BAYFIELD – Canvas awnings stretched over five historical chuckwagons – the mobile kitchens once used during the days of cattle drives – stood in a semicircle around the grassy event area of LePlatt’s Pond on the historic L-J Ranch. Participants in cowboy hats, boots and denim cooked over open coals, the smell of campfire smoke wafting through the air.
It wasn’t the ghosts of cowboys past, but a modern imitation.
Each year, the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen’s Association hosts the Chuck Wagon Cooking Event, a dinner meant to bring the community together and, as the organization’s secretary, Krii Black, told the crowd of more than 200 guests, “a way to keep tradition alive.”
The tradition being celebrated, though, is not without complication. While chuckwagons once served as lifelines for cattle drives after the Civil War, the westward expansion that made them necessary also resulted in the displacement and death of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, whose own traditions were lost or suppressed in the process.
What they’’e really celebrating here is the universal tie of being a good neighbor, a good person and an active participant in the community, said Brian Greene, head cook of the El Puchero Wagon and a former rancher in Ignacio.
Ranching is hard, labor-intensive work that often requires the helping hands of neighbors, he said. During events like branding, Greene and his neighbors would help each other and, keeping with tradition, the chuckwagon would be brought out and cooking would happen all day in tandem with the work.
“That’s the way it’s always been,” he said.
That close-knit kinship ranchers share – that’s the most important part of the tradition the cookout is keeping alive, Greene said.
And that spirit was on display as cooks worked over roaring wood fires, stirring heavy Dutch ovens filled with beef, beans and potatoes, while bread baked in cast iron and a variety of fruit cobblers and crisps bubbled for dessert.
Four other wagons took part: Canyon Trails Ranch from Cortez, headed by Rodney Carriker; Beracah Ranch Wagon from Durango, headed by Brian Wright; Rafter 76 from Golden, headed by Monte Deckerd; and the Durango Cowboy Church wagon, headed by Sandy Cooper.
Each wagon is staffed by a crew of at least four, often family members or longtime friends, who trade soft jabs and laughter as they work.
A day before the event, the cooks were given a list of ingredients procured by the cattlemen’s association from local food producers and had to come up with a menu on the fly.
On the day of the cookout, guests from across the community – not just ranchers – arrived and browsed each wagon’s menu before choosing where to go when the dinner bell rang at 5 p.m. Saturday.
It’s easy work for the diners, but for those cooking, not so much.
The work is demanding.
“Everything out here is either hot, heavy or sharp,” said Deckerd, whose Rafter 76 wagon takes its name from Colorado’s Centennial Statehood in 1876.
He said about 75% of the people who cook on his wagon for the first time never come back – though Deckerd is a man who finishes nearly every sentence with a wink, which leads one to question the seriousness of his words.
“Each wagon’s cooking for 50 or 60 people,” another participant said. “If you have a dinner party for four or six, you’re pulling your hair out. Imagine doing it for 60, over wood fires.”
Beyond the camaraderie, cooks highlighted the chuckwagon’s historical role. After the Civil War, Texas ranchers had cattle but few markets.
“At the end of the Civil War, there were 2 million cows in Texas and only 100,000 people,” one cook said. “Ranchers would drive cattle north to Kansas, where they were worth much more. The chuckwagon was created to feed the cowboys on those long journeys.”
Life on the trail was unforgiving.
“It was a tough life,” Deckerd said. “The cooks were always at the end of their career, up at 3:30 in the morning and the last to bed at night. They became cooks because they couldn’t ride anymore, and most of them weren’t very good cooks. But if you had a good cook, you stayed with that outfit.”
Today, participants say, the meals are tastier than anything trail riders once knew, but the spirit of resilience and community remains.
“I love this wagon,” Deckerd said, resting a hand on the 120-year-old wood still bearing its original paint. “It’s such an interesting piece of history to think that people spent three months eating off this wagon out in the middle of the prairie.”
The Chuckwagon Rendezvous began more than 20 years ago as a cook-off competition aimed at preserving a Western tradition that was slipping into history.
The idea was sparked by longtime local veterinarian Harry Baxstrom, who brought it to the cattlemen’s association as a way to celebrate the chuckwagon’s role in ranching life and showcase local food and beef production.
In its early days, a few locals with chuckwagons stepped forward to cook a meal over an open fire in the traditional manner. Today, chefs from across Colorado regularly attend, each bringing their own take on chuckwagon fare.
Originally a competition, that element has been set aside in recent years; the focus remains on honoring traditional food preparation.
“The consensus you’ll find is most of the guys will say, let’s leave it (noncompetitive),” Greene said. “We’re having fun. You know, the pressure is off.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
