Old Shell Store hosts Fall Festival October 10

The Old Shell Store Fall Festival returns on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Old Shell Store, 219 Main Street in Shell. Admission is free and the event is open to everyone.

The afternoon brings back the pieces that have drawn Big Horn Basin families to Shell for the last six years: hay rides looping the Shell Valley (provided by  Shell Valley Volunteer Fire Department), a petting zoo of goats, sheep and friends, free face painting by Benjiporn Helburn, and kids’ games spread across the backyard. Axe throwing returns! Holland Dotson plays through the afternoon with guitarist Kohl Johnathan, and the Shell Store kitchen serves supper and sweet treats.

“It’s a small-town fall afternoon, and that’s the whole idea,” Kevin and Emily Clark of the Old Shell Store said in a press release. “People drive over from all over the basin and even the other side of the mountain, the kids run themselves tired out in the backyard, and everybody eats together and enjoys some great music.”

Shell sits at the mouth of Shell Canyon on U.S. Highway 14, and the festival lands in the heart of the Big Horns’ fall color season — a draw for day-trippers coming over the mountain from Sheridan and Buffalo as well as from Cody and Powell.

Guests should bring layers; evenings cool quickly once the sun drops behind the range. All activities are weather permitting.