Family turns southern Ohio property into Old West attraction

BEAVER, Ohio (AP) — The man everyone calls “Frog” set his tin cup of Mountain Dew on the wooden porch rail and mounted his favorite horse, an old Tennessee Walker named Charlie.

“The pig. Anybody seen Pig-Pig?” he asked. The cowboys standing all around him shook their heads. So Frog — he is 53-year-old Mike Montgomery, but few know him by that — chomped on his cigar, gave his horse a tap and said to no one in particular, “I’m going to go and find me a pig.”

As he rode off toward the pasture to find his farm’s only resident swine, a 26-year-old cockatoo named Baby that was perched atop a nearby pole began screeching for attention, and some visitors standingbeaten path of these winding roads. Tours are offered Wednesday through Sunday, but it is the monthly festivals that keep the place going. They host as many as 20 weddings a year, and dozens of private parties and corporate events.

Tonight, is “Dogwood After Dark,” a shindig full of skits and gunfights and cannon battles and entertainment in the saloon, starting at 7 p.m.

In the summer months, the Montgomerys live full time in the town in a room above its gift shop.

Kenny Alley is among at least 75 volunteers who keep the place running.

He plays Johnny Ringo, the leader of the town’s outlaw gang. He had never heard of Dogwood Pass, but took a concealed-carry class there three years ago. It sucked him in. Next thing you know, Alley