The 2017 Steve Blackwell’s Ultimate Outdoor and Gun Show drew hundreds of vendors and guests to the Montezuma County Fairgrounds over the first weekend in May.
Blackwell, a retired Idaho sheriff, has helped organize gun shows in the Four Corners since 2012, and started his own event in 2016. More than 100 vendors participated this year.
In addition to the crowded vendor booths in the main Fairgrounds building, the show featured outdoor activities for kids, a car show and a gold- and treasure-themed exhibition put on by the Worldwide Association of Treasure Seekers.
“The show, so far, is looking really, really good,” Blackwell said Saturday morning. “We expect a huge attendance.”
He estimated about 500 to 600 people attended on Friday afternoon, when the show opened, and he hoped for 10,000 people on Saturday, typically the show’s busiest day.
The main show room was decked out with American and Confederate flags and Western-style decor, with some booths even displaying small laser light shows. In addition to guns and ammunition, the items on display included animal pelts, knives, artwork, clothing accessories, beauty products and many other items. For kids, vendors offered face painting, a train ride, archery and, in one of the fairgrounds barns, gold mining.
WWATS, a group based in Durango, exhibited metal detecting and mining supplies, featuring some vendors from as far away as Alaska and Ethiopia. A panning trough was set up outside the building so guests could try their hand at finding gold flakes among the dirt and rocks, and younger would-be miners could dig in a sandbox for more kid-friendly prizes.
Wayne Peterson, president of WWATS, said this was his organization’s first time at the gun show, but the group has held similar exhibitions at other events around the Four Corners for years. The group is made up of people passionate about gold mining, geocaching and other forms of treasure seeking, something Peterson said has been part of his life for a long time.
“It started when I was 9 years old, when I found my first gold ring,” he said. “I’m a lot older than 9 now.”
Peterson and the other vendors in the gold and treasure exhibition said business was slow on Saturday morning, but they hoped it would pick up as word of mouth spread throughout the day.
Things were more brisk in the main building, and the fairgrounds parking lots were mostly full by noon, with shuttles operating throughout the day to carry guests to and from the more distant lots.
Several representatives from the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office attended the show, including deputy Ted Holland on his patrol horse, Comanche.
This year’s gun show lasted from 12 p.m. on Friday, May 5, to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 7. Loaded firearms were prohibited on the fairgrounds during the event, and background checks were available to all gun purchasers.