National Swing Fiddle Champion Katie Glassman and her band Snapshot up on stage. “We don’t mean to force-feed you all this cowboy music,” Snapshot guitarist Greg Schochet quips to an audience. “So here’s a heavy metal song you all might enjoy,” he says with a twinkle, before the band launches into the cowboy classic “Big Iron.” The final number of the evening is the inevitable “Happy Trails,” the send-off hopeful enough. “If we don’t see you in the future,” Glassman says, smiling and lifting her fiddle to her chin, “we’ll see you in the pasture.”

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THE POEM READS:

“Across the years I will walk with you— in deep, green forests; on shores of sand: and when our time on earth is through, in heaven, too, you will have my hand.” Dear Reader, The drawing you see above is called The Promise. It is completely composed of dots of ink. After writing the poem, I worked with a quill pen and placed thousands of these dots, one at a time, to create this gift in honor of my youngest brother and his wife. Now, I have decided to offer The Promise to those who share and value its sentiment. Each litho is numbered and signed by hand and precisely captures the detail of the drawing. As a wedding, anniversary or Valentine’s gift or simply as a standard for your own home, I believe you will find it most appropriate. Measuring 14" by 16", it is available either fully-framed in a subtle copper tone with hand-cut double mats of pewter and rust at $135, $95. Please add $14.50 $145, or in the mats alone at $105. $16.95 for insured shipping and packaging. Your satisfaction is completely guaranteed. My best wishes are with you.

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CHUCK WAGON ROYALTY The legendary patriarch of a Canadian chuck wagon racing family seeks one last crown. By John H. Ostdick

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welve-time champion chuck wagon racer Kelly “the King” Sutherland is confident his Calgary Stampede swan song will be a happy occasion. “When I drive into the Calgary Stampede opening night, I just envision myself on the stage after 10 days of fighting furious competition,” he says. “No matter what comes, I know ultimately I’m going to be the last man standing. “I think 13 is going to be a lucky number for me this year,” he says, laughing. “I was second a couple years ago, and I thought I could get it done then. ... I think if I can push it, I’ll get the job done this year.” He’s got plenty of kin to push him along at Canada’s annual celebration of Western traditions and skills. The rest of the royal family of chuck wagon racing will be riding hair on fire at

PHOTOGRAPHY: (ALL IMAGES) COURTESY DINA SUTHERLAND/SUTHERLAND RANCH

OPPOSITE: Kelly Sutherland races at the 2016 Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede. ABOVE: Sutherland, muddied up after a competition.

the Stampede, which runs July 7–16. Kelly’s brother, 60-year-old Kirk Sutherland, is the defending Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby champion, having beaten his own son, Mitch, 39, in the final heat last year. Kelly’s son, 46-year-old Mark Sutherland — who has finished just out of the top four the last two years at the Stampede — and Mark’s son, Dayton — who is just starting to make his mark in the sport — will be part of the competitive field as well. The members of the royal court — the Sutherlands appreciate the sentiment but generally eschew such talk — are used to competing around each other, and all will be out to win. But they know 2017 is particularly special because it is the King’s last ride on his home turf. The 65-year-old Kelly, a 12-time Stampede GMC Rangeland Derby champion and six-time

Calgary Stampede Aggregate winner, is retiring at the end of the 2017 season. Although he’s spent this early spring morning in Grande Prairie, Alberta, trimming horses, doing some renovation on the family house, and shoeing some horses with grandson Dayton, he offers that, “I’m a cowboy; I got lots of time to talk.” Kelly speaks slowly, with equal measures of straight-shooting confidence and deference to the natural gifts that have helped him win big in a demanding sport. He began racing in another era, without rider age restrictions. His first race was in Dawson Creek, a small northeastern British Columbia town. “I was 16, quite scared and full of emotions,” he says. “If you could drink a case of beer, no matter what age you were, and still kind of half-walk, you were a cowboy in those days.” Kelly had grown COWB OYS & INDIANS

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Sharing A Family Calling

Kelly and Mark Sutherland begin spring training at their ranch in Alberta, Canada, where visitors can try their hand at chuck wagon driving.

