New exhibit to open with 'Sweethearts in Carhartts'

“Sweethearts in Carhartts,” a touring show of song and cowboy poetry, will help open a new historical exhibit at Chadron State College that focuses on women in ranching.

The show will be Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall. Tickets can be obtained by contacting the CSC Box Office at 308-432-6360 or boxoffice@csc.edu.

The performers of “Sweethearts in Carhartts” are Yvonne Hollenbeck, Jean Prescott and Liz Masterson. Hollenbeck writes and performs poetry, while Prescott and Masterson each play guitar and sing. Hollenbeck is friends with Billie Thornburg Snyder of North Platte who donated $50,000 to the CSC Sandoz Center’s C.F. Coffee Gallery last year.

The new Women in Ranching exhibit is part of the Coffee Gallery, which focuses on the development of the cattle industry on the High Plains. Tammi Littrel, who conducted research for the new exhibit, said it will help fill a void of perspective in ranch history.

“There has never been a lot of research done on this aspect of history,” Littrel said. “It’s always been his story.”

She said an increasing amount of information has become available from the female perspective since the 1970s when more women started earning PhDs and focusing their research on that aspect of history. The exhibit at CSC will feature historical artifacts and a touch screen computer with information about various ranching women and their struggles during the development of the High Plains.

“One of the most amazing things I’ve found in researching this is that nothing really changes,” she said. “A lot of these women were running ranches but also had outside jobs. They always had the chickens and milk cows to raise money to buy those extra things that there never was money for. ”