Emery County Historical Society held their annual Cowboy Poetry night at Castle Valley Outdoors, a resort near Emery on Aug. 27. The Woody Johnson family owns Castle Valley Outdoors, with James Fauver as the manager.
A partly cloudy sky and warm evening welcomed the members of the Historical Society as they gathered on the lush lawn beside the lodge with the sky reflecting off the lake in the background.
Susanne Anderson, President of the Emery County Historical Society, welcomed everyone and introduced the Haywire band consisting of Kevin Peacock from Orangeville, Jay Frandsen from Castle Dale, Darla Davis from Gordon Creek, and Bob Baker from Emery. The Cowboy Poets introduced were Jim Jennings, Shem Guymon, Darce Guymon, and Justin Jennings from Cleveland and Kent Petersen from Ferron.
Former Emery County Commissioner Kent Petersen was the Master of ceremonies for this exciting evening of entertainment.
Anderson called upon Bernice Payne to give an appreciation award to Petersen for helping with master of ceremonies at the Cowboy Poetry Programs over several years. Payne told a brief story about Petersen and how when the chores were done he would disappear, from his wife, into a tree to write poetry.
Petersen related a story of his wife visiting in St. George, where she asked her grandson for a newspaper.The grandson said, “Grandma this is the 21st century we do not get the paper. Here is my I pad. Golly, she killed that fly.
“We may have had a little flooding here lately and that reminds me of a lawyer and an engineer sitting on a Caribbean beach comparing notes. The lawyer said I am down here because we had a big fire at our place, burned everything. I lost everything. So I took part of the insurance money and I am down here enjoying myself for a little while. The engineer said that is a real coincidence. We had a flood at my place. I got washed out and lost everything. The insurance money is paying my way down here too. The lawyer asked how do you start a flood?”
Haywire provided an assortment of Country Western Music with songs like “Ghost Riders, in the Sky”, “Down on The Farm where you won’t see two roosters walking arm in arm”, “You’re as Sweet as Tennessee Whiskey, You’re as Sweet as Strawberry Wine” and “Getting Old ain’t for Sissies.”`
The cowboy poets from Cleveland and Ferron provided great entertainment for a crowd of about 100 people with outstanding stories of bucking broncs, St. Peter at the pearly gates and the last roundup. One of those poems was titled “A Good Horse.” In the story the horse was learning how to buck faster than the rider was learning how to ride.
This entertaining program was equally interlaced with a combination of great Western music and outstanding Cowboy Poetry.
As the evening progressed the setting sun’s red and golden rays reflected off a bank of Eastern clouds surrounding the rising moon was very picturesque.
A tasty dish of Dutch oven peach cobbler and cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream followed the entertainment and was a sweet way to top off the evening.
Cooks for the evening were Troy Anderson and Wade Allinson.
Joyce Staley helped dish up the dessert for the cowboy poetry audience.
Cowboy poetry event at Castle Valley Outdoors
"Shem Guymon tells cowboy poetry."