Ray Lashley. Photo by Wes Allen, Museum of Western Colorado

Ray was born and raised on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks at a time and place where horses or mules were about the only source of power and transportation. They raised cattle and hogs and feed for them. There was an “Open Range Law” in effect so their cattle had a lot of room to roam and a lot of places to hide. Tending them took a lot of their time. His first job for pay was driving a four-horse team hitched to a log wagon. At about age 14 Ray was on a short (60 mile) trail drive when the only way to move stock was by train or trail drive. There were no trucks or stock trailers. Ray always did like working with horses better than with other types of stock. That’s probably why he’s been raising horses since 1970.

Ray joined the Navy at 18 and found out that a man could make a living without working as hard as the stockmen back home, so he learned to spell “injuneer” and they let him be one. But, as they say, you can’t take the country out of the boy so he managed to stay in touch with some part of the stock world (mostly horses) while he pursued a career as a weapon testing engineer. From 1969 to 1994 they owned and lived on a twenty three acre place near the east shore of the Great Salt Lake raising Appaloosa horses. (One of them ran no worse than second in eight out of nine races and won five of them.) After they sold out in ‘94 they traveled some, then, in early ‘95, moved lock, stock and horses onto the five acre place in Grand Junction, Colorado, where they live now.

Ray was eight or nine years old when he drove that four-up hitched to that log wagon and got a whole thirty-five cents a day for doing it. Tractors were almost unknown — automobiles were rare enough that they stopped work long enough to marvel at them on the one or two times a week one chanced to go by. It was not at all uncommon in that time and place for an eight-year-old to handle a team and work in the fields and woods. Ray feels extremely lucky to have grown up when and where he did.

Ray has been invited to perform in the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering for many years. Without repeating a poem he can recite from memory something over 3 hours of poetry — mostly cowboy poems by old poets.

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Susie Knight. Photo provided by Susie Knight

Susie has been writing cowboy songs and poetry since age 15. True-life experiences are her source for story-like cowboy poetry and western songs. Inspired by rodeo legend, Chris LeDoux, Susie’s style captures a woman’s perspective on rodeo, ranch life, and horses.

Raised in the Chicago suburbs, Susie Knight was a “cowgirl” from age three when she rode a pony for the first time at a Wisconsin dude ranch. Her birthday wishes to own a horse finally came true when she turned 15. For the next 30 years, she owned AQHA horses, was privately trained in Western riding and Dressage for over 15 years, competed in horse shows and rodeos, and enjoyed trail riding. She’s worked on ranches as a wrangler, horse trainer, ranch hand, and trail guide in Illinois, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Colorado. Currently, she schools horses for private owners near Denver, Colorado, lends a hand with a neighbor’s cattle in the summers, and is the Kids’ Camp Instructor for the Bear Creek Stables in Morrison, Colorado.

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Chris Isaacs. Photo provided by Chris Isaacs

Chris is a poet/storyteller who has lived the life that he tells about. He has Cowboy’d for most of his 60-plus years, and his poems and stories are alive with the heart and humor of life from a cowboy’s point of view. He can usually find the funny side of any situation, and is considered by many to be one of the finest humorists in the country.

Chris has worked at many different aspects of the cowboy life from being a full time working cowboy, to rodeoing, to horseshoer, to many years as a packer. Semi-retired now, he still takes care of a little bunch of cows for the 9 Cross ranch near home. All of these things have given him lots of material for his poems and stories.

He is a three-time winner of the Academy of Western Artists “Will Rogers” Award, (96-97 & 02) the 2004 Wickenburg AZ Western Heritage Award; 2005 found him the recipient of the prestigious Arizona Cowboy Poetry Gathering’s Gail I. Gardner Award, and was chosen as an Arizona Culture Keeper in 2009.

A favorite with the other performers because of his good natured teasing of them and of himself on stage, Chris has worked with most of the top acts in the Cowboy genre. Now days when he isn’t on the road to perform at another show or banquet you will usually find him surrounded by a bunch of grandkids at the home place in Eagar AZ.

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Tom and Donna Hatton. Photo provided by the Hattons

Tom and Donna own and operate The Hatton Ranch located between Denver and Colorado Springs. They recently protected their historic ranch with a Palmer Land Trust conservation easement.

“This ranch is the place where Tom came as a child and brought me as a bride; we raised our kids on it. Our hearts and souls are in it. Memories are everywhere you turn, and [the conservation easement] is what’s giving us that edge to stay in it,” Donna said. “I started hearing the stories about the people that lived here, going back even to the prehistoric Indians-the Utes and Arapahoe. I loved those stories, and the kids and I would hike this area and find arrowheads. That’s when I thought, ‘Here are these stories. You can read things in history books, but I’ve got history right here. And if I don’t write it, it’ll be gone.’”

They are performing members of the Academy of Western Artists and the Western Writers of America. They won the 2005 Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists for their CD Whispers of Voices. They also have another CD, Silver Shadows.

The Hatton Ranch is located on the Gold Belt Byway, one of Colorado’s 25 Scenic and Historic Byways and exemplifies the ranching heritage of the area. Today, the land is used for grazing cattle and horses. It has been in family ownership for over fifty years. Fourmile Creek, which cuts directly through the entire property, provides the water necessary to irrigate the large hay fields on the valley floor of the ranch.

