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Chuckwagon Suppers with Western Shows and Other Cowboy Cooking Events
Step back in time to a wilder West.
The Goodnight-Loving Trail, famed for 19th-century cattle drives, traversed a large swath of New Mexico. Charles Goodnight, one of the trail’s blazers, is credited with construction of the first chuckwagon, devised so that cowboys would no longer have to carry food in saddlebags or a mule-drawn chuckbox and cook for themselves over a campfire. By hitching a heftier chuckbox to a wagon, cooks could bring along more supplies, fuel, and equipment like Dutch ovens and iron skillets to make simple, but far more than rudimentary, meals for the lengthy trail rides.
Stews, sourdough biscuits, sizzling steaks, occasional game, pinto beans, and boiled coffee became the staples of range life. By the late 1880s, railroads took over the business of transporting cattle to market and most chuckwagons were retired. Many have been restored and some new ones have found their way into circulation, sparking a revival in the old style of food preparation, often at lively fairs and festivals statewide. Now you might find some newer dishes being created in those old Dutch ovens, such as jalapeno poppers or fresh fruit cobblers.
Here are some great events and activities to sample around the state. We don’t think you’ll have a beef about any of them. Happy trails!
Chuckwagon Suppers and Western Shows
Flying J Ranch Chuckwagon Supper and Western Show - We have pony rides for kids, an "old west town" with gift shops, a pistol range, gold panning, a great cowboy dinner featuring the Flying J's beef and chicken, potato, cowboy beans, biscuits, spicecake, chunky applesauce, coffee, tea and lemonade. After dinner we perform a Western Stage Show featuring the Flying J Wranglers!
Moreno Valley Cowboy Evening - In season, every Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday Evenings, you can settle down to an adventure of true western hospitality, Dutch oven cooking & live entertainment at its best!
Solano Starlight Ballroom - It's a little bit country-western dance, a little bit camping out and a whole lotta starlight. At the Solano Starlight Ballroom, a metaphor for the experience rather than an actual dance hall, because it all takes place outdoors, you can have dinner first, dance the night away, camp out afterward and wake up in the morning to breakfast served by a local homemakers group.
Wildlife West Chuckwagon Supper - Wildlife West Nature Park, holds a chuckwagon supper every Saturday night during summer. This coming summer, shows will be held weekly from June 20 through September 5, 2009.
Cowboy Cooking and Dutch Oven Events
The Copper Creek Ranch - During the summer months, the Copper Creek Wranglers entertain with their special Western music and harmonies at regularly scheduled chuckwagon suppers.
Cumbres & Toltec Railroad - Hidden away in a little-known corner of the southern Rocky Mountains is a precious historic artifact of the American West.
Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium and World’s Richest Chuckwagon Cook-Off - The second full week of October, Ruidoso Downs is filled with cowboy poetry, music, merriment, and most of all, mouth-watering food.
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum - This fascinating Las Cruces museum offers occasional events that include demonstrations of Dutch oven and chuckwagon cooking as a part of the state’s ranching legacy.
Wagon Mound Ranch Supply - It’s not exactly an event, but is fascinating for anyone interested in cowboy and Dutch oven cooking.
