On Saturday, October 1st, the Medicine Park Marauders had three performances at the Southern Kiowa County Fall Festival in Snyder, OK. The Law, consisting of Marshal Payne, Odie and Pack Mule, was after Miss Floozy Coozy who was wanted for impersonating a beauty queen without an impersonating permit. She was also wanted for embezzling money from the town of Minco where she was the dormer Town Treasurer. However the Medicine Park Law was not concerned with the embezzlement charges as Minco was out of their jurisdiction. Seth Wright and gang members; Rattlesnake Bill, the Crisco Kid and Cerveza de Vaca, were out with their usual mischief and mayhem. Also on hand was Madam Olga. Doozy Floozy and Miss Stacey (another floozy).

The Marauders open their performances with Madam Olga leading the the three floozies in the marauder song on the downtown stage. Cerveza de Vaca joined them providing sound effects. While they were warbling on stage the rest of the Seth Gang harassed the audience and took an onlooker, who was not giving the floozies their deserved attention, off behind the stage and shot him. The outlaws moved up in front of the stage to hassle the singers. Upon hearing the gunshot the law came in looking for the fugitive Floozy Coozy. The Marshal lead the deputies on a search of the audience checking the women’s forearms against the picture of Floozy Coozy’s forearms on the wanted poster. The identifying tattoos on her arms were the only way they could make sure they had the right person.

One of the onlookers pointed out that one of the singers on the stage had those tattoos and the law moved in for an arrest. Pack Mule went up and made the arrest. He spotted Cerveza de Vaca from an old wanted poster and arrested him too. As the Law started to haul them off the rest of the Seth Gang confronted them. A gunfight soon started and the outlaws escaped when the Law ran out of bullets. When the gun smoke cleared Cerveza de Vaca had made a get away with the rest of the gang, but Pack Mule still had Coozy Floozy in custody.

The Law, with their horses worn out from the hard ride to Snyder, decided to take the 12:45 train back. Somehow they forgot there is no train into Medicine park. With Floozy Coozy in irons they boarded the train. Madam Olga and Doozy Coozy also caught the same train. Doozy was sporting a fancy parasol with a strange looking long handle she claimed came all the way from Paris. She did not specify if it was Paris, France or Paris, Texas. While waiting to board the Marshal picked out few able looking young men to deputize and help watch out for the outlaw gang. Once on the train Pack Mule was left to guard Foozy while the Marshal and Odie settled in at the back of the train. Meanwhile madam Olga amazed the passengers with her ability to see future events correctly forecasting that the Seth Gang would stop the train.

About three miles outside of Snyder the Seth Gang struck. As the train stopped Doozy Coozy reveled herself to be Floozy’s twin sister and an accomplice of the Seth Gang. That fancy parasol she was toting turned out to have a 12 gauge shotgun for a handle which she quickly whipped out and got the drop on the law as the outlaws boarded the train. The gang relieved the law of Floozy and along with her sister Doozy they all got off the train from the front. While they were getting off the law, along with madam Olga, grabbed their guns and headed to the rear of the train where they jumped down and the gunfight was on. When the law ran out of bullets and the smoke cleared the outlaws had fled. With no extra horses Floozy and Doozy got left behind where the law quickly nabbed them.

With the two Coozy sisters in irons the law got back on the train for a return to Snyder. On the train ride back the law rewarded the temporary deputies with wooden Marauder Bucks and Madam Olga astounded the passengers with her ability to read the future. But Madam Olga missed foretelling which side of a Marauder Buck would come up when a young man flipped it. The Marshal, knowing her normal, unfailing accuracy figured it must have been due to the Marauder Buck being mad of wood which does not transmit energy like a silver or gold coin.

The Marauders were scheduled to do a third show on the 2:45 train with a robbery of a strongbox guarded by the law planned. But the train ride was changed to 2:00 without the Marauders being informed. Being as quick on ad libbing as they are are on the trigger, the Marauders went off via a van to “head ‘em off at the pass.” The train had gone by when we got to the normal stop, but it had to come back to Snyder. With all of the Marauders outside the approaching train we decided to all be outlaws and rob the train. The law removed their badges and we boarded the train. Passing back through grabbing hats, a bag of cookie crumbs and other small items the Marauders filled the loot bag. Off the train the quickly revised plot called for an argument over the loot  to lead into the inevitable gunfight, but Cerveza de Vaca grabbed the bag and took off. As he ran a zig-zag course across the field the rest of the Marauders drew their guns and fired at him until they ran out of bullets again. Cerveza de Vaca dropped the bag of loot which was retrieved by Madam Olga. She and the Coozy sisters got on the train for the return to Snyder. On the way back they decided, with these hard times, they had to return the stolen loot to the rightful owners.

Great fun was had by all even with the last train time mix up. We hope to ride to Snyder again for next year’s Fall Festival.

Rattlesnake Bill with Doozy & Floozy Coozy.

Calamity Lee fires on the outlaws.

