Hundreds pack Hooper to hear

Hundreds flooded Hooper Sunday afternoon to hear Baxter Black’s wild tales of the cowboy life and the easy-loping cowboy songs of Wylie and the Wild West,

“I don’t like country music,” said Bill Maher, a cowboy from Deer Park. “But this… I love Wylie.”

Under a sunny sky, the poet and the crooner provided nearly four hours of top shelf entertainment to a crowd filled with cowboy hats and pearl snapped shirts.

Folks poured in from all across the west to catch the “Together at Hooper” show. Some came from as far away as Montana, others all the way from Colorado.

Organizer Della Evans told the Gazette Monday it was hard to get a full count of the audience. She said many people just paid the admission without getting a ticket.

“I know we sold about 500 lunches, and some people didn’t eat,” said Evans. “So there you go.”

The crowd filled the Hooper park, and overflow seating on the lawn of the Hooper Hotel was well-filled.

Some took the chance to check out the many historic artifacts inside the Hooper Store. Others lined under a shade tree to enjoy a helping of ice cream. Nearly all found old friends to share a sun-drenched afternoon.

The event was sponsored by the LaCrosse Arts and Beautification Council, and proceeds will be used to help fund the group’s efforts to clean up Main Street in LaCrosse. Another portion of the proceeds will be used to help restore the Hooper Store.

Arts Council Chair Mary Bertrand said the group was “very pleased” with how the event went off.

“Originally, when we started this a year ago, we just wanted to make enough money to pay these guys,” said Bertrand. “But we did that and made enough to do some things downtown. It all went very well.”

(See photos in Weekly Paper section on page 10A)