The fictitious Rawhide Western Town doesn’t have any residents. There are no grocery stores or gas stations, and there’s not a school or recreation center to be found.
But rest assured, this place is full of characters.
Imagination rules at the Wild West entertainment park in Chandler, where visitors are time-warped to the desert’s glory days through attractions such as burro rides, a mechanical bull, a stagecoach and gold panning. Rawhide has been supplying Arizonans with the tradition, scenery and drama of a typical late 19th century Southwestern cowboy town since 1971.
“All of our employees are in the 1880s era in terms of their attire and their demeanor,” Rawhide general manager Brian Crum said. “We just try to provide that Western experience for everybody.”
However, several of the town’s employees don’t just provide the Western experience — they are the Western experience.
Devin Mace, a fourth-generation blacksmith who has his own shop in Rawhide, does everything from engrave horseshoes to craft metal bouquets of roses.
“My dad was the one that got into doing a lot of the decorative stuff like we do today,” Mace explained. “But back when my great-grandfather was doing this, it was done on our farm using the basic blacksmithing skills to fix and repair any farm machinery that broke down.”
Mace hasn’t forgotten these roots. While he does about half his work with modern blacksmithing methods in order to cut down on costs and keep up with his customers’ high demand, he does the other half just as his great-grandfather would have.
“Over the years, it snowballed, and I’m still using the same tools,” Mace said. “The vice, the anvil and the forge I work with are all over 100 years old.”
While Mace travels to Western fairs and rodeos during slow times in the summer, he stays busy at his home base of Rawhide for the most part.
“They use me like an actual town would,” Mace explained. “The door handles that you see on the doors, I made most of them. I made the jail cell. I’m here for the actual purpose (of blacksmithing), but my No. 1 thing is to keep the customers happy.”
Another Rawhide employee who keeps the customers happy is Jaye Kukowski, better known as Texas Kate. A 26-year veteran of the professional rodeo circuit, Kukowski combines humor with her knowledge of trick riding to put on animal shows that entertain adults and children alike.
The livestock manager at Rawhide only uses rescued animals in her shows. The owner of about 40 animals herself — including seven dogs and 17 horses — Kukowski’s inability to ignore less fortunate creatures dates back to 1982 when she adopted an abused horse that was minutes away from being euthanized.
As is the case for all the animals in her shows, the tenderhearted Kukowski never gave up on that horse — even when he nearly killed her.
“I’m real hard-headed, and I just kept riding him,” Kukowski said. “His first performance, he hurt me really bad. He broke three bones in my foot and severed a tendon.”
She went on to win a world championship in trick riding on that very horse in 1996, evidence enough that Kukowski has a unique way of not just rescuing animals, but also performing with them after their rehabilitation.
But Texas Kate isn’t the only performer who draws big crowds at Rawhide. The high-octane Arizona Roughriders have been putting on Wild West shows at the park since 1982.
“We get paid to be 8-years-old all day long and be cowboys,” explained Josh Pilsbury, also known as the gun-slinging “JP Sage.”
“We walk a fine line out here as entertainers. We’re doing the acting as well as the stunts,” he said.
On top of the convincing theatrics and daredevil stunts during their shows, the Roughriders make sure their audiences walk away having learned something new.
“We do try to maintain the balance between entertainment and remaining historically accurate, especially with our opening and closing monologues to the show,” said Roughriders owner Dale “Digger Payne” Denton.
“We do a lot of the facts through those, and then place those facts into an entertainment setting,” he explained.
Indeed, facts are placed in entertainment settings throughout Rawhide. Whether it’s a fourth-generation blacksmith, a world-champion trick rider or legitimate stuntmen, there’s no shortage of authenticity at the fictional park.
“You’re going to walk away with the greatest feeling when you come in and see our shows and get to see this town and be with these characters that are leaping off the page into your face," Pilsbury explained.
Rawhide is having its 41st Birthday Celebration on Feb. 25-26, providing free attractions all weekend long.
Reach the reporter at kjnewma2@asu.edu
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