A Western Perspective: Gunfighter For A Day 🤠

 Recently, I reflected on a time when I was sixteen years old and got to be Bucksin Joe's first gunfighter for a day.  Not to be confused with the actual ghost town Bucksin Joe in Park County.

The Buckskin Joe town in Cañon City was a Western movie set that had famous movies filmed there such as The Cowboys, Dutchess and the Dirt Water Fox and the mini series The Sacketts. When a movie was not being filmed there the town was an amusement park of sorts that gave tourists a feel of an old west town with a saloon, an abandoned mine, a general store, a candy shop, a magic show and gunfights on the hour in the middle of the street. Right outside of the town, you could take a train ride to the rim of the Royal Gorge. The beautiful scenery that encompassed this town made you feel like you were right in the middle of a western which was because you were. 

When I was sixteen years old, Bucksin Joe gave an opportunity for anyone willing to pay $100.00 dollars, to partake in their hourly gunfights. For me it was a dream come true and jumped at the chance. Ahead of time they sent me seven scripts that I would need to memorize and a form to fill out leaving them not responsible for an untimely death or injury. I read through these scripts with a hunger to learn my part and soon came to realize that I got killed in every one except one where I played a deputy who helped hang an outlaw. 

My parents took my sister and I camping near by the town until the big day finally arrived. I was given a mentor to follow around and soon was outfitted in my western costume. I was to play a cowboy who would get rowdy on a Saturday night in town. I had a friend who partook in all of the commotion and during one of our escapades we ran straight into trouble with the town hardcase. Long story short, the town hardcase opened up on us with a sawed off shotgun. My character was to die on the spot. Now even though I was told it was blanks it was still unnerving waiting to be shot down by a shotgun in the story. My character was laughing when he turns around and takes the blast and falls dead. I was walking away from the hardcase and could feel my skin crawl. I turned around to mock the hardcase and " BOOM!" 

Feeling relief I didn't die, I landed on my back hard. Now I had to hold that position until the end of the show when the audience would clap and bring me back to life. I lay there, breathing a sigh of relief that I was not mortally wounded. Now I just had to wait for the show to be over. That year however they had a terrible horse fly infestation and being bit on the thigh while playing dead was not an easy chore. It got so bad I was trying to flick dirt in my face to get rid of the flies. 

The day went on and I got killed a few more times until I got to play a deputy who helped deal out justice to an outlaw by an old fashioned hanging. Now, I knew the trick they were using and it was all staged but it still was hard to watch. By the end of the day I was exhausted but got a serenade from the saloon girls while drinking a sarsaparilla. 

This was one of the best experiences in my life, getting to partake in some gunfights in front of an audience. Buckskin Joe closed down in 2010 when someone bought the place and moved a large majority of the buildings to his private land, closed off to the rest of us. The town was perfect and I loved every moment spent there. I was able to live out my western dream and even twenty years later, it still is one of the best memories 🤠