Quick draw
Gathering of Gunfighters triggers Old West spirit
For about two decades, pistolpacking, shotguntoting types have gathered in Yuma. And given that they look to be ornery cusses, it should come as no surprise they have turned their shooting irons on one another.
Yet in all that time, not one of them have fallen over dead. None of them has suffered so much as a flesh wound.
It’s not that they’re bad shots. They’re re-enactors who are firing blanks.
And they’ll be back Saturday and Sunday at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park for more gunplay in the 20th annual Gathering of the Gunfighters.
The event will bring together Old West re-enactment groups from Arizona and California that will alternately stage skits injected with humor but punctuated with gunfire.
Gathering of the Gunfighters takes place 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the prison, 220 N. Prison Hill Road. Admission is $10 for those 14 and older, $4 for kids 7 to 13, and free for those 6 and younger.
The re-enactors wear period garb of the Old West and pack firearms that, if not originals, are at least faithful reproductions of the guns of the era. And the groups all have colorful monickers.
Appearing this weekend at the prison will be Spur of the Moment, the Border
Renegades, Code of the West, Guns of the Round Table, Prescott Regulators and Their Shady Ladies, Guns ‘n’ Garters, the Old Town Temecula Gunfighters, the Yuma Vigilantes and Yuma’s Deguello Gunslingers.
The latter group plays host for Gathering of the Gunfighters and is the founder of the event.
The Deguello Gunslingers started out as two prison park rangers who were seeking a way to promote residents’ interest in the Territorial Prison, says one member of the re-enactment group who identifies herself only as Collie.
The Gathering of the Gunfighters event was born, and the DeGuello Gunslingers grew from two to 10 today. But whatever you do, don’t refer to that Deguello bunch as gunfighters.
“Anyone can be a gunfighter, but not anyone can sling guns,” Collie said with a laugh.
After two decades of doing it, the group has gotten efficient at writing, rehearsing and then staging shoot ‘em up skits, she says.
“From my group, I either write the script or Gale Hall writes the script, and we read it through and get up there and do it.”
The person penning the script needs to have knowledge of the Old West so that the skit is historically accurate, she says, but after that he or she writes what comes to mind.
“It’s whatever I happen to be thinking about. I’m very interested in Yuma’s history, so some of what I write is involved with that.”
Hall is one of the founding members of the Deguello Gunslingers, Collie said. “He’s fantastic. He just comes up with a story of some kind. I guess after you’ve done this for about 20 years, it comes pretty easily.
“We’ve just been doing it so long,” said Collie, who’s been a Deguello Gunslinger for about seven years. “My group works very well together, and we just feed off each other.”
She’s not giving any hints about how the Deguello skits will unfold this weekend. “We’re going to surprise everyone.”
Collie will say this much: audiences can expect laughs and lots of shooting. “And it’s usually us girls who shoot the men.”
Besides staging the Gath-
ering of the Gunfighters, the Deguello Gunslingers take part in out-of-town re-enactments elsewhere in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico. And Collie appears in Old West costume at the prison state park on weekends.
And she’s always packing.
“The gun I carry is from the late 1800s, and it’s a cavalry wife’s gun. They would give them to the women in case the Indians attacked,” she explained. “Mine is authentic, and I use it every Saturday. We’re shooting Hollywood blanks.”
Even then, the re-enactors keep in mind rules for safe gun handling. In the skits, they aim their weapons above, below or to the sides of the other actors they’re pretending to shoot.
“We never point them at each other. Every gun and all the ammunition is checked for safety before they’re even allowed into the park,” Collie said.
Apart from watching the skits, visitors can browse vendor tables, where 1800s apparel and accessories, collectibles, black powder shooting supplies and other related merchandise will be available.
The admission fee for Gathering of the Gunfighters gives visitors free access to the prison museum and cells.
Collie said the prison park staff, the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area and the Yuma Police Department are instrumental in helping the Deguello Gunslingers host the Gathering of the Gunfighters.
Tina Clark, historian and archaeoligist for the heritage area, says the re-enactors, in donning period dress and depicting the events of a bygone era in their skits, serve to breathe life into the prison.
“It’s like a living history program as well as entertainment,” Clark said.