huck wagon racer Mark Sutherland loves what he does and wants to give visitors the opportunity to get a feel for what it’s like. In what the chuck wagon racing family’s website describes as “a once-in-a-lifetime agri-tourism experience,” they offer guests insight into the love and care provided to their horses and share the traditions of the horse-powered race. “We’re just trying to capitalize on what I’ve been doing for 25 years,” Mark says. “It’s creating awareness for our sport, which we need. I think all Western lifestyle needs to do this.” Depending on the economy and how many members of the family are racing in any one year, the Sutherland family will have as many as 100 Thoroughbreds on their ranch in Grande Prairie, 468 miles northwest of Calgary, Alberta. (Currently, the ranch is training or caring for around 90.) “I think the Western way of life is very important to preserve and maintain,” patriarch Kelly Sutherland says. “That’s a big part of our society that somehow has got to be preserved going forward.” This is not a traditional get-in-the-saddle-and-chase-cows ranch experience. “Our horses will blow your hair back,” Mark says. “We show our guests how we take a high-strung Thoroughbred off the racetrack and turn him into a well-broke horse. ... [T]his is a horse work camp for all ages, from cleaning out the stables to understanding the details of how we race the chuck wagons.” Mark wants to “give people a sense of how much we love

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these animals, and how we do what we do for a reason. “I love these horses, even if some are tough to love. Some people don’t understand it at first, but when I come across a crazy cat lady, she gets it. The difference is that I pet my horse, but also get to hook him up to a chuck wagon and drive him at 40 mph.” Mark notes changes in the rodeo world don’t mean that it has to lose the essence of its tradition. “You’ve got all these bull riders walking around with ball caps on instead of cowboy hats; that doesn’t make them any less of a cowboy,” he says. “If you think you’re more of a cowboy, just tie yourself to that bull. That’s the way I look at it. You’re not going to see me in Birkenstocks and pigtails. My kids are the same. They’re grown up now, and they grew up loving horses, respecting animals and living the ranch lifestyle. I couldn’t care less whether they wear a Nike T-shirt or a Western shirt.” At the ranch, Mark, who also has worked in the oil industry for almost 20 years, is more likely to be dressed in business shoes and a tie than boots and a bandanna. But he is 100 percent cowboy. “Just watch me with the horses, talk to me about politics, or the importance of whether a gate is left open or closed, and then you’ll know I’m a cowboy. “I got married in blue jeans, a cowboy hat, and tie. For me, that’s church wear.” For more information, visit sutherlandracing.ca.

up “on the back of a racehorse,” as his father worked with guys, and he’s always in that 10.” them. Kelly became an outrider for a chuck wagon racer at 14, Chuck wagon races date back to the settling of the West. and before long he was training up to ride in the seat. Cowboys would load up their stoves and tents, and race to the “I’ve trained hard for 50 years, but throughout that time bar. The last one there had to buy the whiskey. I’ve watched people who have worked harder than I have, Modern chuck wagon races consist of two to four wagdone other things to achieve the level I have, but they just ons, each pulled on a set course by a four-horse team of didn’t have the communication skill Thoroughbreds. The sport is most popuwith the horse that I do,” he says. “I’m lar in the prairie provinces of Canada, “This chuck wagon royalty humbled that for some reason the sport where riders compete in two major comes natural.” racing circuits, the World Professional started because they call During that time, he dominated his Chuckwagon Association and the sport in unparalleled fashion, compet- Dad the King,” says Mark Canadian Professional Chuckwagon ing in a record 77 championship final Association, during warmer weather Sutherland. heats (21 at the Calgary Stampede GMC months. The WPCA submits 25 drivRangeland Derby alone), winning 25 of ers and the CPCA submits 11 drivers to them. He has placed in the top 10 overall chuck wagon driver compete in the Calgary Stampede, which provides the biggest standings 41 times. chuck wagon racing event and purse. “This chuck wagon royalty started because they call Dad the The 36 drivers are thinned out in heats during the run of King,” Mark Sutherland, who works in the oil and gas industry, the Stampede. Each race, coined a “half-mile of hell,” typically says by phone as he pulls off the highway on the way to work. involves three or four teams and begins with two outriders “He’s 65 years old, but if you are competing, he’s in the plan per wagon who “break camp” by tossing two tent poles and to beat. There are 36 competitors, but you don’t have to worry a barrel representing the camp stove into the back of their about beating 36 guys. You’ve got to worry about beating 10 wagon before mounting their horses and following the wagons.

