Dateline: September 22, 2005

Fourteen wagons ready for competition here

By Roger  Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Fourteen wagons will be rolling into Clarendon this weekend for the eleventh annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff to be held September 23-24 at the Saints’ Roost Museum.

The second annual Saints’ Roost Gun & Knife Show will again accompany the Cookoff and is the opening activity for the event, opening Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Clarendon Community Center. Admission is free with a cookoff ticket or $3 at the door.

Friday evening on the museum grounds is an exclusive members-only Dinner With The Cooks that starts at 6:30 p.m. 

On Saturday, the gates will open at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast and lunch concessions provided by Boy Scout Troop 433. The tradeshow starts at 10 a.m., and museum tours will be available throughout the day. The gun show will resume at 9 a.m. at the Community Center.

Patrick Robertson and KEFH-FM will provide music at 11 a.m. on the museum grounds.

Live entertainment follows with afternoon performances scheduled by Audrey Brown of Clarendon; the Saints’ Roost Jamboree Band; music by Katie Askew, Dan Hall, Chandra Holman, Amber Gatlin, Tracey Rhodes, and Bill Houston, all of Clarendon; Delbert Trew of Alanreed; cowboy poet Oscar Auker of Clarendon; Andi and Alex Kitten of Lubbock; and Payton Kane of Dodson.

The Chuckwagon meal will be served at 5 p.m. with a menu of chicken fried steak, potatoes, beans, and cobbler.

At 6:30, the museum will raffle off a pair of James Owens Handmade Boots, followed by the presentation of the cookoff awards.

Admission to the all-day event is free. Tickets for the authentic Chuckwagon supper are $10 each and can be purchased in advance at Henson’s in Clarendon by calling 806/874-3517.

Boot tickets are also available at Henson’s or from any museum board member.

On Sunday morning, cowboy church will be held under the tent at the museum with preaching by Shannon Hall of Loco, Okla.

Proceeds from the cookoff and the gun show benefit the Museum’s continuing efforts to preserve the history of Donley County.