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Volume 4, Issue No. 11 November, 2006
NOVEMBER – THE RANGE WAS COVERED WITH TURKEYS
Attendance was down at this years’ November after Thanksgiving shoot. In each of the 2 previous years, we had 70 shooters, but this year only 51 brave shooters ventured out – and 1 had a family emergency and had to leave. But for those who participated – it was a warm, sunny, generally terrific day. The shoot was geared toward turkeys. After all, Thanksgiving is associated with turkeys. And the script writer is a ……, you get the picture. It was a fun day.
“Is it time to Shoot yet?” – Roma Jane and Long Gulch listen to possible rules changes during the pre-shoot meeting.
Big, ready to shoot for the turkey. He was a Winner last year.
Each posse had a turkey shoot stage. Look below and see the turkeys who won the turkeys.
The Top Gun was Marshal Too Tall and the Top Cowgirl Shooter was Last Kiss, shooting gunfighter. The Top 10 Shooters were: (1) Marshal Too Tall (2) Festus D. Deputy (3) Dustin Clays (4) Polecat Carl (5) Ocoee Red (6) Pleasant (7) Rusty Spur Slim (8) Cherokee Maddog (9) Horseshoe John and (10) Pyro. 3 shooters shot matches with no misses: Dustin Clays, Outrider and Marshal Too Tall. In the Buffalo Shoot, Marshal Too Tall won the Long Range Lever Action Rifle & Single Shot Rifle competition and the .22 Cal. class and Sundance McNeyman placed 1st in the Long Range Pistol Shoot.
Winners of the Turkey Shoots
L – R: Rawhide Rex, Tennessee Mongo, Polecat Carl and Sheriff Donald
SHOOT RESULTS
TOP GUN – Marshal Too Tall … TOP COWGIRL – Last Kiss …
BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Sundance McNeyaman … Long Range Single Shot Rifle – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Lever Action Rife – Marshal Too Tall … .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall
49er1. Marshal Too Tall 2. Festus D. Deputy 3. Ocoee Red |
Duelist 1. Rusty Spur Slim 2. Horseshoe John 3. Tucson Tuco |
Senior 1. Wildcat Wilkey 2. Rev. Adam Jones 3. Outrider |
|
Traditional 1. Dustin Clays 2. Unpleasant 3. Moonshine Roberts |
Cowgirl1. Last Kiss 2. Yazoo City Gal |
Modern 1. Polecat Carl 2. Limp Along Charlie |
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Classic 1. Lightning McCoy 2. Long Gulch |
Gunfighter 1. Pleasant 2. Pyro |
Black Powder 1. Oracle |
Outlaw
1. Curly Bill
2. Badlands Beck
3. Rawhide Rex
Wranglers (non shooting award):
Cherokee Maddog, Bittercreek Jack, Sheriff Donald, Fast Harley, Lightning McCoy
Wranglers are folks who put forth extra effort in helping their posses conduct the shoot
DECEMBER ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SHOOT & FAMILY EVENT DECEMBER 16
Bring your family or special other and let them meet your cowboy & cowgirl shootin’ pardners.
See page 2 for more information.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 2 November, 2006
THE REeL WEST & the real west
THE REeL WEST – HARRY CAREY
(1878 – 1947)
Henry DeWitt “Harry” Carey II was a silver screen cowboy in both the silent and sound eras. But, he wasn’t native a westerner. Nope. Ol’ Harry hailed from New York City. While attending law school, he had a boating accident, and while recuperating, he wrote a play. When he recovered, he convinced someone to put his play on stage. Of course he had to play the lead. It was a big success. So, his law career was forgotten. He gave up the courtroom for the floodlights. Of course you could say that he gave up acting in front of a jury to take up acting in front of a paying audience.
Harry Carey
After his 2nd play flopped, Harry joined a movie stock company, and when it moved to Hollywood, he went along. In 1915, he appeared in THE BATTLE AT ELDERBUSH GULCH, a Western. During his career, Harry appeared in a lot of Westerns and in other stuff as well. And he did well in all his roles. In 1920, he began the most important role of his career: he met and married Olive Golden, and they became lifetime partners.
How good was Harry? Well, by 1919, he was earning $1,200 a week. And he continued making Western movies: solid, realistic movies. But the public’s taste changed. They became more interested in the glitz and dash of Westerns featuring Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson and others. Still, Harry kept making good films and real good money.
