Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering To End
The steering committee for the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering has announced that the 2019 event will be the last. The Gathering has been held annually in Alpine since 1987. It has brought thousands of visitors and hundreds of thousands of tourist dollars to the area, as well as bringing the very best in western entertainment to Far West Texas.
“This has been an extremely difficult decision for all of us,” said Gathering President Don Cadden. “We have agonized over this for months. The performers, sponsors, and many of the attendees have become family to us. But five of the members are over 70, and several are in their 60s. We have tried without success to recruit new and younger committee members to perpetuate the Gathering and no one locally is interested.”
“Everything comes to an end eventually,” said Cadden. “This has been an incredibly successful Gathering for many years, and we feel like we’re ending on a very high note.”
Cadden was quick to add how much the volunteers and the businesses and individuals who have been sponsors year after year are appreciated. “We have sponsors not only from this area, but from all over the U.S. who have supported us financially and we can’t thank them enough. This Gathering is recognized nationally as being the one to attend, and we have worked diligently to keep it truly cowboy and respectful of the values and traditions of the ranching way of life.”
Visitors have annually made the trek to Alpine from all over the U.S. and Canada. And last year performers traveled from 13 states, two provinces of Canada, and Australia to share their talent on stage.
The committee members ask that you respect their decision and let them do their jobs to complete this final event. “There are a lot of moving parts required to put the Gathering together,” says Cadden. “There are certainly other issues and problems that influenced this decision, and we feel that it is just time to let it go.”
Besides Cadden, members of the committee are Lynne Baldwin, Amanda Bistline, Bill Brooks, Pam Cook, John Davis, Jane Garrett, Ida Hoelscher, Paul Loeffler, Joel Nelson, Shelly Rogers, and Nelson Sager.
“Preserving the traditions of the American West in words and music…
each year in the Spring.”
