20th Annual Cowboy Festival

Today and tomorrow, Saturday April 20th and Sunday April 22st, thousand of devotees of cowboy poetry and western music, literature, movies and television poured into Melody Ranch for the 20th Annual Cowboy Festival. What started as a Cowboy Poetry event at Santa Clarita High School got ‘Earthquaked out’ in 1994. The Veluzat family, who own and have operated Melody Ranch since they bought it from Gene Autry in 1990, invited the displaced poets to hold their event at the ranch, and they’ve been doing it there ever since. The event gets bigger and more enjoyable, every year.

The ranch opened to filming in 1915, was later bought by Monogram Studios, and sold to Gene Autry in 1952. Over 750 ‘B’ westerns were shot there, as well as many ‘A’s, and countless TV episodes – over 2000 productions in all. The main western street served as Dodge City in GUNSMOKE, and the main street of DEADWOOD, and finished up as the primary location of Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED.
Melody Ranch is only opened to the public this one week-end a year.