The Best of the West Ribfest is a rib feast

Saturday Snapshot from Watford City

18 years and it keeps getting better.

It’s supposed to be a rib fest, and it is. But it is not just the best ribs, but also the best gathering on Watford City’s Main street. It happens once a year in Watford City, the county seat of McKenzie County.

I had to find out for myself.

Once I decided to make the trip to Watford City, I could only speculate what was in store.

Wow. The traffic!

I detoured around the west side of town, and parked blocks from Main street – just like other hundreds of other people did.

The entire length of Watford City’s business district was packed.  A policeman I talked to said, they were told to prepare for more than 7,000 people coming and going through the day.  Some estimated it was closer to 10,000.

The McKenzie County EDC Director was all smiles.  This kind of activity is good for the region. File it under “Quality of Life.”

Eats

My plan was to resist the food until after I got a good sample of what all the vendors were offering. Alas, I succumbed to temptation earlier than I thought.   Everywhere I looked people were chowing down on ribs, corn, snow cones

Finally, I sat down with a family from Alexander. As I chowed down, we talked about his wheat crop. “If it were ready, (to harvest) I wouldn’t be here,” he smiled.  It was the first time in 10 years he’d made it to the Best of the West Ribfest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The live music of the Cody Charles band and the main act of Joe Nichols drew the crowd to one end of the festivities. 

When the crowd got tight, and I got out.  There wasn’t much daylight left and I wanted to see if I could photograph any rutting bison in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  So, I skipped the music.

Did I get any rutting bison or big horn sheep? or elk?  Stay tuned.  I’ll let ya know.

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