The Wild West comes to Claremore

Western arts performers are heading to Claremore this week for the Will Rogers Wild West Expo. The News on 6's Rick Wells visited Claremore to check on all the ropin', ridin' and shootin'.

Wednesday, April 13th 2005, 11:07 am

By: News On 6

Western arts performers are heading to Claremore this week for the Will Rogers Wild West Expo. The News on 6's Rick Wells visited Claremore to check on all the ropin', ridin' and shootin'.

Mark Allen is the Director of the Wild West Arts Club, they aim to promote and preserve western arena arts, stuff like trick roping. They've brought their convention to Claremore more or less as a tribute to Will Rogers. "He brought the skills of the cowboy out to the public." He did that, performing in the Zigfield Follies and in the movies. "Will Rogers was not only one of the most popular trick ropers he was probably one of the most skilled."

Mark Allen is pretty good too; he learned trick roping as a boy and is one of the leading western arts performers. "It's not just trick roping its trick riding, trick shooting, knife and tomahawk throwing. A whole array of skills from the old West." Interestingly, the area we'd consider the old west, is not where these skills are growing in popularity. "There are more people interested in these Western skills in the southern part of the US, the Midwest and New England." Wow, go figure. We walked around the museum talking about the show this week and every now and then he'd do a trick. "I learned this trick when I was ten years old."

You can visit the expo this weekend and you won't have Will Rogers staring down at you while you're learning some rope tricks. For more information about the various activities visit their web site.