He's the sort of Christmas cowpoke who stirs his whiskey with a candy cane and totes goodies in a burlap saddlebag.
So when Claus made his big entrance at the eighth annual Old West Christmas Fest, he dressed the part - curly white beard and hair under a well-worn cowboy hat, a red flannel shirt, chaps and mud-pipe boots.
“I want a puppy,” said one smiling little girl, who thanked Claus after climbing down from his leather-clad lap.
But, true to the Old West motif, not everyone was on their best behavior.
Fish Bait Kate, Sure Shot Shorty, Cole Younger and the Bitterroot Kid had a shootout in the city center, ducking into canvas tents and a boot-shaped outhouse for cover. The gunslingers were shooting blanks, of course, but that didn't save Fish Bait's dress, the pleats of which got caught in the line of fire.
“That ain't no way to treat a lady,” Kate shouted at Younger, who didn't miss a beat before drawling, “You ain't a lady.”
Onlookers might have found some consolation, or at least a semblance of order, in the signs that read “No Parking in Gun Fightin' Area,” but their contentment surely went to pot after espying another sign outside of the Packer's Roost tent: “Out Robbing the Bank. Back in 5 Minutes.”
Fortunately, the town's sheriff, Jim Anderson, was posted out nearby.
“I'm just here to make sure nobody gets out of line. If they get too rowdy, we throw 'em in the hoosegow,” said Anderson, using an old cowboy slang term for “jail.”
One cowboy, Tom Black, a former professional basketball player who stands nearly 7 feet tall, threw hatchets at a target 40 feet from where he stood, never missing the mark.
Black said he started throwing hatchets and knives as a young man. He was playing ball for the Seattle Supersonics, and found that he'd get awfully bored in the off-season.
“All I did in the summer was work out, and I needed something to do, so a buddy and I started throwing hatchets,” Black said. “It's just a thing of relaxation that I do. It's just like throwing horseshoes. It gets to be addictive.”
As novice throwers, Black and his friend would take turns throwing hatchets at an old fir tree in the backyard. Every time they made the target, the thrower would put a dollar in a can, and when the fir tree fell, to the winner went the spoils.
“It took about two years before he took that last throw and, by god, it was coming right at us,” Black recalls. “He got the money, but we sat down and drank a bottle of champagne on top of that tree. That's a fun way to do it.”
Eventually, Black started competing in mountain man competitions, making good money - better than what he was paid as a player.
“That was before you could get rich playing basketball,” he said.
Black instructed some of the older children with their throwing techniques, and said he's watched several of them turn into pretty strong throwers over the years.
“It's not too Christmas-y, but it's neat watching these kids come back every year and they're stronger,” he said.
Rob Henrekin drove a rugged team of Percheron draft horses around town, offering free stagecoach rides to festivalgoers who sipped hot cider or cocoa in the balmy weather and noshed Christmas cookies.
Kathy Schoendoerfer, aka Fish Bait Kate, helped organize the first Christmas Fest eight years ago, but said the party gets better with age.
“This is the best year we've had,” she said. “People are having a ball, it's not subzero, it's great.”
And while most of Christmas Fest's activities are decidedly unorthodox, 8-year-old Brady Stone said his favorite part of the two-day event was building gingerbread houses, though he admitted to nibbling away at the foundation.
A Powell County sheriff's deputy played Christmas music over the PA system of his patrol car, while Sara Boyett offered insight and warmth inside the tiny Brand Bar Museum, which she runs in the little town of less than 75 people, whose backyard is the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
“It's nice being able to step back in time,” she said.
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Chris wrote on Nov 30, 2008 8:24 AM: