It's been five years since we founded The Coal Creek Cowboys. It's been an interesting and, for the most part, fun journey. Along the way we've developed a reputation as "the little club that could."

With the enthusiastic support of The Utah Summer Games, we've successfully hosted FOUR "major" Cowboy Action Shooting events ... growing in size with each successive year. The well-traveled and experienced shooters who attended those events favorably compared the quality of our matches to that found at Winter Range and End Of Trail.

We've hosted a REGIONAL-level black powder match ... the FIRST such event to be held in Utah.

Over our short history, this little club has spawned an inordinate number of Champions ... from multiple Utah State Champions, to a National Champion and most recently TWO World Champions!

Iron County has (with just a little bit of nagging) provided us with an excellent range dedicated to the sport of cowboy action shooting. With minimal donations and a lot of sweat by our members, "Big Iron" has become (we believe) one of the most useable and adaptable cowboy ranges in the State. We have a high-quality target set, the number and variety of which is the envy of many a club.

A lot of good memories were made with our little club ... a favorite being Buzzard standing in the monsoon of 2005, wet hat down 'round his ears ... and a HUGE grin on his face saying "we'll keep shooting if you want us to!" From John Wayne, Marty Robbins, The Three Stooges, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid to Quigley ... we've paid homage (albeit a bit irreverently at times) to them all.

We can truthfully declare that "our friends have always been cowboys."

Through the medium of a healthy imagination, The Coal Creek Cowboys offered each of us the opportunity to recover a joy thought forever lost with our distand childhoods. We were able to rediscover the "art of play" ... to truly "be" Roy Rogers, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, The Cisco Kid ... and for a few hours or days set the cares and worries of the "real" world aside.

Penny Wrangler and I organized The Coal Creek Cowboys as a "private" club, mainly so to avoid the petty politics that have ruined so many other clubs. We accepted the responsibility of largely funding the Club ourselves, rather than enduring long and painful fund-raising efforts. We've done so gladly, expecting neither gratitude nor accolades.

But ... we're tired. When it becomes more a "chore" to host a match than the joy we've experienced in the past ... it's a signal that it's time for us to move on.

Having said this, Penny Wrangler and I are hereby announcing our effective retirement from the "business" of Cowboy Action Shooting.

Oh, we'll continue to shoot, travel and compete, but we no longer wish to have any role in club management, or in the design, set-up or hosting of a match.

We hope you understand.

Thank you for the friendships and the memories. We're sure that we'll catch up with you somewhere along the trail.

Penny Wrangler & Puffbuster