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Chuck wagon racing is a Sutherland family tradition. Pictured during spring training are patriarch Kelly and his son, Mark (top and bottom right); and Mark and his own son, Dayton (bottom left).

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The wagon drivers complete a figure eight around two barrels and then circle a racetrack. Each outrider must finish within 150 feet of his or her wagon or they will be determined late. A wagon’s total time will be determined by adding its running time to any penalties it may have incurred during the course of the race. All that leads to high drama. “The horses, all the dust and power, the start, coming down the home stretch, and the finish just look spectacular,” Mark says. “And, unfortunately, a wagon will tip over once in a while.” Although Mark was running around playing outrider about as soon as he could walk, his most vivid early memory of his father racing occurred when he was 7 or 8 years old. “Dad was turning a barrel, and the pole connecting the back and front wheels of his wagon broke. I remember realizing the wagon wasn’t all in one piece, and Dad just disappeared under the wagon. He was OK; the horses were fine. It was all spectacular. And [after the race] my dad was underneath the wagon trying to fix it, and I remember climbing under there with him to try to help.” Although Mark has realized a measure of success in chuck wagon racing, he knows he is “not going to win 12 Calgary Stampede championships — nobody else will, unless there’s

only eight drivers left competing.” Instead, his goal is to be among those 10 riders in each race that competitors have to plan for. “What’s made Dad so special in the sport is that he opens that window every year or two,” Mark says. “He makes more with less. For the rest of us, who are normal in their skill, ability, and understanding of horses, we have to wait for superstar outfits [horse teams] to come along to win big.” Mark has had extremely competitive years, and years that were tough, “without the horsepower and enough smarts to pull it together.” And although he makes jokes about it, he figures being a chuck wagon driver in Western Canada “is as good as being any basketball player or football player.” The family is active raising money for charitable causes in their region. Kelly notes that the sport carries a heavy financial burden, but being able to work so long with family has been gratifying. “I never pushed him into the sport, but I was always very thankful to spend that time with Mark and, as a result, have a very close bond with my grandchildren as well,” he says. “Most people quit this sport when they reach 50 or 55, because it’s very grueling on the body. I just have such a passion for the sport, I found the energy and the dedication to stay in. But I’m quite prepared to leave now.”

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H I S T O R Y

City in the Sky T H E E PIC , T R AGIC , A N D GL OR IOUS H I S T ORY OF S K Y C I T Y, A M E R ICA’ S OLDE S T T OW N.

By Clay Swartz

IXTY MILES WEST OF ALBUQUERQUE, HIDDEN

at the top of a dusty, rocky mesa worn down by millennia of rain and wind and footsteps, sits Sky City, the oldest continuously inhabited community in the country. The tiny town is the crown jewel of the ancient Acoma Pueblo Native American tribe. Today’s Acoma population may be small — about 5,000 people identify as members of the federally recognized tribe — but its back story is one of the most fascinating chapters in American Indian history. At left is an aerial photograph of the village and church at Acoma Pueblo, ca. 1928.

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Origin Story According to Acoma lore, the Pueblo’s roots trace back to a group of wanderers who were told by the gods to go south in search of refuge. Eventually, they found themselves in a glorious valley, looking up at picturesque sandstone bluffs. And that’s where they settled in 1150 A.D., building their village at the top of the area’s tallest mesa. They called it Acoma, meaning “a place prepared,” according to a popular interpretation. At 365 feet, its isolation provided the perfect defensive position against neighboring tribes, wildlife, and other 12thcentury dangers. Aside from the majestic setting, the village was and still is simple by architectural standards. The adobe brick homes are set up mostly in three rows of interconnecting three-story buildings. Each level connects via ladders, creating a confusing maze of residences that serve as the only way to enter the buildings. The only way up: a hand-carved staircase cut into the sandstone nearly 1,000 years ago. The village was perfect for a while as the Acoma people lived a peaceful life of solitude, farming corn, beans, squash, turkeys, and tobacco; hunting for antelope, deer, and rabbits; and gathering seeds, berries, nuts, and more. And that’s the way it stayed until the mid-16th century.