Sound came, and Harry kept right on going, just like the Energizer Bunny. He bought a ranch and livestock, and kept making movies. Then in 1939, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to Thomas Mitchell for his performance as Doc Boone in John Ford’s STAGECOACH. In the years that followed, Harry appeared in a number of Westerns. He appeared with John Wayne in ANGEL AND THE BAD MAN, and again with him in SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS and in THE SPOILERS and in RED RIVER.
Harry died in 1947, and was buried in his cowboy outfit. How about that? But Harry really didn’t die. As long as folks watch John Wayne Westerns, he never will. You’ll see him directly in some of the Duke’s Westerns. But you’ll see him indirectly in about all of them, if you watch John Wayne. John Wayne adopted some of the gestures that Harry used in his performances. Among others, he copied a certain slouch sitting in the saddle. And in the SEARCHERS, when he’s framed in the doorway in the final scene, you’ll see the Duke walking away, holding his left arm with his right. Harry often did that. Oh yeah, Olive Carey also appeared in the SEARCHERS: she played Vera Miles’ mom. And Harry Jr. played Vera’s brother.
Trooper John W. Vermillion
THE REAL WEST –
JOHN W. “TEXAS JACK” VERMILLION (1842 – 1911)
John Wilson “Texas Jack” Vermillion was born in 1842 in Russell Co. Virginia. In 1861, John did as many other Virginians did after the Yankees invaded the South in their War of Northern Aggression: he joined General JEB Stuart’s cavalry of gray riders.
After God turned away from the South and allowed the Yankees to win the war, old John headed west. In Indiana, he married a Yankee gal. He probably thought that if he couldn’t lick’em, he might as well join ‘em. Then the newly weds moved to Missouri, where John became a lawman for several years. But tragedy struck and his wife and 2 small children died of diphtheria. Devastated by his loss, John tossed his badge and went further west, finally arriving in Dodge City, Kansas. On the Western frontier, he began a different life. He became a whiskey drinkin’, sixgun packin’, quick shootin’ gambler.
Somewhere in his western rambling, John became “Texas Jack” and met and apparently became friends with another southern gambler, John Henry “Doc” Holiday. And like Holiday, he got involved in several violent encounters in saloons in various places. In 1881, he was in Tombstone, Arizona. That was about the time when the Earps and Doc Holiday were involved in the OK Corral street fight and the aftermath shootings. Evidently because of his friendship with Holiday, “Texas Jack” rode with Wyatt Earp on his vendetta ride in 1882, after Morgan Earp was killed.
When the Earp posse left Arizona, Jack rode up to Kansas, where he plied his skills at the gambling tables there. Before long, he got involved in a gambling fight and shot and killed one of his card cheatin’ opponents. Then, he left the country and returned east to Virginia.
In 1883, John married Nannie Fleenor. But somehow, he couldn’t stay away from the west. So, he took his family to Idaho. In 1888, he became involved with the Soapy Smith gang and got involved in a shoot-out with another gang. 2 years later, in 1890, he killed a feller in another gunfight. It was a fair fight, but “Texas Jack” hung up his spurs and moved back to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, for good. Guess what he did for a livin’ in Virginia to support Nannie, his 2 kids and himself? He became, believe it or not, a Methodist Minister. In 1911, “Texas Jack” Vermillion died in his sleep.
Annual Christmas shoot & family event December 16
Don’t miss our Ocoee Rangers Christmas Shoot & Family Event on December 16th. We’ll shoot 3 stages at the range and then meet at the Golden Corral Restaurant in Cleveland for lunch and activities: presentation of annual awards; drawings for prizes, provided by
event sponsors; and cowboy & cowgirl gift exchange. We always have a lot of fun. If for some reason you can’t shoot, come to the after shoot activities anyway. Participation in the gift exchange is optional: if you want to do it, ok; if you don’t, that’s also ok. Only folks who have shot in at least 1 match during 2006 –even if it’s that morning – are eligible for the drawings for gifts provided by sponsors. Anyone, shooters & non-shooters, can participate in the gift exchange. If you want to participate in the gift swap, bring an unwrapped gift and put it on the gift table. Prizes should be somewhat related to cowboy shooting or a western theme and should not cost more than $10 – $20.
The Christmas event is a good time to dress up in cowboy/cowgirl finery – shooters & non-shooters. Mesquite Millie & Deadman will have their camera ready to take pictures of anyone (individual or family or special pardner) who wants their picture taken at the shoot. No, it won’t cost nothing to get your picture took.
COME & PLAY WITH US IN DECEMBER. AND BRING YOUR FAMILY. LET’EM MEET YOUR PLAYMATES
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