It will be the Cowtown that almost wasn’t.   
Months ago, Ellsworth’s annual celebration of its western heritage lost its sponsor, when the board of directors of the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce decided it didn’t fit into the organization’s mission of  “serving its members through promotion, resource  support and partnership opportunities in an effort to enhance our community.”
Then the city, which has been responsible for Cowtown in the past, also turned down an offer to oversee this year’s celebration.
“We were right up to the edge of the cliff, but we didn’t fall over,” said Tami McGreevy, the chamber’s executive director.
McGreevy issued a call for volunteers and for weeks, a growing number of Cowtown supporters has gathered at the chamber office on Tuesdays to make sure Ellsworth’s signature event continues.
“I just wasn’t going to let it die,” McGreevy said.
This year’s celebration is Aug. 19-20 with all the usual activities — including the parade at 10 a.m. Saturday with the theme “Ellsworth Strong.” Grand marshal will be the Ellsworth County Reporter, which celebrates its 150th birthday in 2022. Long-time Reporter and Independent-Reporter employees Dorothy Grothusen and Garnell Hanson will represent the newspaper on the reviewing stand. Former and current employees will follow on a float.
Grand marshal participants should meet at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Ellsworth’s Immanuel Lutheran Church. A group photo will be taken after the parade in the gymnasium at Ellsworth City Hall.
Other traditional events — such as the re-enactment of the “Shooting of Sheriff Whitney” — will be part of the weekend, which opens Friday night with the El-Kan Western Riders Rodeo followed by a 10 p.m. concert with Savanna Chestnut and a beer garden at Cowtown Plaza. The rodeo continues Saturday night after a day filled with food, music, vendors and history.

In addition to the old, this year’s Cowtown also will deliver several new activities.
Ellsworth County Economic Development will sponsor the Cowtown Amazing Race Competition beginning at 8 a.m. The event is patterned after the television program by the same name, except the Cowtown version will be confined to one day and to Ellsworth. There is no entry fee; however, the winning team will receive $500.
Five teams have registered to “race” through Saturday’s Cowtown events, armed with riddles and other clues on Ellsworth and Cowtown history.
More information is available from Stacie Schmidt, executive director of Ellsworth County Economic Development, (785) 472-9204.
Another new event will be the Ellsworth Strongman Competition at 9 a.m. at the Ellsworth Strength Center, 107 WN Main St.
“We have some really good competition coming in,” said Chris Rios, the center’s owner and a strongman competitor for six years. In September, he plans to participate in the World’s Strongest Firefighter competition in Texas. Rios works for the Salina Fire Department and also is a paramedic.
He expects the local event to draw a variety of contestants, including three from Ellsworth and one from Wilson, two women who are competing for the first time, veteran competitors and six or seven who will participate in the over 40 master’s division.
States represented will be Oklahoma, Alaska, Kansas, Missouri and Colorado.
Rios said there will be five events broken down by age. Participants will use the Hercules Hold, a strongman event that goes back to the early days of the sport. The athlete stands  between pipes and a chain and when the go signal is given, the support of the weights is released.
“I think it’s just going to grow,” Rios said of the Ellsworth competition.
Another volunteer at the Tuesday night meetings is Ellsworth Mayor Dan Finnegan, who is helping to organize a Cowtown Variety Show from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday. He expects twirlers, tumblers and Czech dancers — with a welcome from Miss Kansas Ayanna Hensley of Dodge City, a 2022 graduate of Fort Hays State University. Musician Rusty Rierson also will participate.
Jeannie Kline, who was responsible for sponsorships, said contributions “have been just amazing” from local businesses. More than $9,000 has rolled into the Cowtown coffer to join the $8,200 in seed money volunteers had from 2021. The total does not include in-kind contributions.
McGreevy said Cowtown is important to Ellsworth because it offers an opportunity for everyone to “see what wonderful things we have to offer.”
She estimates the community celebration draws between 2,000 and 3,000 people to the streets where old west legends once walked.
There is no charge to attend Cowtown.
The celebration has been the result of many volunteers over the years. At one time, the event included its own Medicine Show, a production of the late Bill Baker, who worked for the grand marshal Ellsworth Reporter and the Wilson World. Baker was Professor Jerusalem Stiles. He and his small band of performers traveled to nearby communities in their medicine show wagon, which is now owned by the Ellsworth County Historical Society.
“There was nothing like it. He was great and once he was gone, there was no more medicine show,” McGreevy said of Baker.
In the early 1990s, McGreevy, Schmidt and other local performers toured Central Kansas, entertaining audiences and encouraging the out-of-towners to attend Ellsworth’s Cowtown.
McGreevy even wrote a Cowtown song to the tune of Bill Bailey. The two sang parts of it at a recent meeting.
“We never changed a penny ... not even for gas,” McGreevy said of the trips.