That chance meeting changed the Acoma. They learned new farming techniques from the Spanish and maintained a mutually advantageous relationship for a few decades. It didn’t last long. By 1598, the relationship with the Spaniards soured when the Acoma learned that a conquistador named Juan de Oñate declared his intent to colonize the Acoma land. In an effort to defend their homeland, the Acoma ambushed a group of Oñate’s men, killing 11 in the process. The fiasco didn’t end there. Oñate took revenge in grand fashion, attacking the Acoma with an army in a fierce threeday battle known as the Acoma Massacre, in which the Spanish all but destroyed the Acoma Pueblo and killed more than 600 people. After the pueblo surrendered, the nearly 500 survivors were put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced by Oñate to extreme punishments. Men and women between the ages of 12 and 25 got 20 years of slavery. Men over the age of 25 received forcible amputation of one foot. The pueblo’s boys and girls were put into the custodianship of various Catholic priests. By 1606, Oñate resigned from his post and was convicted of cruelty to natives and other colonists. He was banished from New Mexico. Unfortunately, getting rid of Oñate didn’t bring much peace to the Acoma people.

Troubled Relationships The first time the Acoma Pueblo had contact with the outside world was when Spanish explorers led by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado stumbled across the tiny outpost while heading north from Central America around 1540.

Introducing Catholicism By the early 1600s, the Acoma began rebuilding the pueblo but remained under Spanish rule. That meant Catholic missionaries were spreading to the area, and, in an attempt to convert the Indians, Acoma traditions were

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PHOTOGRAPHY: (PREVIOUS SPREAD) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, (THIS PAGE) COURTESY SKY CITY CULTURAL CENTER & HAAK’U MUSEUM

A modern-day view of Acoma Pueblo village and mission church from the east.

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The Modern Fight The colonization of America and later westward expansion of the country brought plenty of other changes to Acoma. The Acoma spent the 18th, 19th, and even early 20th centuries interacting and negotiating with different groups in a mighty struggle to retain their landholdings. In the 1920s, the All Indian Pueblo Council gathered to respond to congressional interest in appropriating Pueblo lands. That resulted in the U.S. Congress passing

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY SKY CITY CULTURAL CENTER & HAAKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;U MUSEUM

suppressed in favor of Catholic traditions. In fact, the Acoma were forced to formally adopt Catholicism. Most notably, the Spanish friar Juan Ramirez forced the Acoma people to build a massive church. The process included hauling trees, sand, and other construction materials from a local mountain up the steep walls to the top of the mesa. The result: San Estevan del Rey Mission, now a National Historic Landmark. While the site is impressive and remains a tourist destination to this day, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a sore reminder to the modern Acoma people of what their ancestors suffered through. All the while, the Acoma suffered high mortality from smallpox epidemics introduced by Europeans, as they had no immunity to such infectious diseases. Eventually, in 1680, American Indians all over New Mexico united to drive out Spaniards in a massive surprise attack, killing 400 Spaniards, and pushing the rest from the region entirely until the Spanish persuaded the pueblo at Santa Fe into a peace agreement in 1692.

