A Blazin’ M Adventure On a recent trip to the Blazin’ M Ranch, a popular family and group attraction in Arizona’s Verde Valley, I felt I had stepped through a portal and become a child again. As the cowboy band sang “Ghost Riders in the Sky,”the lights flickered, and a ghostly rider came galloping past the windows. I was on the edge of my seat; and like the rest of the group of nearly 200, turned my head to follow the apparition circling the building.It was thrilling, especially for the would-be cowpokes whose eyes widened with delighted surprise.
This was the spectacular finale of a four-hour immersion into the frontier life that still lives on at the Blazin’ M, where cowboys sing and tell slapstick jokes, chuckwagon suppers are served on tin plates and quarters roll down carved chutes until a wooden mule kicks a bell.
Here’s a Blazin’ M-style riddle… There are two cowboys in the kitchen. Which one is the real cowboy? Answer: The one on the range Blazin’ M is only one mile from Main Street, Cottonwood, but it feels as if it is hours and decades away.Time seems to slow down. Horses swish their tails to get flies out of each others’ eyes, pot-bellied goats laze in the sun and a small express train circles the property, offering a pleasant introduction to the surrounding Verde River front. On nine acres hugging the Verde River, the Mabery family has recreated not only a small frontier townbut also the innocence of a bygone era that appeals as much to grandparents as it does to young children, corporate planners as anniversary celebrants, wedding parties as tourists on road trips. “When we arrived, we were welcomed with open arms and felt right at home,” recalled the Weavers from Pendergrass, Georgia. Blazin’ M opens its gates at 5 p.m.For an hour and a half, guests can ·explore the grounds and wildlife, ·ride the small train around the ranch, ·look at historic exhibits (some on loan from the Clemenceau Museum), ·take a shot in the shooting gallery, ·play horseshoes, ·rope a mechanical calf and ·shop in five stores with an inventory that ranges from cowboy boots and Victorian jewelry to Southwestern foods. For one-of-a-kind mementos there are period photographs. Blazin’ M guests can dress up in costume and have their picture taken in a Wild West saloon or a Victorian salon.Or they can take their own pictures around the frontier props, which include a jail and gallows. One exhibit is in itself worth the trip to the ranch — “ Wood ‘N’ West.”This series of one-of-a-kind dioramas with hand-carved, animated, wooden figures took master carver Jack Britt of San Diego, California, a lifetime to create. I saw scenes of frontier life, historic reenactments, such as Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House fictional characters, such as the Keystone Kops, Pinocchio and Huck Finn and the whitewashed fence and arcade-like games where a coin will set a whole world in motion.
At 6:30 p.m. the dinner bell rings, and everyone files in to the memorabilia-rich “barn” for an all-you-can-eat, hand-cooked barbecue dinner. The menu includes baked potatoes, beans, beef or chicken, applesauce, coleslaw, biscuits and spice cake as well as bottomless lemonade, iced tea or coffee. (A vegetarian entree is available if requested at time of reservation.) No one leaves hungry.Halfway through the meal, a cowboy comes in with a basket ofmelt-in-your-mouth biscuits, and kids stand up to catch one as it flies by.For those with a hankering for sarsaparilla, a piece of homemade pie, ice cream and other treats, there’s a snack bar to oblige. One hour later it’s time for the live Western stage show, the high point of the evening.The interactive show features the Blazin M Ranch Cowboys –versatile musicians who have strong voices and a long list of professional credentials, including being inducted into the Western Music Hall of Fame. The program features nostalgic cowboy tunes, tomfoolery and tall tales. For comic relief there’s memorable Otis, a one-toothed bachelor cowhand with a voice that’s straight off Broadway. After the show, there is more time to wander around the property, visit the shops, and get autographed CDs or party cowboy hats.At 9 p.m. the gate closes, but the homespun hospitality lives on.Many patrons come back to enjoy the frontier experience again and again. P.S. If you are going to Blazin’ M, brush up on your yee-haws, you’ll be using them during your visit.And check the schedule.The ranch closes in January and two weeks in August.
