James George squinted with his left eye and gestured with his right hand as he talked about life as a wild West lawman.

“Me and my brothers, we traveled across Kansas,” said George, who wore a deputy U.S. Marshal badge and a tall black hat. “I only shot one person in the six years I was here.”

Then, George was no longer impersonating Wyatt Earp, and he was back in present-day Lawrence in a hotel convention room full of leather goods, jingling spurs and the sound of cowboy music.

“I do birthday parties and everything,” said George, 52, a lithographer who lives in Kansas City, Kan. “I’m booked for the next year.”

What brought George to Lawrence Friday was the town’s first Cowboy Winter Gathering, a trade show billed as a way to celebrate Kansas’ cowboy culture. The event continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Lawrence Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive.

Organizer Rob Phillips, who’s general manager of the Eldridge Hotel, said a reason for the event was to lure visitors to Lawrence during winter, when many hotel rooms sit empty.

It also gives Lawrence residents a glimpse of what state officials say is the biggest piece of Kansas’ $3.8 billion annual tourism market: the “Old West” niche.

In this business, baby boomers pay to hop in a covered wagon or camp out under the stars. Tour operators market authentic Kansas cattle rides to people in Germany and the United Kingdom who are crazy about cowboys.

“I think a lot of people have an affinity for it,” said Liz Syverson, 56, a Spanish teacher from Topeka, clutching a blue flier advertising an upcoming trail ride. “Maybe this is just a bunch of old Roy Rogers fans.”

About 400 people visited the event in its first five hours, Phillips estimated. They browsed booths filled with cowboy hats and chaps, western-themed lamps and tourist information about places such as Abilene and Dodge City’s Boot Hill Museum.

John Curry of Brookville sits on a custom saddle made by Elby Magee of Osawatomie at the Cowboy Winter Gathering at the Lawrence Holidome. The trade show, which began Friday and wraps up today, brings together Old West enthusiasts from around the Midwest.

Phillips said the crowd was bigger than he expected, but he knew there was interest in the subject: He cited figures from the state showing 70 percent of all inquiries about Kansas tourism involve cowboys and cattle trails.

Kimberly Qualls, tourism marketing manager for Kansas’ Travel and Tourism Development Division, distributed travel magazines near the entrance. She said she would consider this weekend a success if 40 people left with a “Kansas adventure” in mind.

Rob Brannon will be happy if he recruits some gunslinging buddies. Brannon, who wore an old-fashioned bib-front shirt and leaned on a replica Spencer rifle, is a “cowboy action shoot” enthusiast.

¢ 6News video: Hundreds gather for cowboy conference

Such an event usually involves dressing up in period clothes, setting up camp in the wilderness, then simulating gunfights using metal targets, said Brannon of Kansas City, Kan.

“Sometimes the smoke will get so thick you have to duck down under it to keep shooting,” he said, leaning forward out of his chair and bobbing from side to side.

The participants are mostly men, but women and children sometimes participate, Brannon said.

“There’s something in cowboy shooting for everybody,” he said.