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Original adobe structures in Acoma Pueblo have been updated with modern windows and doors.

the Pueblo Lands Act in 1924, a major win in the effort to retain their land. This allowed the Acoma Pueblo to start capitalizing even more on the ever-growing tourism trade opportunities. The most notable of these opportunities is the now-famous Acoma pottery. The art is highly sought after among collectors, and it remains a vital source of income and of cultural preservation for the Acoma. They also began charging tourists who wished to see the old village and the San Estevan del Rey church. In 2008, the Acoma opened the Sky City Hotel and Casino and the Sky City Cultural Center & Haak’u Museum for the nearly 50,000 annual sightseers that flock to see the Acoma Pueblo. Today, Acoma looks a lot like it did nearly 1,000 years ago. There’s the village on the top of the mesa where about a dozen families live full-time. The rest of the Acoma live in one of the surrounding communities, including Acomita and McCartys. In all, the Acoma Pueblo is now made up of 431,664 acres with about 250 homes. For centuries, the Acoma have fought to keep their culture alive, resisting all manner of invaders, from Spanish colonizers to westward expansion to the glow of technology. But at every turn, Sky City has persisted, and the mighty community shows no signs of giving in anytime soon. Sky City is open for walking tours. acomaskycity.org

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W E S T E R N

G O U R M E T

BA RT E N DE R A A RON KOLI T Z OF T H E T OW N S E N D C R E AT E S A T I PPLE T O C U T T H ROUGH T H E S E A S ON ’ S H E AT.

By José R. Ralat Photography by Robert Strickland

UMMER NEVER REALLY LEAVES

Texas. It sneaks up whenever it cares to. An 80-degree day in February is not unheard of, and winter hasn’t clocked into work the last couple of years. Still, there’s no doubt we’re in the thick of summer now. That’s why we’re recommending a cool summer tipple, the Millie Elise Sparkler. It comes courtesy of Aaron Kolitz, head bartender at The Townsend, an Austin cocktail lounge where custom-made fedoras and double Windsor knots are as common as slick cowboy boots and turquoise bolos. It was during a muggy late winter evening visit to The Townsend that I met Kolitz. He was slinging personalized cocktails with whimsical, perhaps double take-worthy names, such as the Mexican Standoff, when I charged him with concocting a mezcal-based drink. “Sweet, bitter, or savory?” he asked. “Surprise me,” I shot back. The result was a stellar, decompressing drink with spicy-sweet notes that broke through the post-storm humidity. 140

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After offering my compliments, I gave Kolitz another challenge: Create a cool, summertime cocktail exclusively for C&I readers. The result? The aforementioned Millie Elise Sparkler — named after the bartender’s niece — is a fresh, herbaceous sipper capped with Texas’ favorite ﬁzzy water, Topo Chico. Of the cocktail’s makeup, Kolitz says: “I like to use Cocchi Americano in summer cocktails because it’s light, refreshing, and has a hint of sweetness. It pairs well with a powerful gin like The Botanist, which has wonderful botanical notes and a slight saltiness to it. And infusing wildﬂower honey with tarragon balances out the cocktail and brings in a fun, grassy element.” Of course, sometimes simple is the recipe summer calls for. So we asked Kolitz what he drinks for a quick, casual cool-down. “A paloma would be what I’d be drinking in the summertime.” It’s an easygoing drink that can be mixed up in a jiffy and enjoyed lazily next to whatever watering hole you call your own. thetownsendaustin.com

1½ ounces Tequila Ocho Blanco (or preferred silver tequila) ½ ounce lime juice Grapefruit soda (such as Fresca or Squirt) Lime wedge, for garnish Pour tequila and lime juice into glass ﬁlled with crushed or cubed ice. Top with grapefruit soda, and garnish with a lime wedge.

1½ ounces The Botanist Islay Dry Gin (or preferred gin) 1 ounce Cocchi Americano Rosa Apertif ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice ¾ ounce premium honey or tarragon-infused honey (recipe follows) 3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters Topo Chico Lemon wheel, for garnish Tarragon sprig, for garnish

4 ounces honey 2 ounces water 2 tarragon sprigs (leaf and stem) For the honey: Heat the honey over medium heat until it becomes loose. Add water, and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and place tarragon in the honey and let cool to room temperature. Strain the tarragon out once cooled and hold in a container until needed. For the cocktail: Combine all ingredients except Topo Chico in a shaker tin with ice, and shake for 10 seconds. Strain into a Collins glass with fresh ice, and top with Topo Chico. Mix slowly with a straw or spoon to incorporate soda. Garnish with a lemon wheel and tarragon sprig.

