Taylor resident tries to keep events historically accurate on 900-acre farm
THORNTON, W.Va. -- In a Taylor County hollow, a real cowboy pays tribute to the American frontier and the people who drove the nation's westward expansion.
Activities will include cowboy shootouts, ranch roping and horseshoeing.
Terry Austin and his wife, Michelle, along with lots of help from friends and volunteers will host Frontier Fest Friday through Sunday at the Circle A Ranch in Thornton, near Grafton.
"Everything is geared to the late 1800s in the Northwest," Terry said.
Exhibits, demonstrations and entertainment include movie actor and comic Russ McCubbin of Charleston, Joe "Hopalong Cassidy" Sullivan, cowboy shootouts and mounted shooting plus shooting contests, ranch roping, memorabilia such as a stagecoach used in western films, saddlemaking and harness repair, horseshoeing by George Cummins, blacksmithing by Gene King, a buffalo named Bentley and Native American storytelling and flute music by Larry "Two Rivers" Brown. There are two chuckwagons, and the cooks will serve stew, biscuits, cowboy coffee and more.
A trail ride takes place on Saturday, where participants should bring their own horse (fees and restrictions apply; preregistration required). Sunday church services at 11 a.m. will be followed by a covered-dish potluck meal. Schoolchildren are bused to Frontier Fest on Friday, but it is open to the general public as well.
The setting for the event is a clutch of frontier town structures, including a saloon, freight station, smithing shop and corral Terry has built on his family's 900-acre farm. He has pledged to keep things as historically accurate as possible. He adds a new building when he can manage it. The wood is milled from trees on the property with a portable sawmill also on the grounds. There are no Hollywood false fronts.
"They wouldn't have done that back then. It would've been a waste of wood," Terry explained.
"Movies have brought the myth of the cowboy bigger than life," he added. "The movie cowboy and the real cowboy are two different things. The cowboy life I've been lucky to lead."
Terry graduated from Grafton High School and moved to Colorado where he found work as a packer, guide and wrangler.
These days, he drives schoolchildren instead of cattle, instantly recognizable in his boots, woolen vest, neckerchief, silver belt buckle and Resistol hat.
THORNTON, W.Va. -- In a Taylor County hollow, a real cowboy pays tribute to the American frontier and the people who drove the nation's westward expansion.
Terry Austin and his wife, Michelle, along with lots of help from friends and volunteers will host Frontier Fest Friday through Sunday at the Circle A Ranch in Thornton, near Grafton.
"Everything is geared to the late 1800s in the Northwest," Terry said.
Exhibits, demonstrations and entertainment include movie actor and comic Russ McCubbin of Charleston, Joe "Hopalong Cassidy" Sullivan, cowboy shootouts and mounted shooting plus shooting contests, ranch roping, memorabilia such as a stagecoach used in western films, saddlemaking and harness repair, horseshoeing by George Cummins, blacksmithing by Gene King, a buffalo named Bentley and Native American storytelling and flute music by Larry "Two Rivers" Brown. There are two chuckwagons, and the cooks will serve stew, biscuits, cowboy coffee and more.
A trail ride takes place on Saturday, where participants should bring their own horse (fees and restrictions apply; preregistration required). Sunday church services at 11 a.m. will be followed by a covered-dish potluck meal. Schoolchildren are bused to Frontier Fest on Friday, but it is open to the general public as well.
The setting for the event is a clutch of frontier town structures, including a saloon, freight station, smithing shop and corral Terry has built on his family's 900-acre farm. He has pledged to keep things as historically accurate as possible. He adds a new building when he can manage it. The wood is milled from trees on the property with a portable sawmill also on the grounds. There are no Hollywood false fronts.
"They wouldn't have done that back then. It would've been a waste of wood," Terry explained.
"Movies have brought the myth of the cowboy bigger than life," he added. "The movie cowboy and the real cowboy are two different things. The cowboy life I've been lucky to lead."
Terry graduated from Grafton High School and moved to Colorado where he found work as a packer, guide and wrangler.
These days, he drives schoolchildren instead of cattle, instantly recognizable in his boots, woolen vest, neckerchief, silver belt buckle and Resistol hat.
"I dress like this all the time," he said.
He tries not to romanticize the cowboy life. "It's hard, dirty, nasty work. It's not suited for everybody. Some guys in camp might last three days. It's a difficult life but if you make it and you stay there and you've done the work, once you earn that right (to call yourself a cowboy) you never lose it."
Terry's effort to recreate the Old West in the East is not about staying in touch with the lifestyle. And it's not just about honoring tradition. It is just as much for people like his hard-working father, Neil, who never would take the time to leave the farm and travel.
"A lot of people never have the chance to go out West," Terry said. So he is bringing as much as he can back here.
Parkinson's disease finally slowed Terry's father, who loved cowboy poems and comedy, songs and movies.
"The last two years of his life, the only enjoyment he had was listening to Murph (Michael Martin Murphey), Bill (Miller) and Red (Steagall.) I've been awful lucky to know guys like this," Terry said.
Frontier Fest started in 2000 as a celebrity trail ride and concert with Terry's pal, American cowboy musician Michael Martin Murphey. The trail ride and concert drew people from 33 states, many of them to see family in the area. The first four years, the event was held at Timberline Resort in Canaan Valley. Murphey suggested that Terry find exhibits and demonstrations. And he suggested branding it: Terry Austin's Frontier Fest was born.
Subsequent shows have hosted cowboy balladeer Red Steagall, Native American musician Bill Miller, cowboy poets and humorists Waddie Mitchell and Baxter Black.
This year's musical performers are Grafton's own George Shingleton and The Saddle Tramp.
