MEMORIES OF THE

2008 MONTANA WILD WEST FEST

IT WAS THE WESTERN EVENT THE YEAR!

 August 9th and 10th, 2008 at the Historic Kleffner Ranch

The Montana Wild West Fest was relocated, in 2008, to its new, permanent home at the Historic Kleffner Ranch in East Helena.  It was a change for the better and The Fest was AWESOME!

The renovated Basement of the Historic Barn hosted Western Vendors and the Montana Antique Bottle Collectors Exhibit

The Main Floor of the Historic Barn, during the day, was home to The Quilt Show

As well as a variety of Western Entertainers

                Jim Jones                        Gary Ellestad and The Wild                 The Desert Divas   

                                                                    West Singers  

          Larry Gibson, Western Entertainer and

                                         Sound Man Extraordinaire

Along With Performances by ........

John Ulberg and Roy Pace, Cowboy Poets

Gary Ferguson, Western Singer

Book Signings with Authors Ellen Baumler, Kelly Flint and Liz Tobel

Story Telling by Ellen Baumler

At night, the main floor of the barn transformed into the setting for

The Frontier Ball

Over 4,000 square feet of new barn floor was put to good use at The Ball

                        Caller Rab Cummins and the AM String Band kept our feet tappin' and the music rollin'

Portraits by Bob Burke were a nice extra!

Both days of The Fest featured living history exhibits that were interesting, educational and entertaining

The U.S. Second Cavalry and Camp Courage were in full regalia with their new howitzer,  thrilling the audience with periodic demonstrations of its firepower

Also present were exhibits of Blacksmithing, Steam Operated engines, Frontier Encampments

and the Northwest Aside performance group

Food was plentiful with the Chuckwagon Cafe serving-up lunch and dinner, Big Daddy's Bar-B-Q and the Chili Cook-off          

The big crowd pleasers were our Western Re-Enactments.  This year our outdoor performances were exceptional with over 52 re-enactors joining together for performances laced with drama, humor and big shootouts!  Many thanks to The Queen City Belles and Gunfighters, The Dillon Just-Us Gunfighters, The Missouri Breaks Gang and The Montana History Live Re-Enactors as well as all those renegade independents out there!

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the 2008 Fest.  We hope to see you next year and until then...

Happy Trails !

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                                                                       THE MONTANA LIVING HISTORY PROGRAM

                                                                                             P.O. Box 9624   

                                                                                   Helena,  Montana  59604                

                                                      Phone:  (406) 458-3700   E-mail:  contact@montanalivinghistory.org