No ticket?Didn't get your Sesquicentennial Banquet tickets? Don't despair. There's quite a lot outside the banquet hall at the Italian Benevolent Society grounds you can do for free.
According to the Amador County Sesquicentennial Committee (ACSC), the celebration on June 14 - the county's 150th birthday - will include about 90 minutes of music from the raised stage on the picnic grounds.
ACSC music chairman Irv Gidding says that from 5 to 6:30 p.m., early banquet attendees and those not attending the banquet can enjoy a concert featuring the Amador County Band, Jackson Gate troubadour, Robert Barfoot, and the Amador contingent of the Sacramento Banjo Band.
Barfoot, he said, will lead off with an ensemble of songs to fit the historic occasion. His deep baritone has entertained audiences here and in Stockton for years.
After Barfoot warms the crowd, the popular Amador County Band will perform one of its customary concerts in the park from 5:30 to about 6:30 p.m.
Midway, when the band takes a break, there will be no let-up in entertainment as the local banjo players Don Schumacher, John Green, Betty Lester, Jan Buhlert, Del Burwell and gut-bucketer Herb Schreiber do a set.
The Banjo players, after a short stint here, will keep warmed up for another performance during the banquet.
While listening to music, attendees can also "shop" at the silent auction sponsored by the ACSC banquet committee to help raise funds for Amador's pioneer cemeteries. The items being auctioned will be displayed on tables outside the hall so both banquet attendees and non-attendees can make bids.
Banquet entertainmentAmador County's own Ron Scofield, a true cowboy of the West, will be the featured performer during the Amador County Sesquicentennial Banquet starting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 14 at the Italian Picnic Grounds.
Since Scofield sings, plays the guitar, writes cowboy poetry, and tells tall tales, probably a little of each will flavor his gig before a full house of 315 people at the Martell venue. The full-night of celebration begins at 5 p.m. with a 90-minute musical program featuring the Amador County Band.
But it will be later in the evening when Scofield, who with wife Marie, own the Red Mule Ranch in suburban Fiddletown, steps before the mike.
Many Amador residents have heard Scofield's stories and poetry and hear him strum and sing cowboy laments for years at special programs at the ranch. And Nevadans for years have enjoyed his talent at the annual Rhymers Rodeo, a cowboy poetry and music festival, at the Carson Valley Inn.
After years working ranches and working with horses and youth in a Fallbrook, San Diego County riding club, Ron and Marie reached Amador in 1972. They found the land they hankered for, built with their own hands the house and barn, even before getting electricity from PG&E.
At the ranch, he mastered the crafts of black smithing, carriage and wagon making. He even took a fling at recreating Victorian-era facades on Main Streets in Ione and Jackson, among other places.
Coins on sale at banquetAn Amador Sesquicentennial coin - silver-dollar sized - will soon be available for purchase in silver or bronze as a keepsake of Amador's 150th birthday on June 14.
That announcement comes from Daniel Trassare of Trassare Jewelers in Jackson, who will market the commemorative coin. Early last week, Trassare was showing members of the Amador County Sesquicentennial Committee (ACSC) the proofs, in pewter-color, from the manufacturer, Masterpiece Medallions in Claremont.
Trassare said some of the coins will be bronze and some will be in silver.The bronze coins will be priced less than $10; the silver $20 or less. The silver coins, he said, will be packed in special silver boxes.
The idea for the commemorative silver coin came from Ken Bosworth, an ACSC member. He and Trassare enlisted Sutter Creek artist, Robert Richards, to design the coin.
His design shows, on the obverse or front side, a sketch of the first county courthouse, and the words "Amador County Courthouse, 1854" on top and "Sesquicentennial" along the bottom.
The reverse or back side is a montage of images from the county's history, including wheels, a headframe, an onion dome and steeple, and rolling hills.
One of the silver coins will be the only prize in a drawing at the Sesquicentennial banquet on June 14 at the Italian Picnic Grounds. Trassare said he's confident the coins will arrive before the banquet.
