Festival celebrates the Old West
By Joseph M. Dougherty
Editor in Chief
There were battle reenactments, wanted posters, Union soldiers, trick roping, mountain men and even Aggie Ice Cream at the Festival of the American West.
This year’s festival, held for the fifth consecutive year at the American West Heritage Center, allowed common folk to catch a glimpse into life of an age passed.
Add to that a Dutch oven chuck wagon dinner which received rave reviews, and the festival becomes an event not to be missed.
“Ian Tyson said these were the best spare ribs he’s ever had,” said JoAnn Poulsen, executive assistant at the festival.
Tyson is a traditional country singer from Canada who performed during the nine-day annual festival which ran from July 26 to Aug. 3.
Poulsen said participants in the festival came from California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and throughout Utah.
One of the rookies of the event is Benny Martinez who hails from California. Martinez performed trick roping with his horse Napoleon. Although he is not a stranger to performing, Martinez said he considers himself a rookie at the festival because he has been participating for only five years.
Martinez learned roping from his father while growing up on a farm in New Mexico. He has since participated in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. for the past 22 years, following the six-mile parade route on his horse.
Martinez said the Festival of the American West is one of the best of its kind.
“I’ve done shows in regular schools and cities, and they are nothing like this,” he said.
Poulsen sometimes received unusual requests as she made her way around the festival.
“Can you help a poor, old Indian pull a handcart,” asked George Knowlden, one of the staff who worked at a mountain-man encampment.
Poulsen respectfully declined, laughing as Knowlden continued on to the encampment area.
After passing the tomahawk throwing area, one arrived at the Great West Pavilion, which housed entertainment by singers and dancers each day of the festival.
Two performers were Jim and Jeanne Martin, who performed western cowboy music for the second year at the festival. On closing day, they were packing up and selling a few more CDs to fans.
“We sing in the style of singing cowboys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry,” Jim said.
Poulsen said the Martins were invited because they are popular with the audiences.
“We requested them because they are crowd-pleasers,” Poulsen said.
And similar to the City of Logan and the Utah State University campus, which are under construction, near the pavilion stands a log cabin being constructed as part of the pioneer encampment.
Poulsen said homesteaders settling the West were required to build a cabin measuring 12 feet by 12 feet to claim a plot of land. As time passed, homesteaders continued to make additions to their log homes, often on a yearly basis. The log cabin at the festival served as an example of how log homes came together.
Continuing down the hill toward a group of teepees, attendees came upon Rios Pacheco, a Shoshone descendant, sitting in the shade of a canopy and surrounded with Native American artifacts, traditional trinkets, drums, dolls and feathered hats.
Pacheco recounted the story of an ancestor, Techdamackey, who survived a massacre in Preston, Idaho in January 1863.
The massacre arose out of a conflict between settlers and Native Americans in which settlers killed two Native Americans. Later, in retribution, two white settlers were killed. After word arrived in Fort Douglas that white settlers were killed, Col. Patrick Connor gave orders for an attack to be made on the Native Americans on Jan. 29, Pacheco said.
He said the attack, although horrible, happened at a time when the fewest possible people were present. The winter celebration had already ended and family and friends who were there had already left.
Poulsen said Pacheco is someone who has great knowledge about Native Americans and their traditions. She said the festival for her started off as something fun to be involved in back in 1991, but has since become more important.
“It has become like a family reunion,” she said. “These are wonderful people.”
-jmdo@cc.usu.edu