They call themselves Rocky Mountain Ray and Grubstake Glen. And the two of them are cooking up a storm at Wild West City in Byram Township this summer.

Every Tuesday starting in July and running through mid-August, the two are pairing up to provide some extra entertainment in addition to the regular schedule of activities at Wild West City. “Tuesdays on the Trail” takes place throughout the day by the chuck wagon.

Rocky Mountain Ray, Ray Badger, and Glen Umland, aka Grubstake Glen, will get things started early on Tuesdays as soon as the gates open at 10:30. Visitors can follow the sound of the guitar and singing to the chuck wagon. 

“Besides our normal demos of cattle drive food and coffee preparation over the campfire we have some special activities planned,” said Umland, who had been an elementary school teacher in Sussex County for 37 years before retiring. “Besides singing cowboy tunes and explaining how they are related to cattle drives of the 1880’s we will be entertaining visitors with cowboy poetry and short humorous skits about first aid, clothing and personal hygiene.”

Visitors to the chuck wagon on these special days will walk away with some fascinating facts. “For example,” said Umland, of Boonton, “Cowboy coffee – no filter, no Kuerig. Heck no electricity and…and strong enough to curl your mustache!”  He challenged, “Find out the answer to this question: Besides sleep deprived cowboys what other creatures needed coffee to survive?”

Badger, a resident of Peapack Gladstone, has been with Wild West City for 20 some years but his interest in cowboys goes way back to when he was a kid in Union County.  He and his neighbor would play cowboys…but with real horses and head out into the Watchung Mountains camping out overnight.  During his career in the trades he also had a farm in Pennsylvania and raised steers.  As a kid he could tune in the radio late at night and pull in Wheeling WV  to listen to Hank Williams, Hank Snow and many other country music stars.  That interest continued and today Ray entertains at the Golden Nugget Saloon at WWC.

As a teacher at Marian McKeown School in Hampton Twp., Umland loved teaching language arts and US history, hence his interest in Wild West City. He brought his fifth grade classes to WWC for about a dozen years and when he retired thought it would be fun to continue his passion of teaching with multi-age visitors. He has been part of the WWC family for six years. he noted that his students sang patriotic/ historical songs each morning and participated in many simulations to understand the struggles and emotions of  people in the past. As for himself, “Grubstake”  feels it is important for America’s story to be told and believes he owes it to his own ancestors who came from Germany in the 1860’s and struggled as farmers in Iowa.

Umland and Badger have taken their special western show on the road performing at County Fairs, assisted living facilities, town days, the Crayola Factory, churches, the Darress Theater in Boonton, and at birthday parties. But their home base, for sure, is Wild West City.

For more about Wild West City, visit www.wildwestcity.com.