Wild West City may not be located in the west but they have been recognized as a place where western heritage is highlighted. Wild West City, a staple in Byram Township for over six decades, was recently awarded a 2021 Cowboy Keepers award by the National Day of the Cowboy Board of Directors. Wild West City, just minutes from Warren County, highlights the national day at its western-themed amusement park every year in August. The park was one of just three recipients receiving Cowboy Keeper awards in 2021. 

The National Day of the Cowboy is a non-profit organization that works to contribute to the preservation of America’s cowboy culture and pioneer heritage so that the history and culture can be shared and perpetuated for the public good, through education, the arts, literature, celebrations, gatherings, rodeos and other community activities.   The Fourth Saturday in July has been designated as the National Day of the Cowboy.  In the words of former President Bush, “We celebrate the Cowboy as a symbol of the grand history of the American West.  The Cowboy’s love of the land and love of the country are examples for all Americans.”

The National Day of the Cowboy’s Cowboy Keeper Award  was created to recognize those who demonstrate a substantial contribution to the preservation of pioneer heritage and cowboy culture. In addition to Wild West City, recipients this year included Jim Liles of Arizona and The STAND Foundation out of Washington, D.C. These selections by the National Day of the Cowboy Board of Directors represent their continuing efforts to encourage the honoring of history, while striving to cultivate participation in today’s cowboy life. 

“We are thrilled to be recognized with the Cowboy Keeper award,” said Mary Benson, whose family has owned the park since the 1960s. “This is a great honor for us and is an affirmation that we are doing a good job of keeping the spirit of cowboys, pioneer heritage and the wild west alive and well.” 

In recognizing Wild West City, the Directors noted that Wild West City is a family-fun, frontier oriented theme park and is based on a true-to-life model of 1880s Dodge City, Kansas. 

The park opened its doors in the spring of 1957, creating a western experience for thousands of visitors over the past six decades. The “short-term investment” was a project built in 1956 by the American Foundation for the Preservation of the Old West. And still today, grownups who visited Wild West City as a child are delighted to bring their own children to experience the same shows and history they remember enjoying in their youth. 

Among the main attractions are live action shows with reenactments continuing throughout each day, and between the action, the cowboys, and the horses, every guest finds something to enjoy. They strive to engage kids’ interest by involving them in some of the skits.  

Folks still love riding the train that is held up by outlaws and kids love visiting the frontier style school.  There is a mountain man’s camp where guests can learn about the men who opened up the west. Wild West City is that rare place where you can still ride in a horse drawn stagecoach. For those with a special love for history, the park showcases a vast collection of authentic period memorabilia. Including an extensive collection of Native American art and artifacts. Attendees also learn about late 19th-century farming tools, period dressmaking, blacksmithing, and more. If you break the law, you may end up in one of their circa-1890 jail cells. Once you step inside the gates and onto the Main Street, you’ll feel you’re walking around a town very much like the set of Gunsmoke; complete with a full service saloon, candy shoppe, a blacksmith, and a working printing press. 

Cowboy Jim Liles began his 20-year career as a bareback rider around the age of 13. More than fifty years later, he can still recount stories of the many times those broncs broke his bones, including some more than once. Still, bareback riding has remained his life’s passion, and the broncs have remained the horses he loves most. Today he believes “teaching fans and younger contestants about the history of bareback riding and honoring those who have played a part in this great event, will help keep it alive.” So, out of his love for the sport, he has opened a National Bareback Riding Hall of Fame and Museum in Congress, Arizona, which boasts perhaps the greatest collection in the world of riggings representing the history of bareback bronc riding. He believes it’s the only exhibit of its kind in existence.  

The mission of The STAND Foundation is to provide an opportunity for inner city youth to gain knowledge, skills, and confidence through equestrian and rodeo readiness training. The STAND (Strengthening Thoughts and Nurturing Dreams) Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., is in the business of changing and shaping lives by teaching equestrian skills to inner city kids who might not otherwise ever get to experience the transformational magic of a horse. The organization is the result of the vision of cowgirl Selina “Pennie” Brown, who believes emphatically that learning to ride a horse changes who you are. 

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