Vern Jackson

 Remember when Knott's Berry Farm was free? You could walk in and spend all day for very little money. Most of the entertainment was free. You could go into the Calico Saloon, watch the pretty saloon girls dance the can-can, walk out and witness a shoot out in Calico Square, and then watch the Medicine Show, where an old time banjo player would play vintage songs and hustle the miracle cure in a bottle (which was nothing more than boysenberry juice) that would cure anything that ailed you.

Then you could walk across the square and take a ride on the narrow gauge train where you would get held up at gunpoint, then take a ride on a stagecoach and also get held up.

If you wanted to sit down for a while, you could go to the Birdcage Theater and take in an old time melodrama.

As you wondered up and down the streets of Ghost Town, you would see elderly fiddlers sitting on the porches of the old buildings, playing period songs that Mr. Knott so loved. I could go on and on about that wonderful place of yesteryear.

About sundown, Knott's started slowing down, as there were no thrill rides to keep people entertained. People gravitated to the Wagon Camp, an amphitheater which seated about 800 people and was encircled by covered wagons that you could also sit in. If memory serves correctly, the wagons were usually occupied by young sweethearts as the wagons were half enclosed. 

About 8:00 o'clock, a young cowboy would build a campfire in the fire pit in front of the stage. A few minutes later, a cowboy singing group would appear singing western classical music like you would hear in all the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies. This group was called The Wagonmasters. 

 For the next 20 years, Vern has been a featured gospel singer on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.  

In 2011, Vern was notified that The Wagonmasters were nominated to receive the coveted Pioneer Trails Award from the Western Music Association. Only four of the six surviving members of The Wagonmasters were able to attend. They hadn't worked together for over 52 years and were expected to perform a couple of songs at the ceremony. 

As Vern said, "This will be a real challenge for four old men after 52 years. Two of the men live in the Phoenix area, one lives in Agoura Hills and I live here in Seal Beach, so there was no way we could get together to rehearse. So we picked tow songs that we thought we would all remember and everybody got a CD of them and we all rehearsed by ourselves. The awards were being held in the famous Kimo Theater in old town Albuquerque, New Mexico 

on November 19, 2011

The lead singer of The Wagonmasters was Vern Jackson, who with his wife, Sandra, resides at Leisure World in Southern California. 

The Wagonmasters gave Vern his first job in 1958, right out of high school, singing songs such as "El Paso", "Cool Water" and "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds". 

Learn more about Vern's amazing career.

See a complete list of Vern Jackson's recording history.