Welcome To The
The Living Tradition
Community • Heritage • Exhibition
Celebrating today’s gamefowl community through photographs of beautiful roosters, proud caretakers, and achievements at legal poultry exhibitions.
Become Part Of The Living Archive
Submit Your Rooster"Preserving the past. Honoring the legacy. Inspiring the future."
Grit & Steel Community Gallery
Welcome to a growing collection celebrating the roosters and people who carry the American gamefowl tradition forward. From ribbon and trophy winners at legal poultry exhibitions to beautiful roosters proudly raised at home, every photograph helps preserve this living heritage.
Sid Taylor – Holy Cross Farm
Owner/Caretaker: Holy Cross Farm
Location: Sonora, Mexico
Bloodline/Strain: Sid Taylor
Show/Award: Exhibition
Story: This Sid Taylor rooster, representing an old-time bloodline, was a winner at a show in Mexico.
Manila
Owner/Caretaker: Two Dogs Game Farm
Location: Porum, Oklahoma
Bloodline/Strain: Clear Creek “Bobby Fairchild” / Jonny “Black Hat” Bennett
Show/Award: First Annual Candelaria International Derby
Story: This is Manila, a rooster I took to the Philippines in 2006 to show at the first annual Candelaria International Show. He is out of the Grey foundation I started from my Clear Creek Bobby Fairchild/Jonny Bennett family, which I received from Bobby Fairchild and Paul Sparks in 1999. I am proud to continue breeding this family for legal show and breeding purposes.
Kenny Hopkins White Pumpkin Hulsey
Owner/Caretaker: Kenny Hopkins
Location: Rochester, Indiana
Bloodline/Strain: White Pumpkin Hulsey
Story: This is a rooster I obtained from Mr. Bo Conn of Printer Kentucky.
Valli holding Fiona, her favorite hen
Owner/Caretaker: Valli Jean & B. Henderson
Location: South Carolina
Show/Award: Show
Story: This is Fiona, one of our favorite hens.
Ole’ Friendly
Owner/Caretaker: Joe Mac Skinner
Location: Gaffney, South Carolina
Bloodline/Strain: Hack Lauderdale Grey
Story: Ole' Friendly, the beginning of my Hack Lauderdale Greys. Received from Hack after winning the Johnnie Jumper/Johnny Moore Tribute at Sunset.
Curtis Blackwell Kelso
Owner/Caretaker: Joe Mac Skinner
Location: Gaffney, South Carolina
Bloodline/Strain: Walter Kelso
Story: Joe Mac holding a yellow-legged Walter Kelso stag from the bloodline he acquired from Curtis Blackwell in 1979. This bloodline produces both white-legged and yellow-legged offspring.
Yellow Legged McLean Hatch
Owner/Caretaker: Joe Mac Skinner
Location: Gaffney, South Carolina
Bloodline/Strain: Curtis Blackwell YL McLean Hatch
Story: I purchased the GL McLeans from Curtis Blackwell in 1979. Some started coming YL and this is one of them.