My family lived about an hour from Buck Lake Ranch, and it was a great outing for the four of us. ‘Picnic on the Grounds’ and an afternoon of entertainment with people we listened to on the Grand Ole Opry/WSM radio out of Nashville. What could be better? My Mom really enjoyed Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernest Tubb, and Minnie Pearl when they played Buck Lake. I enjoyed the great costumes. Here is a shot of Little Jimmy:
Buck Lake Ranch is located on Buck Lake near Angola, Indiana. The property was purchased in the 1940s and a music venue was created by Harry and Eleanor Smythe. The long list of performers from those days to the present is amazing. From Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tammy Wynette, June Carter, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Buddy Holly, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, to Hank Williams. Oh yes, how could I forget Elvis Presley? Johnny Cash was released from jail long enough to perform at Buck Lake and then returned to prison, In recent years Billy Strings and The Travelin’ McCourys played the Ranch. 76 years later Buck Lake Ranch is still going.
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon performed as Minnie Pearl for over 50 years on the Grand Ole Opry and from 1969 to 1991 on the Hee Haw television show. She was a Buck Lake Ranch favorite. On the YouTube below, Roy Clark goes on with Minnie Pearl:
A memory of a performer using paddles with a rubber ball on the end of a rubber band has stuck with me. Imagine this guy keeping four paddles going at the same time! In another act he would have fun whirling a ball at he end of the rubber band around his head and taking it within inches of fans in the front row seats. Amazing skill with a dime store toy.
Those paddles can still be purchased. I have had many over the years and recently played with one. Easier than being on a tennis court!
It has been a treat thinking about our family going to Buck Lake Ranch. Those times along with hanging around the local truck stop on U.S. Highway 6, playing country music on the Jukebox, listening to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM radio Saturday nights has grounded me in the country genre. Now nightly YouTube visits for music often takes us to Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakum, Willie Nelson, The Highwaymen, and others. I am still a country boy!
I feel as you do about recent country music. I don’t know it really but I sense they all sound similar. Not the range of George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Haggard and others. You know what I mean. And think of Patsy Cline and Kitty Well!
Buck Lake Ranch! I didn’t know the wide variety and depth of people who played there until I researched last week. Louis Armstrong!! Come on. Buddy Holly!! Golly.
Great! You are so right about the great music of those years. One of my daughters just sent us a song if Simon and Garfunkel. I delight when younger folks find music like that.