Wild West Show settles into Branson

Silver Saddle Productions Inc. and Kevin Carleton, president of Carleton & Co. in Springfield, are partnering to develop Phase I of 70 acres known as Canterbury Gardens on Gretna Road across from Branson Mill.

Construction is scheduled to begin in spring on a 60,000-square-foot facility and a western-themed shopping plaza and steakhouse on 15 acres, according to Don Endsley, who owns Silver Saddle Productions with his wife, Sharon.

Endsley said the enclosed theater will have 2,000 seats, corporate suites and a custom-built arena. Also on site, there will be stables and pastures for around 40 horses, longhorn cattle and buffalo used in the show.

Carleton & Co. will serves as general contractor, and Creative Ink Architects LLC is project architect.

Originally based in Weatherford, Texas, near Fort Worth, the Great American Wild West Show has always toured, most recently as a pregame act for the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets and for the 10th consecutive year at the 101st annual National Western Livestock Show in Denver.

“We do a lot of coliseums and indoor facilities,” Endsley said. “Even once we set down here in Branson, we still plan to go on the road on a limited basis.”

The Great American Wild West Show is described as “a western version of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus,” according to Cary Parker, the show’s general manager.

“It has the look and feel of a circus with the color of the costumes and the caliber of performers,” Parker said.

Endsley, who produces the show, said the entertainment is patterned in the tradition of “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show that circulated the country and Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Great American Wild West Show has a cast of more than 100 horsemen, trick riders and Native American dancers.

Endsley plans to operate the Branson theater year-round.[[In-content Ad]]