Special to Sumner Newscow — The second day of the Chisholm Trial Wild West Days will continue today with a well-known cowboy historian Jim Gray performing later this afternoon at 4 p.m. at the Wellington High School.

The celebrity quick draw and the Cowboy Poetry Contest was held yesterday.

Brad Hamilton of Hoyt, Kans. performed cowboy songs Friday night at the Cowboy Poetry contest at the Wellington High School auditorium.

Russell Graves was deemed the winner of both the serious and humorous poetry competition. Brad Hamilton of Hoyt, Kansas also entertained the crowd with classic cowboy tunes during the poetry contes.

Gray will tell stories of life in “Frontier Kansas Cattle Towns” at 4 p.m. on Saturday April 27th.  He’ll be speaking at the outdoor stage on the grounds of Wellington High School (barring wet weather for which it will be moved inside). The program is made possible by the Kansas Humanities Council.

Building a cattle depot on the plains was an innovative idea in 1867. Gray will explore how cowboys, cattle buyers, saloon keepers, madams, merchants, and settlers came together and shaped a national industry. 

Gray is a sixth generation Kansan who co-founded the COWBOY (Cockeyed Old West Band Of Yahoos) Society to promote and preserve Kansas’s cowboy heritage through the bi-monthly newspaper, Kansas Cowboy.  He is the author of Desperate Seed:  Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier and writes the newspaper column “The Way West.”

Chisholm Trail Wild West Days is a 2-day celebration of our Western heritage in Kansas.  It will feature great Western Music, cowboy poetry, a chuckwagon cookoff, fast-draw competition and much more.  For details go to www.chisholmtrailwildwestdays.com.

Other featured events include:

Friday: 

6 p.m. Celebrity Quick Draw Competition.

7 p.m. Cowboy Poetry Contest (see story here). Music, Rope and Gun Spinning Tricks.

Saturday: 

8 a.m. – Chuckwagon Cook-Off Competition.

10 a.m. – 19th Century Children’s Games conducted by the Wellington FFA.

10 a.m. – Western Vendors- Arts and Craft Show begins.

11 a.m. – Fast Draw Contest begins.

12 noon – Chuckwagon Sampling, Western Music begins.

7 p.m. – “West is Wild as Ever” Grand Finale Music performers.

Performers are: Diamond W. Wranglers, Judy Coder, 3 Trails West, Jeff Davidson and Trail Riders, Ren’s Cowboy Poetry, Ed LeValley and The Slate Creek Drivers, Brad (Doc) Hamilton, Prairie Rose Rangers, Roger Ringer and Peggy Coleman, Ashton Buret.