Hollywood’s Old West comes to Western Slope

MONTROSE  —  Over the weekend, rock music fans travelled north for the annual Rock Jam, but western lovers travelled a different direction — to Ridgway, for the first- ever True Grit Days.

Visitors walked around Ridgway Town Park Saturday and Sunday enjoying food, western vendors, county western music and talking with a few of Hollywood’s Old West stars.

“True Grit’s” Kim Darby returned to Ridgway after 39 years. She played the tough, spit-fire tomboy Mattie Ross alongside John Wayne in the 1968  filming of True Grit in Ridgway.

“I’m here to have a good time and enjoy myself,” Darby said in a soft-spoken, fragile voice as she sat beside Johnny Crawford Saturday afternoon in Town Park.

Crawford didn’t have a role in “True Grit,” but played Luke MacDonald in “El Dorado,” a 1967 gun-fighting western with Wayne.

Hollywood sweetheart Angie Dickinson also made an appearance Saturday in Town Park, signing autographs and having dinner at the True Grit Cafe.

Her warm personality and soft smile as she walked through Town Park with a half dozen security guards, won over her fans.

“Dickinson is one of the real beauties — now I know she’s good inside,” said western sinner Peggy Malone, who had a chance to meet her idol Saturday.

Malone, a Fruita resident who was recently inducted into the Colorado County Music Hall of Fame, couldn’t resist celebrating Ridgway’s western heritage in a John Wayne fashion. One of two “cowgirls” that entertained while bands set up on stage, she used her guitar and a few yodels to get a dozen people dancing on the lawn, shaking maracas.

While many laid out on the grass to enjoy the music, others waited in lines for autographs from the stars.

Rich and Carol Fike, owners of the Museum of the Mountain West, east of Montrose, both waited their turns Saturday to meet Darby and Crawford. Both Wayne fans, the Fikes had an original 1969 “True Grit” lobby card signed by Darby for display at the museum.

The museum has other memorabilia from the filming of the movie. The shingles used on the set are now used on the front of the museum’s saloon.

Barb Morss, the event’s coordinator and Ridgway Area Chamber of Commerce president, said everything went smoothly, especially for having only 72 days to plan.

“Imagine what we can do with one year to plan,” Morss said, adding the event will  get bigger and better in the future.

She has several ideas for next year, including more western poetry and storytellers. She’d like for the performers to have their own stage away from the music, with vendors in between. She said the vendors, camped under white tents in Town Park for the weekend, reported good sales and True Grit Cafe recorded selling 300 meals during a single lunch time.

Susan Prather, also with the chamber, was in charge of the 35 vendors which sold an array of western merchandise and food. For next year, she said she would like to encourage eventgoers to dress in western clothes with a costume contest.

Ridgway resident Todd Blevins didn’t need a contest to get into the spirit. Dressed as a second Colorado sergeant, he rode proud around the park on his horse, OB1.

“I’m just out having fun,” he said. He road about 1 mile from his house to town. “There’s a marvelous turn out.”

Around dusk, eventgoers curled up on blankets on Town Park’s lawn to watch “True Grit” on a large screen. Around 11 p.m., the park cleared out.

But the people with true grit were back again Sunday morning for a pancake breakfast, more music and western shopping before the end of what Morss hopes was the first of many True Grit Days.

Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com