Kanab’s Wild West Fest, celebrating America’s “reel” Western heritage
Kanab’s Wild West Fest, supported entirely by local sponsors, keeps the traditions of Western Legends Round Up alive. The show went on primarily centered around the Little Hollywood Museum.
Left to right, photos by Jerry Melrose:
Dr. Buck addresses his enraptured audience with his tell-all tales of life on the film set.
Tom B. Stone presenting his Fire Whip routine.
Thursday’s opening night festivities focused on the Redstone Theater’s presentation of the classic “Tombstone” film, featuring a special star in the person of actor Peter Sherako, who played the role of Texas Jack Vermillion in it. There was a Q&A pan el discussion with such mainstays as Patrick Wayne, Wyatt McCrea, Rudy Ramos and Darby Hinton on Friday evening’s live Old Time Radio Show, as well as meet and greet autograph sessions prior to the evening’s closing Chuck Wagon Dinner.
In the Parry Lodge Barn cowboy poets and storytellers Andy Nelson, Sam DeLeeuw and Michael Schoenfeld held down the fort. Across the street, at the Kanab Visitors Center, a quilt show was on display. Giddy Up Round UP Kids Korral activities and Contests were available for the young’uns, and, of course, what would it have been without the gun-slingin’ fun of Dr. Buck’s Wild West Stunt Shows throughout? He and his raucously loyal band of stuntmen and atmospheric roaming actors have in one incarnation, or another, been gracing the legendary sods for the last two decades.
Dr. Buck Montgomery shared, “My gosh! I believe I came up here for 19 or 20 years, and I’m so happy that the community embraced [me] and said, ‘come on back!’ So much so that I actually live up here now. So, I’ve been up here for three years, and I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to keep working with this. It’s going to keep getting better, and different each year, so that guests have some surprises. So, thank you!”