On October 2 the Medicine Park Marauders held a three part show in Snyder, OK.For the first show the Law was guarding a shipment of gold from the Medicine Creek Mining Company being sent by rail. About 5 miles out of Snyder the Seth Gang stopped the train. Little Britches was on board in disguise and got the drop on the law. The gang boarded and  managed to steal the strongbox. Off the train, they tried to shoot the lock off the box with no luck. The law got off the train and the Marshal shot at the gang, but knocked the lock off. The outlaws grabbed the gold and made their getaway.

With the gold gone the train & the law went back to Snyder. There Calamity Lee lead us in the Marauder Song. As the song ended the Seth Hang made a brazen appearance. A gunfight broke out which ended in the capture of Seth.

The law then took Seth, in irons, on the train bound for prison. But again the Gang was waiting. They stopped the train. Grabbing the conductor hostage they sprang Seth. The law gave a short persut, but soon ran out of bullets.

Special thanks to photographers Heather Morefield & Randy Warren for great pictures.

Click here for pictures.

Appearing in Stagecoach Hold-up

The Medicine Park Marauders, Medicine Show and Perils Thank you for your order!

First Medicine Park Marauder Comic

Available NOW! Click here to purchase online.

A few weeks ago a large Ramada of horseless plowing machines came a chuggin’ into Medicine Park. I’m sure it weren’t no posse hunting a fugitive as they couldn’t get up enough velocity to catch one if they saw him.  Of course this bazaar sight brought both the Seth Gang and the law a runnin’. They reined up short a wondering what those noisy contraptions were.  Soon Seth, Little Britches, Rattlesnake, Doc Holiday, Marshal Payne & Marshal Odie were all clumped together tryin’ to figure out exactly what them things were. Seems that these new machines were fixin’ to take over the job of perfectly good horses. As it turned out the Seth Gang & the lawmen were secret pards and joint owners of the local feed business.  Without the need for a lot of horses them feed business profits would be a hurtin’.

They determined something was needed to rein in this menace. The lawmen quietly slipped their badges into pockets.  Together the Marauders approached the intruders meaning to run those machines clear out of the territory.  Nearing where the tractors were corralled Seth demanded to know who was the head wrangler of that outfit. He was pointed out and, with drawn six-guns he was quickly taken hostage. They figured with the head honcho of those varmints hobbled and threatened they saddle up and vamoose.

But as it turned out he was leanin’ a little to the Marauder side so he was recruited and given a hat and a .45 Colt.  The Marauder gang got the idea if they got the feller holding’ the high hand would have a lot of loot which could be appended to the mutual Marauder investments. It appeared to be a fellow named John Deere as he had his brand on most of them infernal machines.  But no one in the outfit had that handle.

Since John Deere was not ridin’ with that bunch the Marauders got the inspiration to steal one of them tractor machines and hold it for ransom. That’s when trouble flared up. There were two real pretty mechanical mounts in the herd. Little Britches had a hankerin’ to haul freight with an orange tractor and Seth was spinning his rope for a large green one. Both were good looking mounts, which split the Marauders into two camps. The dispute quickly escalated into gunfire, which once again, ended when they ran out of bullets.

The skirmish over, a deal was cut with the tractor outfit. They’d be let allowed to depart with their scalps intact if they hauled freight out of town after grabbin’ some chuck at the Riverside eatery.  They were so grateful not to get shot up they even bought the Marauders a round of lunch.

The Marauders helped group from BrookRidge into the winery. Luckily the seniors were not packing iron as an argument broke out of who got to use one of the wheelchairs. The dispute was settled when the contestants ran out of bullets.

A couple of Floozies, Miss Vycke and Little Britches decided to stake a claim on the menfolk of the BrookRidge Gang much to their delight.  One woman was issuing orders so we dubbed her the boss of the BrookRidge Gang. Another of their gang said; “She’s not the boss, she’s just German.” Another we called princess and chief wine taster (her glass could not be refilled fast enough). Princess was hording all of their gold. She said she had a golden leg. In order to get the gold we needed a hostage.

Miss Vycke packing a small gun in her needlework purse and Doc Holyday lead the Marauder’s in taking the hostage. They singled out the activity coordinator as the perfect target, a young lady just turned 27. With that as clue we looked for her in the group. The first one picked said that could be her age, but Little Britches though she might have switched the two numbers. The right person was uncovered and we swore her in as a Marauder, then decided to take her out and shoot her any way.  It might be enough to get the rest to hand over the gold. Alas it did not work we got no gold, and the hostage was only a bit startled by the noise of the blanks.

When ask if any of them had been here in the past one gentleman said he used to come out a lot, but spent most of the time in the Wildlife Reserve. In 1935, and at the age of 10, he climbed Mount Scott.  This was before the road to the top was built. He commented on how long it took and Rattlesnake Bill said; “When he got back down he was 12.” This brought a chuckle from all.

In the end the Brookridge Gang made out with a tasting of the fine wines and a free ticket to the Buffalo Elixir Medicine Show performance at BrookRidge Retirement Community on Oct. 25.