There was a good turnout for the Deadwood Saloon Kick-Off on Tuesday night.
The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center hosted its 15th annual themed event, the Deadwood Saloon, Kick-Off on Tuesday.
Education Curator and organizer of the event Tandy Floyd, said the event has a different theme every year which goes along with the new exhibit and the yearly ‘community read’ book.
“We have a wonderful dinosaur exhibit so I wanted to do the read based on our exhibit because everybody is going to be crazy about it. The book is called Dragon Teeth and it is about the Marsh/Cope fossil wars in the Old West and 1870. There were two paleontologists at the time. Nobody had found dinosaurs in the old west, everybody had been finding them in Europe but they had not over here. So they were rushing to be the first paleontologists to find the fossils,” Floyd explained.
This year the book, which was given free of charge to all of those who attended the event, is Michael Crichton’s Dragon Teeth and the exhibit is ‘Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice’.
More than 50 people were in attendance on Tuesday (Floyd said it was a record turnout), dressed to match the theme in cowboy hats, jeans and boots, Floyd and other female employees were dressed in traditional ‘saloon girl’ costumes.
Rescue Barbeque served a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, potatoes and coleslaw. Barbara Appleman with Rescue Barbeque said they served at the event last year as well when the theme was ‘Widow of the South’.
“It was fun, they had a bunch of Bluegrass music playing last year,” Appleman said.
For entertainment this year City Commissioner David Cartmell was playing old-time ‘cowboy music’ on a tin piano while dressed as a cowboy from the old west.
There was also a wagon ride pulled by two horses which took passengers up and down Market Street and Second Street. Music, dancing and fun seemed to be had by all in attendance.
These yearly events are to promote continued reading and learning even into adulthood, according to Floyd.
“The literacy campaign is so important because everybody always thinks about little kids when you’re doing literacy but a lot of people, once they get out of high school where they had to read a certain list don’t read again. They might read a manual if they have to figure out how to do something, or a magazine or something like that,” Floyd said.
The dinosaur exhibit is geared more toward children and is fully hands-on and interactive, according to Floyd more than 200 students are expected to visit the exhibit this week.
Floyd explained this event was the first to kick off many events that will be held at the museum all throughout October. The event was completely free for all due to grants Floyd and other museum employees applied for, Floyd explained.
“We have got wonderful events coming up, this coming Saturday we have Ryders in the Sky at 3 p.m., They are a cowboy band, Roy Rogers was in the first group I think,” Floyd said.
