|
Riding High into the Old West
By Kathryn Fletcher
January/February 2023
 The Hole in the Wall Gang look satisfied after they “robbed” the stage passengers at Warner-Carrillo Ranch in November 2022. Photo by Sioux Munyon
 Reed Fisher seems happy to have escaped with his life when the Hole in the Wall Gang held up the stage passengers during the annual stagecoach event hosted by SOHO. Photo by Kathryn Fletcher |
 Kathy Fisher welcomes visitors at the kitchen doorway at the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Museum during SOHO’s annual stagecoach event. Photo by Judith Doxey |
Where would SOHO be without our wonderful volunteers? At our annual Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Museum stagecoach event on November 13, 2022, fearsome, weathered desperados from the Hole In The Wall Gang held up the passengers riding in SOHO’s replica Concord stage. They also transported the stage to and from the Hoover barn (circa 1889) in Santa Ysabel.
Other re-enactors in from the Mormon Battalion Center provided California history, and helped with the refreshments, parking, and signs. A mountain man clad in buckskins he crafted himself assisted passengers on and off the stage, while the stage agent checked in visitors for their rides. The volunteer band played period music and Wild West entertainer Judy Taylor whipped up some rope tricks. Quilters demonstrated their craft, and we raffled off one of their creations.
The weather was perfect and young and old seemed to have a great time. Only two SOHO employees, Dean Glass and the museum's head docent Kathryn Fletcher, staffed the event. The rest were all generous volunteers. This event would be impossible without them.
SOHO thanks all the volunteers who captured and conveyed the history and spirit of Warner-Carrillo Ranch, its 1857 adobe ranch house, and, of course, the horse-drawn stagecoach.
|
