The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming

Jubilee celebration

Attendance jumps for annual festival

Crowds gathered around the arena under canopies of various shapes and sizes as the setting sun glistened off the nylon ropes of the riders at the Moorcroft Ranch Rodeo Friday evening, opening the weekend to the 57th Moorcroft Jubilee.

While many guests filled the long tables in front of the West Texas Trail Museum for breakfast, others joined the walk/run at Robinson Park.

The presentation of the 50 state flags were again the star of the parade, the barbecue lunch at the fire hall fed about 900 people this year and the Splash Bash soaked around 140 kids.

The afternoon's very warm temperatures did not stop people from enjoying showing their stuff at the Cornhole Tournament including winners Jack Cowman, Clay Stripp, Jimmy Roberts and Parker Seeley.

Cody Hutchison and Carson Keeline shared the win at the goat roping competition later in the day, with Nick Albrecht and Carter Hutchison taking second. Krissy Hinkhouse, co-organizer of the entire event noted the goat roping attendance, "went way above what we expected; they roped for over four hours".

"It went super well," Hinkhouse later commented. "We had a really good turnout for all the events; the attendance for everything increased! It was really incredible!"

She and associate Maddie Petersen are already making plans for next year, "We'll kind of play off this year; we've got some things that we're going to reevaluate and we're hoping that, next year, we'll make it even better than it was this year."