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The Best Land Under Heaven MICHAEL WALLIS DEMYTHOLOGIZES THE DONNER PARTY’S GRUESOME TREK IN AN EXPANSIVE NEW HISTORY OF THE DOOMED JOURNEY — AND WESTWARD EXPANSION.

OST C&I READERS PROBABLY KNOW THE STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY.

Pioneers get stuck in snowstorm, run out of food, eat each other. That, of course, isn’t the whole story. In fact, it may not even be the most interesting part. In The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny (Liveright, 2017), historian Michael Wallis applies his grasp of the frontier attitude to the ill-fated venture and puts it in the context of the mid-19th-century United States’ westward expansion. Wallis specializes in examining America’s icons, dispelling inaccuracies while respecting the legends, in books such as Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride and Route 66: The Mother Road, the latter of which led to his voice role as Sheriff in the Cars movie series. One of the myths Wallis is eager to address is the cannibalism. Members of the Donner and James Reed families exhausted every possible food source before turning to frozen human corpses, he says. They first ate all their stock, oxen, horses, even dogs, then boiled oxen hides into a gelatinous “soup,” and even resorted to chewing pine bark. Even so, not all members ate human flesh. Further, the party did not kill anyone for food but rather harvested from people who’d already died — with one hideous exception, which Wallis describes unflinchingly in the context of the era’s generally accepted white supremacy. Two Miwok men sent to help were murdered and eaten by rogue members of the party. “The rationale was, ‘They were Indians, not humans, so we can do this,’ ” Wallis says. The author spoke by phone with C&I about what drew him to such a dark study of American expansion. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Cowboys & Indians: When did you first consider the Donner Party as a book subject? Michael Wallis: Around 2012 or 2013, I started talking about it with my agent, some of my editors, and, of course, my wife and partner, Suzanne Wallis, and decided it was a good subject. The way I work is I usually pick a subject — people, events, places, whatever — that have been totally wrapped up and tangled in myth and legend. ... I expose the truth without attacking the myth. Myth is very important, and I have nothing against myth, but I love to tell the real story, the more authentic story. ... All kinds of books have been written about the Donner Party, but once again, they jump to the most sensational part of the story, the inevitable cannibalism, the eating of the dead for these poor people to stay alive. Of course, that is an important part of the story. If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t know who these people were. ... What I

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHELLEE GRAHAM

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want people to know is who these people were, where they came from, what would possess the people from the nucleus of the party, the two Donner brothers [George and Jacob] and James Reed, to gather up their families and leave that great soil of the Land of Lincoln. ... They bought into the California dream. They bought into the myth. They bought into Manifest Destiny. These were the foot soldiers of Manifest Destiny. In telling their stories, I think we also expose the foibles, the folly, and often the arrogance of Manifest Destiny. C&I: Was it your plan all along to put it in the context of westward expansion? Wallis: That was my plan from the getgo, to tell the broad story and to point out some of the ironies too. ... One of James Reedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s young recruits that he wanted to come with him was in fact his young lawyer, who helped him through bankruptcy and everything, a man who wanted to go to California but his wife was pregnant and already had a toddler. They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go. And that was, of course, Abraham Lincoln. So those are the little twists of history that I always look for. C&I: One line in particular stuck out to me: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The entwining of religion with the ideology of Manifest Destiny served as a creation myth for the country. It soon became so ingrained in the national consciousness that many Americans still accept it to this day.â&#x20AC;? Wallis: There are a lot of lessons from this book that are relevant today, if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re open-minded enough to look at the big picture, if you care to make the comparisons. ... They really believed in their hearts that God gave these good people, these Anglo-Americans, the right to rule the continent. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Jesse Hughey Michael Wallis is on tour speaking about The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny. Visit splash. liverightpub.com/bestland for more information.

