Led by head cook Nickey O’Neal, the team had the first place beans and potatoes as well as first place in Overall Cooking on the way to racking up enough points to win the Best Overall award.
Officials with the Saints’ Roost Museum, which sponsors the event, were pleased with this year’s cookoff, but attendance was down this year. The museum sold 415 tickets to the cookoff and served 400 people.
“We had a lot of tickets that were not sold until that morning,” said museum board member Lindy Craft, who felt that there may have been too many things going on Saturday.
“There were three other events that just sort of popped up on the calendar two weeks before the cookoff,” Craft said. “We’re a small town, and we all need to work together if these events are going to be successful.”
The third annual Junior Cookoff the day before the big event drew seven contestants, who were paired with experienced wagon teams to prepare potatoes for the cooks’ dinner Friday night. Jayden Bressler from Happy won first place with his own recipe and was teamed with the Honey-Do Spoiler Cooking Team. Kade Hunsaker of Clarendon was second with the Bar H Dude Ranch Cooking Team, and Darcie Hunsaker of Clarendon was third with the Rising W Cooking Team.
Following the Junior Cookoff, an estimated 135 people enjoyed a delicious steak dinner Friday night on the museum grounds. The invitation-only event was held exclusively for Chuckwagon teams and members of the Museum and their families.
The trade show was held throughout the day, and live entertainment was provided. Museum tours were led by the Clarendon High School Junior Historians. Relatives of Chuckwagon inventor Charles Goodnight also were present for their annual reunion.
Ten wagons served a menu of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, beans, and cobbler. Prizes totaling $3,250 were paid out to the winners.
Complete results were:
Overall Wagon & Cooking: 1) CO Ranch of Quanah.
Overall Cooking: 1) CO Ranch, 2) Rising W Chuckwagon of Happy, 3) Cross Wagon of Vega, and 4) T Half Circle of Silverton.
Best Wagon & Camp: 1) C4B Chuckwagon of Amarillo, 2) J Bar D Ranch of Amarillo, 3) T Half Circle, and 4) Honey-Do Spoiler of Pampa.
Best Meat: 1) Rising W, 2) Cross Wagon, 3) Honey-Do Spoiler, and 4) J Bar D.
Best Beans: 1) CO Ranch, 2) T Half Circle, 3) HX Ranch of Lubbock, and 4) Rising W.
Best Potatoes: 1) CO Ranch, 2) Rising W, 3) HX Ranch, and 4) T Half Circle.
Best Bread: 1) C4B, 2) Cross Wagon, 3) T Half Circle, and 4) Rising W.
Best Dessert: 1) Rising W, 2) CO Ranch, 3) C4B, and 4) Cross Wagon.
Wagon Judges this year were selected by the teams from among themselves, and Food Judges were under the direction of Tashia Duncan.
Wes Thomas was the winner of the Kevin Johnson merchandise, and George Hall won the James Owens Handmade Boots.
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