Last weekend, cowboys from across the country gathered for the 7th annual Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous where musicians and artisans presented their work based on western themes in Hyrum, Utah.
“I’m Allen Chenworth. I do the gold panning. Basically we take some sand and we put in a little bit of gold. We actually use fool's gold and we take it in the pan and shake it up to let the heavy stuff settle. We put it back in the water and we just run the water off the top of the sand. So that it washes off the top layer of sand, one layer at a time until you get down to whatever gold might be at the bottom of the pan. Hopefully there’s a nice nugget down there.”
“I’m Vikki this is my husband Glen," Vikki said. "We love the music. We love country music and it’s just what we do.”
“This is just our lifestyle,” Glen said.
“I’m Lyle Gittens. I do hand metal artwork. I will take and cut them out, hand trace them on a piece of steel and then cut them out with a handheld plasma and clean them up. And then heat them to bring the colors out of it. My wife just came up with the idea of tracing little animals out and hand cutting them out. I came up with the idea of cleaning them up and doing what I could to them.”
“Every time I come here I get so invigorated for my own music," Anita Craine said. "I love taking pictures of everybody and I just love the performances-- They’re amazing. My name is Anita Craine and I’m from Park City, Utah.”
“My name’s Amanda Cowan. I paint western paintings and oils and water colors. I get my inspiration from my family and where I live. I live on a ranch in Wyoming and I paint my husband and my brother in law and sister in law and their kids. I take my camera out when we’re working cows and take a million pictures and paint what I love.”
A glimpse into the sounds of a cowboy gathering, where winter weather forces artisans, poets and musicians to gather in a high school gymnasium to celebrate their history and culture. The rendezvous in Hyrum includes a cowboy church on the Sunday of the event and professional performers also share harmonica playing and their guitar and poetry writing skills with 2,634 elementary students throughout Cache Valley.