C O W B O Y

C O R N E R

In The Bunkhouse C

B O

D I A

WITH RED STEAGALL Ofﬁcial Cowboy Poet Of Texas

One More Lick When G.L. said he wouldn’t buck, I figured he would know. I needed one more pony in my string. He wasn’t very handsome, but didn’t have a choice, ’Cause I was just day workin’ in the spring. His coat was coarse and wiry, and his mane was knotted up. It took a whole cowhide to rig his head. He had a lil’ ol’ piggy eye and withers like a mule. He stood hip-shot, appeared to be half dead. We started on the Wichita just south of Cedar Top. I’se on the outside circle all alone. Was such a pretty mornin’, I was takin’ in the sights. I stopped to make myself a roll-your-own. I hardly even noticed when the covey flushed and flew. To him, it musta’ sounded like a gun. I was grabbin’ leather as my makin’s blew away. He lined out through the cedars on the run. We busted in the open to a little sagebrush flat. I thought I might as well enjoy the ride. I run my gut hooks in him, and he squealed just like a shoat. From that time on, I never touched his hide. Excerpted from Red Steagall’s book Ride for the Brand.

TV AND RADIO SCHEDULE Episodes of Red’s travel show, Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street, air Mondays at 9:30 p.m. EST on RFD-TV. Find out more about the TV program at rfdtv.com, and keep up with Red’s radio show, Cowboy Corner, at cowboycorner.com. 146

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RED STEAGALL: Dick, let’s talk about the horses that are making an impact now. DICK GAINES : Well, I think ... the Doc Bar/Little Peppy bloodline. Highbrow Cat’s doing a tremendous job [too], [along with] Dual Pep and CD Olena. Most of them today are just the next generation of the horses that made an impact 10 or 15 years ago. ... RED : Little Peppy. Mr. San Peppy and Peppy San are two horses that have made a tremendous impact. They both came out of Waggoner [Ranch] mares by Pep Up. ... He must have been a King Ranch horse. That would have been that kind of breeding. ... But those Waggoner mares must have been something else, Dick. Did you have any experience with a Waggoner mare? DICK: Not really. When I was a kid, the Waggoners had the reputation of having some of the best horses in the country, but I never did actually have any of them. I bred some mares later on for the Waggoner Ranch when Dick Yeager was their foreman. I helped them with their horse program, and they had some really nice cutting horses for a number of years. ... RED : When W.T. Waggoner went up the trail the first time with his daddy’s herd, he said, “Daddy bought the worst old horses he could possibly find. They weren’t worth a dime. And I made a promise to myself right then that one day I would raise the best horses in America.” DICK: I think he accomplished that. RED : He did accomplish [it], and his son E. Paul kept that up too. You know, Poco Bueno. I used to think Poco Bueno was the perfect image of a quarter horse. DICK: Well, probably Poco Bueno’s daughter, Poco Lena, was probably one of the most, if not the most, important mares in the cutting horse business. RED : And she only had two babies. DICK: Only had two babies. Both of them were futurity winners, and both of them were good sires. ... Through that one mare, Poco Bueno probably had as much influence on our industry as any other bloodline. RED : Well, I’ll tell you what, Tanqueray Gin was, of course, by Doc O’Lena, and I have a 22-year-old Tanqueray Gin that I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for. It’s the best saddle horse I’ve ever been on in my life. ... Now, how about Peptoboonsmal? DICK: You know, he was a futurity winner, and his colts. ... But, of course, every year is different. Something new will come and [they] probably won’t be as sought-after today as they were a year or two ago, but they’re good horses, and there will always be a demand for them.

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Bill Pickett Invitational Championship Rodeo Washington, D.C., 9/23 billpickettrodeo.com

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Cowboys & Indians ® July 2017, VOL. 25, NO. 5 (ISSN 1069-8876) is published eight times per year (January, February/March, April, May/June, July, August/September, October, November/December) by USFRSC Inc., 6688 N. Central Expressway, Suite 650, Dallas, TX 75206. Subscription in USA: $29.95. Other countries (to cover extra handling and postage): Canada $43.95, other foreign $49.95. Please provide payment in U.S. funds. Periodical postage paid at Dallas, Texas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Cowboys & Indians, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Copyright © 2017 by USFRSC Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication, including the cover, may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, in whole or in part without the prior written consent of the copyright owner. Cowboys & Indians assumes no responsibility for loss or damage of unsolicited material. Contributing authors agree to indemnify and protect the publishers from claims or actions regarding plagiarism. Material to be returned should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. We reserve the right to accept or reject, at our discretion, any advertisement. Cowboys & Indians is neither responsible for the statements of any advertiser nor the value or authenticity of items advertised within the publication. Cowboys & Indians ® is a registered trademark of USFRSC Inc. (US Trademark Reg. No. 2,540,455).