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

We have our National Fossil Day 2011 Coloring Contest Winners!

The 2-4 age group:

Connor

The 5-7 age group:

Eli

The 8-14 age group had 3 winners!:

Armando

Brooke

Heidi

A huge thanks to everyone who entered!

Slim Farnsworth. Photo by Wes Allen, Museum of Western Colorado

Slim is rapidly becoming a household name in the world of cowboy poetry. Slim paints a vivid picture of the west and the ornery characters who live there. His stories range from rural directions to CPR on mangy old heifers. If you want to laugh ’till yer innards hurt, Slim is your guy.

Slim was born and raised in the mountains of Western Colorado. He spent his childhood working the family ranch with his granddad, and building roads with his dad. Slim understands the cowboy in all their gritty glory. From the lowliest saddle tramp, to the ranch owner. His vivid descriptions and colorful antics bring the west to life. Slim currently resides in Crawford, Colorado with his dogs. Slim works full time as a Paramedic and dedicates the rest of his time to entertaining the hard working folks of the west.

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Nona Kelley Carver. Photo from www.cowboypoetry.com

Nona was born in Colorado, and lives in the beautiful Grand Mesa area of Western Colorado. During part of her early years, she lived well beyond the electric lines in a cabin built of logs. She learned to read by the light of a kerosene lamp and rode horseback to school.

She married Alfred Carver in 1953. They began ranching at Mesa, Colorado, purchasing land that had been in the Carver family for three generations. They operated a dairy, and also raised beef cattle. It was here that their two sons were raised.

Nona’s ranching experience shows in her work that she refers to as “fiction with a few facts thrown in.” Her work has been published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies, and has spread from Australia to Amsterdam. Her major books in print are: Carver Country Christmas, Spoken Songs from My Soul, Cowboys, Cookstoves, and Catastrophes and Carver Country Cowboys. She has also recorded two CDs of poetry. The first is titled Reflective Moods, and features her most serious work. The second, titled Carver Country Poetry contains the funniest poetry she has written. She also publishes CarverCards, a line of greeting cards for family and friends.

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Floyd Beard. Photo from www.floydbeardcowboy.com

Floyd was born and raised in New Mexico and Colorado and attended college in Fort Collins, Colorado. His life-long dream was always to be a cowboy, and that was what he did as soon as he felt that he could. First he spent a stint as an ag teacher in Oak Creek, CO. Then they moved back to Delta County and began to ranch. Some of their early experiences are recorded in his poem “Diversify”. From there they went through bankruptcy and ended up as teachers and have spent their lives educating. He is now in Punkin Center in the eastern part of Colorado. A good place to be if you like wide open space! Floyd works for South Central BOCES out of Limon, and his wife, Valerie, works for Agate Schools.

Floyd and his wife Valerie have two kids, Laneha and Justin, who have grown up with a love of agriculture. They both enjoyed 4-H and FFA growing up and attended college at Oklahoma State University, both graduating with Animal Science degrees. Laneha has moved back to Colorado and currently lives with her husband and his family on their ranch and feedlot south west of Pritchett. Laneha has been very instrumental in an award-winning heritage tourism project in southeastern Colorado. Justin recently went to work managing a ranch above Aguilar.

Floyd’s philosophy is as follows: “A bad day of cowboy’n is better than the best day at the office.”

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Al Albrethsen. Photo by Wes Allen, Museum of Western Colorado

Al grew up on farms and ranches in southern Idaho, including the ranch in the Wood River valley that his grandfather homesteaded in the 1890s. During World War II he served as a bombardier on B-29s in the China-Burma-India and Pacific theatres. He later received a law degree from the University of Idaho, having worked as a ranch hand during summers between school terms.

Al came to Grand Junction in 1955 as a lawyer for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He retired in 1981 as Chief Counsel for the Department of Energy’s Grand Junction Office and resumed his hobby of putting stories into verse. Most of Al’s poems are true stories (sometimes embellished a bit) about the farmers and ranchers he grew up among.

Somewhere along the line Al learned to play a pretty mean harmonica (that’s a hifalutin term for a mouth harp) and he sometimes throws in a tune or two along with the poems. It’s loads of fun when Al and Peggy Malone team up on a lively jig!

Join us for our annual Grand Junction Cowboy Poetry Gathering, November 4 and 5. Read more about our poets here and you’ll find the schedule here.

Dreamers and doers: The first 30 years of Grand Junction, Part 2

Cultural interests were catered to early on with plays, musical performances and other entertainment. The town also hosted traveling professional performers. The Floradora Girls and Harry Houdini were particularly popular acts staged at the Park Opera House, with tickets priced between 50 cents and $1.50. Organizations such as the Coronet Band, 20 plus men who performed around the Western Slope, and the Amazon Guards, obvious in local parades as an all-woman auxiliary of Grand Junction’s local chapter of the Colorado State Militia, formed. The Modern Woodman Military Band was composed of union members: printers and railroad men. A uniformed Ladies Columbine Band was also a popular attraction. The Independence Day parades, as well as others, were well attended. Many cultural and educational venues were direct results of the establishment of schools…

Read more of the October Local Lore here. Thanks to the Beacon Magazine for sharing.