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Words of the West will ring this spring at the Routt County Fairgrounds.

The new Friends of 4-H and the Fair group is planning the Bunkhouse Bull Session and steak fry, where performers will share poems and songs. The April 17 event at the Routt County Fairgrounds in Hayden will raise money for the fair. In addition to the pros, members of Future Farmers of America and 4-H will share written works in a scholarship contest.

The event also will include painting and sculpture exhibits. Fair Board member Don Hayes is the man behind the plan, Routt County 4-H Agent Jay Whaley said. Hayes has gotten grants and donations of prizes and landed performers from Colorado and Wyoming.

The Bunkhouse Bull Session was scheduled to coincide with the North Western Colorado Bull Sale on April 18. Hayes said he looked forward to raising seed money for future fair events with the cowboy poetry party.

"It's not going to be the old-style, moaning-style, cry in your beer and my dog got killed cause he ate sagebrush and so forth," Hayes said.

John Fisher, half of the Yampa Valley Boys, plans to bring his banjo and some old-school cowboy songs and poems to the event. He said he was glad to support the fair.

"The county fair is a dying vestige of rural life," Fisher said. "I mean, years and years ago, it was the big event of the year and a tremendous social event where the ranchers get together and show off their stock, and the kids show off their work, and mom shows off her apple pie and all of that."

For the children

The event is really about the youths, Hayes said. FFA and 4-H members are invited to write songs, poems and short stories about agriculture and Western heritage. The scholarship contest is open to 14-year-olds through college students. Hayes has raised at least $700, and the top scholarship will be at least $500, Whaley said.

Friends of 4-H members will review the submissions and pick a few of the best. Those contestants will perform their entries at the Bunkhouse Bull Session, and the professionals will choose winners.

Hayes said he expected the show to last two and a half to three hours. Organizers haven't set ticket prices. They will serve 10-ounce New York strip steaks, he said. He's seeking meat donations from Cargill and JBS Swift.

"We're hoping for about 300 plates is what we want to serve," Hayes said. "That might be ambitious for the first year, but you've got to look for the bright side."

The event is a positive result of sometimes-tense money talks with the Routt County Board of Commissioners.

Commissioners asked the board to try to make the fairgrounds self-supporting. Fair Manager Jill Delay created a fee structure for use of the grounds, and 4-H members must pay for more than they have in the past. As part of efforts to defray costs, the Fair Board planned to form a Fair Association as a fundraising arm. That was getting cumbersome, however, so they voted last week to start the booster group Friends of 4-H.

The group is partnering with 4-H on the event for insurance and grant purposes.

"We're hoping this will be some seed money for other events. : Whether it will be paying for some of the charges the county commissioners want to go for with the kids, paying for usage or putting money for bigger and better things at the fair," Hayes said.

The pro performers at the Bunkhouse Bull Session reduced their fees to support the fair and the youths, he said. Other performers are Chuck Larsen, of Wyoming; Tim Nolting, of Nebraska; Tom Munn, of Snowmass; and Fred Ellis, of Meeker.

Larsen has been traveling and doing cowboy poetry since 1990. He said he planned to do mostly funny poems he's written, along with some jokes and a tear-jerker or two.

"It's going to be a good, worthwhile event," Larsen said. "Anything that helps the kids out is a good thing."

The Yampa Valley Boys know the value of the fairgrounds, Fisher said. His partner in the band, Steve Jones, has another commitment the night of the Bunkhouse Bull Session. Fisher will fly solo.

"We play a lot of county fairs during the summer, and it's sad to kind of see them wasting away," Fisher said. "So anything we can do to help keep the Routt County Fair going and keep the excitement up is well worthwhile."

- To reach Blythe Terrell, call 871-4234

or e-mail bterrell@steamboatpilot.com