25th cookoff to be held here Saturday

The Saints’ Roost Museum will hold its 25th annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff this Saturday, September 28, with a big celebration that includes two performances by Red Steagall.

Tickets for the cookoff are sold out, according to museum officials. Admission is free, however, for the other activities at the museum Saturday including live entertainment, museum tours, and the Western tradeshow.

The wagon teams will arrive Friday to host area students for a day of learning about the chuckwagon and cooking the cowboy-way. Friday afternoon will also include the junior cookoff, which pairs kids, ages 8-17, with mentors on participating wagon teams to learn the ropes of cooking over an open fire.

The tradeshow Saturday starts at 10 a.m., and museum tours will be available throughout the day. Local and area entertainers will also be performing.

The authentic wagons will serve at 1 p.m. with the traditional chicken fried steak dinner, and other activities will include a hay auction and the Goodnight family reunion.

Later that afternoon, Steagall will take the stage at the Mulkey Theatre at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., marking his first return to Clarendon since he headlined the first Chuckwagon Cookoff in 1995.

For more than 50 years, Steagall has entertained around the globe as a recording artist, songwriter, television, radio, and motion picture personality and cowboy poet. In 1991, the Texas State Legislature selected him as the “Official Cowboy Poet of Texas.”

He launched his one hour syndicated radio show, Cowboy Corner. Critics across America have referred to Cowboy Corner as “masterful.” Heard in about 155 markets in 34 states, Cowboy Corner is in its 26th year of broadcast.

Steagall has has been recognized with 12 Wrangler Awards for music and televison from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

He has published four books, and for his significant contribution to the western way of life, he was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame in October of 1999. In addition to numerous other awards and honors, he was most recently presented in 2018 with the Golden Spur Award from the National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University.

Steagall’s appearance, hosted by the Museum and the Mulkey Theatre, is designed to help raise funds for a new transportation exhibit building at the Museum and to benefit the theatre.

Tickets to see Steagall are $50 each and are still available for each show through the Visitor Center at 806-874-2421 or online at MulkeyTheatre.com. Tickets will also be available the day of the show.