Serving the High Plains
link QCS Photo: Steve Hansen
Randy Mackey sings one of his original songs with help from “Rodeo Kate” Howell-Chapman, who shared the stage with several performers Saturday at the Cowboy Gathering in Nara Visa.
QCS Staff
Nara Visa hosted another easy-going roundup of cowboy singers and poets Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the annual Cowboy Gathering.
A total of 77 persons, not including the 27 performing acts, attended the concerts and 120 persons lined up for the annual chuck wagon steak dinner prepared again this year by Rhett Cauble and his family from Amarillo, Texas.
“We had an unusually talented group of performers this year,” Teressa Bruhn, one of the event’s organizers, said.
Performers ranged in age from nine years to 85 and came from as far away as east of Oklahoma City and central Texas, she said.
R.W. Hampton, who has performed cowboy songs around the world and won awards for preserving Western music, sang some selections on the stage of the Nara Visa School Community Center, surrounded on stage by fellow performers and in front of an enthusiastic audience.
In another highlight of the annual event, Jim Payne of Logan was honored with the Buck Ramsey Heritage Award, which is presented every year to a ranch, family or individual who best demonstrates western values.
Payne, 90, has done ranch work since the 1930s, working several ranches in the Logan area.
He has been a deputy brand inspector since 1957, Bruhn said, and in 2005, he was named brand inspector of the year, the first deputy brand inspector of the year, Bruhn said. Deputy brand inspectors are part-time employees, Bruhn said.