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Awarded two times Who’s Who Among American Teachers
Awarded two times Instructor of the Year Oglala Lakota College
Presented two times Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Merit Award
2005 Winner of Master Storyteller Award presented annually at Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival, McCook, Nebraska

Published in Nebraska Life Magazine
Stories in Leaning into the Wind and Woven on the Wind (anthologies edited by Linda Hasselstrom, Nancy Curtis and Gaydell Collier)
Poems and stories in various publications

1995 released audiocassette recording Welcome to the North Star Motel (no longer available)
1999 released CD and book Heart’s Compass with Lyn DeNaeyer Messersmith
2003 released CD Leaders and Legends with Lyn DeNaeyer Messersmith

Numerous Heart’s Compass and Leaders and Legends programs, performances and school residencies with Lyn Messersmith
Featured solo performances at Cowboy Poetry Gatherings in Elko, Nevada; Arvada, Colorado; Valentine, Nebraska; and Cody, Wyoming.

Born and raised in the cow town of Abilene , Kansas , Geff grew up living the life of a rodeo cowboy. After studying Animal Science at Kansas State University , Geff worked for area ranchers over the last 20 years as day help in Wabaunsee County Kansas.

Inspiration for his poetry and western music stems from true-life experiences of working a 1,000 head cow/calf operation, his rodeo career, shoeing and training horses and management of his own ranch with his wife Dawn. The NRHA recently commissioned Geff to write a cowboy poem honoring the NRHA Million Dollar Riders entitled Million Dollar Horsemen which he performed horseback in Oklahoma City.

Geff tells his stories through cowboy poetry and western music. He tells humorous and serious cowboy poetry stories and he adds a special flare with his crowdengaging western music. You are sure to be hooked throughout his performance whether laughing or crying. It’s hard to imagine so much of his cowboy poetry as being true. The fact is, a cowboy’s way of life can be quite entertaining and Geff will give you some great examples that show you just that.

Residing near the town of Livingston, Montana, Ric Steinke and Linda Hausler of Open Range, have been performing together since 1996. Whether they perform as a duo, trio or their six piece western swing band (Open Range & The Swing Stampede), Ric and Linda are helping to keep western music alive and well throughout the Northern Rockies region.

This year will be Ric’s twelfth season as cookout singer and stagecoach teamster at Roosevelt Lodge in Yellowstone National Park. In the winter he also drives a team and sings for the sleigh ride dinner at Lone Mountain Ranch.

They have three cds to their credit, Yellowstone Winds, High Country Cookout, and their most recent, Swingtime in the Rockies, which was a Western Music Association top nominee for best western swing album. In 2005 they were awarded the Best New Original Dance Tune award for their song Blue and Lonesome. You can also catch them on PBSKids Postcards From Buster, Buster’s Buffalo Roundup, and England’s BBC documentary Montana Cowboys.

Elizabeth Ebert and her husband still live on the place they have lived on all of their married life, 61 years of married life. They are retired now. They have three children, six grands and five great grands.

They have traveled a great deal since she went public with her poetry, from Boston to California, from Calgary to Texas. She has been a featured poet at Elko for ten years. She was awarded the Della Jones Scholarship and the Western Artists Female Poet of 2001.

Elizabeth has three books, now out of print, and a book Crazy Quilt, which includes most of her poems. She has a CD, Live from Thunderhawk and a humorous CD Where the Buffalo Rhyme, recorded with Yvonne Hollenbeck, Rod Nelson and Jess Howard.

Glen Ohrlin was born in Minnesota on October 26, 1927. He was raised just north of the White Earth Indian Reservation.

His grandpa farmed and raised bronco horses. He started riding colts when he was twelve years old, then moved to California and took riding jobs. He cowboyed and buckarood in Nevada, Arizona, and Wyoming at age sixteen. Glen also started rodeoing as a bronc rider.

He bought a ranch in Arkansas in 1954 and is still there.

Folklorist, Archie Green got him to do college concerts of cowboy (traditional) songs in 1963. He has been at it ever since, performing at festivals and cowboy gatherings. In 1985 he won the National Heritage award.

Glen still has some cattle and horses on his ranch in Arkansas

Don Schauda makes his home in the Middle Loup River Valley of northern Custer County, Nebraska near the unpopulated village of Milburn. He & his wife Sue, are the parents of two sons and a daughter, all grown & married. They also have three grandkids, about the best thing God ever invented.

Don has been called "a man of many hats," and not just because he has purchased seed corn. He is a preacher and currently serves as pastor of Wescott Baptist Church near Comstock, Nebraska wihch meets in a building built in 1898. He also runs cattle and raises hay on the Loughran Homestead that dates to 1874, one of the earliest in central Nebraska.

If there's time in between, Don can often be found entertaining with his own brand of music that displays an interest in history, a love of the West and a strange sense of humor. He currently has three recorded albums of music and poetry that originate from his rural Nebraska heritage and his faith.

Schauda's appearances have included performances at several county fairs, the Mountain Music Show of Custer South Dakota and the Nebraska Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Valentine.

Jack Ostergard can be described as a retired rancher with a gift of gab and a penchant for rhyming words - He has a cowboy's lanky build, and you'll usually find him wearing Wrangler jeans, boots and a western-cut shirt and a Stetson hat.

Jack is a fourth generation rancher, born and raised on the edge of the sandhills in Custer County. He is an ex-amateur rodeo competitor, a Korean War Veteran, and for many years served on Nebraska Cattle Association boards. Jack was second place Out Standing Young Farmer/Rancher in Nebraska in 1986, was the first recipient of the Nebraska Cattleman of the Year award.

His original cowboy poetry ranges from protest to humor, with a dose of politics thrown in for good measure... It is good clean family entertainment that's sure to please.

Jack has presented his poetry and humor all across Nebraska and several neighboring states.