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PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY JOHN O’HARA

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Cowboys & Indians: Bonnie and Clyde like that, so there was that dance of death. Dallas International I think we had to do that twice, as I recall. was released in 1967, a watershed year for American movies. Were you aware at But it was — well, if I’m honest, the whole Film Festival the time that you were helping to usher notion of having to do the scene was in an era of less censorship and more not easy. Not because it was violent, but artistic freedom? because it was very intricate. Faye Dunaway: No, I don’t really think so. For me, it C&I: It’s been said that Bonnie and Clyde clicked with many was just some incredible experience. We knew it was a good moviegoers in 1967 because it tapped into the rebel- I C lious, anti-establishment mood of the time. But back in N O movie, and we knew that while working on the set. We knew W each day something was happening that was special. But we their own time, the real Bonnie and Clyde were revered as D B I folk heroes — like modern-day outlaws — by many people A O could never have guessed that it would be the beautiful, clasY sic film that it is. I’m very honored to be a part of it. Arthur N throughout the Southwest. S S Penn was such a great director. Warren Beatty — never under- Faye: I think some of that had to do with all those pictures estimate Warren Beatty. It was just a great experience all around. in the papers, and the stories about police trying to catch them C&I: It’s been said your favorite scene in Bonnie and Clyde is the and everything. It was that and their aspiration — their desire family reunion picnic, when Bonnie has what turns out to be to be somebody and to get away from this terrible Depression her last chance to talk with her mother. Is that true? Era life that they were living, when they didn’t have anything. Faye: Yes. I’ve been thinking a lot about that scene again, after No excitement, no love. seeing that film clip [during the DIFF tribute to screenwriter C&I: You later worked with director Arthur Penn on Little Big Robert Benton]. At first, I say something to the effect that I Man, a 1970 movie that he counted among his favorites. And thought we were going somewhere, but now we’re just going. you played quite the naughty lady in that one — a preacher’s And then you see me running into the cornfield, crying and sexually frustrated wife who becomes a prostitute. saying I want to see my family. And it leads to this foggy, kind Faye: [Laughs.] Mrs. Pendrake. She really was a delicious of mystical place that you can’t quite touch, you can’t quite get character. She just had all of this going on and really was very into. It was a brilliant scene, really. [Benton] tried to tell me cool toward this young man [played by Dustin Hoffman]. that was something that Arthur came up with, When she was a preacher’s wife, she liked it when there was so I’m glad that that happened. That temptation, and she could feel naughty, I suppose. But was a nice scene, a really special, when she didn’t like it, she literally became a prospoignant scene. titute, working in a brothel. It was a lovely part C&I: Would you say that — all to play, because it had that dichotomy. And things considered — Bonnie you could play those levels, where she’s very Parker really is the brains of attracted to Dustin, and she can’t take her the outfit? hands off him, and all that forbidden Faye: [Laughs.] She is, sort of thing. yeah. She’s kind of the C&I: And she eventually guts too. becomes a kind of outlaw. C&I: The violent climax Faye: Yes. Just like Bonnie. of the film, where Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are THE SCENE OF THE gunned down by the police, CRIME: Faye Dunaway is still quite shocking. When received the prestithe day came to shoot that gious Dallas Star scene — did you dread it? Award for Lifetime Faye: Oh, it wasn’t anything Achievement during like that. I mean, it was intense. the 2017 Dallas There were little charges sewed International Film into my dress with invisible wires Festival. Not incioff camera, and they were detdentally, Bonnie and onated whenever the wires were Clyde was filmed pripulled. I had to look like I was marily in and around taking the impact of the bullets Dallas in 1967. 152

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ILLUSTRATION: JONATHAN FEHR

Faye Dunaway