Carols, Christmas Story, Part of Annual Ucross Christmas Celebration

The annual Ucross Community Christmas Celebration was held on December 13. A large crowd came to hear the music of the Buffalo High School Balladiers and the Firearts; Craig Johnson’s annual Christmas story; enjoy snacks by Jackie Vitalli and watch the youngsters make Christmas crafts.

Held in the Raymond Plank Center, Caitlin Addlesperger, President and Executive Director of Ucross, welcomed the crowd. She said that the Christmas celebration embodies the goal of Ucross to celebrate artists.

The Buffalo High School Balladiers sang several carols celebrating the season.

Ucross Foundation Chairman Jim Nelson talked about Raymond Plank, Ucross Foundation Founder. He said that the land where the Raymond Plank Center stands used to be the Sonny George junkyard. When Sonny died, Plank had to buy out the individual interests from Sonny’s eight heirs.

He encountered some difficulty in doing this, Nelson said. The heirs were convinced that their father had buried a great deal of money in coffee cans on the property. But, Nelson said, Plank finally made the deal, and he added that a replica civil war cannon, which Joe Reed shoots off every year at the end of the Christmas party, was a gift from Apache employees. Nelson said,

Addlesperger introduced Craig Johnson, author of the successful Longmire series.

To introduce his short story, Johnson told a humorous story about a live trapping a skunk and then the challenge of turning it loose. This skunk trapping episode was the inspiration for his newest Longmire short story, “Scents of the Season”.

He invited Jim Nelson to join him in the reading. Nelson, whom Johnson said has had theater experience, he portrayed Jim Nelson, the game warden in the story.

The story had to do with a skunk that was found munching on the Christmas turkey at the “dead mayor’s wife’s” house right before her Christmas party, and how Walt Longmire dealt with it.

Here is a brief excerpt from the story.

Those wanting to catch the reading of the story can see Johnson at the Story Branch Library on Dec. 19, and he has several other readings in the Sheridan area this month.

There were also musical numbers by Ucross Fellow David Romtvedt and the Fireants, and cannon fire by Joe Reed, Ucross neighbor.

Crafts for the children included making cardboard gingerbread houses, and coloring two black and white sketches by Tawni Shuler, Ucross Program Director and former resident at the foundation.

At the end of the event, Addlesperge announced that due to technical difficulties, there was no fireworks display, but neighbor Joe Reed did shoot off the cannon to end the event.

The grounds were decorated by the Ucross grounds team with help from Powder River Energy. Feature image courtesy of Ucross.