Rube Yelvington was mayor of West Point, KY during the flood of March 1997, and the West Point Country Opry had been closed for over a year. As he thought of the task of reviving West Point when the waters receded, he thought also of the resource that was lost when the Opry closed, and of the excitement it had caused when it had opened back in 1993. He wondered if he could revive it again.

  
Rube called on his friend Jim Roberts of Elizabethtown and told him of his hope, and then Jim's brother Bill, who had returned to West Point from Chicago to be with his mother Hazel Roberts -- also Jim's mother. (Hazel and Bill are now deceased)

Rube, Jim, Bill and Rube's wife Nancy became the original incorporators.

Before we write of Music Ranch USA, we need to tell a bit about its predecessor, the the West Point Country Opry. The following paragraphs are from an historical posting on the theater building.

When Ivan and Edna Jennings visited West Point in 1990, they saw a quiet, peaceful town that escaped many of the problems of larger cities, and which reminded them of the vicinity in Missouri where, 25 years earlier, they had built and operated a “Country Opry.”

They had given it up when Ivan sought greener pastures as a recording artist in Nashville, Tennessee. Once there, he was unwilling to pay the price of club engagements and all that went with them. Instead, he chose the wheel of an over-the-road truck. The wheel led him to the nearby town of Brooks, where he built a home, and to a job delivering automobiles. But he never gave up his love for the stage and music.

He saw a new opportunity in West Point, then seeking to capitalize on its rich history with a number of tourism-related innovations.

Ivan summoned his brother Raymond and his wife Rita, who with Ivan and Edna invested their savings and time into a venture to build the West Point Country Opry.

The tract the families chose included a house and a funeral casket display building, both abandoned. While dealing with architects, permits, zoning, the fire marshal, plumbing inspectors, etc., they restored the two buildings and united them with a passage constructed from trees cut for the parking lot and lumber from an Indiana barn, and created the Sweet Shop and West Point Crafts Mall.

At the same time Raymond hauled over 500 truckloads of dirt to fill under the planned Opry House. They set concrete support columns and poured the floor. A contractor raised the walls and roof, and the brothers did the rest.

Tom Smith, then a State Senator, cut through the tangle of state red tape, and the brothers and their wives finished the West Point Country Opry building and opened it to the public for the first time late in February, 1993.

Scores of West Pointers turned out on Friday night to help install the seats and get the theater ready for the first Saturday show.

In 1996, Ivan and Edna had bought out Raymond and Rita’s interest in the Opry and crafts building. They were weary from the long hours and hard work the Opry required and Edna was ill. Ivan had retired as a truck driver and had more time, but felt he was not supported as he should be by the community and fellow business people. Attendance had dwindled. And May 30, 1996, a weary and depressed Ivan simply closed the doors.

The loss of the Opry was a setback for the tourism-oriented community. In May 1997, after the disastrous March flood that year, Mayor Rube Yelvington began forming a corporation and soliciting stockholders to purchase and reopen the property as Music Ranch USA in he hope of helping to revive the town.

Today there are over 60 stockholders from throughout the area. Rube's vision included a community-oriented program much like the commercialized version of Renfro Valley. The theater was reopened Sept.7, 1997 as Music Ranch USA. The crafts mall now is the Chow Hall. Unfortunately, the craft stores and other businesses hit by the flood did not reopen, or after reopening, soon closed.

The theater building is in the West Point National Register Historic District, but as a new building is not a “contributing” structure, despite its importance.

Music Ranch theater is the finest in Kentuckiana, with padded theater seats, air conditioned, excellent sound system with portable microphones, good acoustics, stage lights white and colored including spot, revolving stage, restrooms and changing rooms for entertainers. There is a concession stand with popcorn, hot dogs, candy, fountain Coca-Cola, Sprite, coffee.

Music Ranch enlarged the women's restroom from three to six stalls; installed air conditioning in the Chow Hall, installed new padded theater seats.

There is lighted parking in front of and behind the theater and in a nearby city parking lot.

The next door building, formerly a crafts mall and sweet shop, was utilized for an after-show coffee shop that evolved into the Chow Hall. It serves the best slow-roasted beef dinners plus an alternative plated dinner, sandwiches The Goodman Experience , including Christy Miller, and Matt Lyerla the first Saturday of each month, Matt Lyerla's band The Dixie Creek Road Show the second, David Berry and The Canyon Creek Band the third and from Indiana, Paul Smith as lead singer with The Hard Core Country Band the fourth.

July 21, 2007, Kevin Grissom, well know musician and band leader, produced his first show as a leased operator of the Music Ranch USA theater and the Country Cookin band became the house band of Music Ranch USA. That performance almost was a sell-out, with over 400 attending.

The second performance, July 28, drew over 300. The official Grand Opening is Aug. 4.

(Information on Narvel Felts and Kevin Grissom is being prepared.)

The mission of Music Ranch USA is to have the finest entertainment by the finest bands in the finest buildings for the finest people.

login or register to post comments