Friday's Internet Edition, July 04, 2008.
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- The Annual Frontier Days Events scheduled for this weekend have been enriched for this year by the addition of a special Motorcycle Rally being sponsored by Bowlero Archery and by the decision of the Museum Board to change their pancake breakfast to a pancake brunch.
Mike Barrenday announced that he has organized a really great motorcycle event to go along with the annual Frontier Days festivities. “We will be doing some fun stuff with both motorcycles and archery that we think will really enhance the day’s festivities and give the locals and visitors something to do during the idle hours of the day before the dance,” said Barrenday.
The motorcycle show will feature the bikes of anyone who wants to enter the day’s events with an entry fee of only five dollars. Judging and display of the bikes will be from 10 am until noon on Saturday, June 16, and trophies will be awarded to the winners of the motorcycle show. Three judges will determine the winner of the best looking bike contest and trophies for the event have been sponsored by Papa Chuy’s Restaurant.
Later in the day, and during the time that the vendor will be set up across the street at the dance location (6:00 pm), Bowlero will be offering a demonstration of bow shooting and a bow shootout.
Also special to the day, is the Museum’s decision to change their pancake breakfast to a pancake brunch. A lot of people have complained that after the late night movie on Friday night, an early breakfast is just too early to get up for. In response, the Museum has changed to a brunch format and will now serve their pancakes from 9 am until noon. The cost is minimal and the proceeds support the museum’s programs. So please come out this year and support the museum as they respond to your requests for change.
And not to be forgotten is the usual weekend activities of a dance on Saturday night and a movie on Friday night, outside and on the wall. Remember to bring your own chairs and drinks to the movie. Also, remember to bring your own chairs to the dance on Saturday night, but don’t bring your own drinks…Ice chests will not be allowed and drinks and a lot of good food will be available from some great vendors. Vendors will be set up and selling from 5 pm, but the dance will begin at the usual 9 pm time, so if a good meal is in the plan, but not the dance, then come on out before 8:30 to pick up your meal.
Wayne West will be the featured music for the event and the street will be closed off to give you all the room you need to shake, rattle and roll.
See the big ad elsewhere in this newspaper for time and place. Tickets are $6.00 per person with all kids 5 and under free when they are with their parents. So, bring the family out for a night of fun and celebration as Main Street Van Horn thanks you for your support and provides the community with what has turned into one of our more enjoyable community activities….There’s just something special about dancing in the street!
Column One
By Dawn Simpson
At this time each June, our thoughts usually turn toward our rich pioneer heritage and we enjoy hearing about some of the town’s history. Although Frontiers Days isn’t celebrated quite like it was for many years, it’s still good to acknowledge of rugged western heritage as a town and as a people. Frontier Days was established to raise money to build the Community Center and the Rodeo Arena, and after that was accomplished it lost a little of its drive. Now the Main Street Board just carries on the idea, with a few fun things, particularly the big Street Dance on Saturday night. It’s a family time, in fact much of the evening you see as many children dancing in the street as you do adults. The Museum is hosting a fund-raising brunch on Saturday. That will be a fun time to visit, as well as help the museum raise money for their many projects needing to be done. And next weekend is RODEO TIME in Van Horn.
I thought it might be a good time to go back and look at some of the history of our area. Some of you will have heard all of this, but to the fairly newcomers to our town it’s something new. The following was taken from a 1967 issue of the Advocate. Since it is a little long, I’ll do it in two weeks.
Maggie Graham’s grave overlooks a broad Culberson County valley which has changed a great deal since she was laid to rest there 75 years ago.
The grave is marked with a four-posted hogwire pen the size of a grave and about four feet high. On the wire at one end is a rusty piece of sheet iron in which her name, Maggie Graham, has been engraved with a hammered nail.
Maggie died reaching for a rifle with which to kill the Apaches who killed her. She rests now on a little knoll a few yards from the mound of rocks that once was the stage stand at Van Horne’s (or Van Horn’s) Wells. On the site of the wells themselves a windmill pumps with West Texas wind to fill tanks from which sheep drink.
In the valley below and to the east is the Texas and New Orleans Railroad (Southern Pacific) section settlement of Lobo, Texas, and nearby is the Lobo Ranch. Neither has been there so long as Maggie.
Up the valley to the north about 10 miles if Van Horn, fast-growing seat of Culberson County, situated on Highways 80 and 90 and on the Texas and Pacific Railroad. All these, too, have come since Maggie Graham.
In 1880, Victorio, who has been called the greatest general of the Apaches, was cornered at last in Chihuahua after a long campaign and was killed with most of his warriors.
Before he was trapped, 12 warriors, four squaws and four children left the main band and headed for Texas.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
June 14th - Flag Day. Members of the Van Horn Volunteer Fire Department are slated to meet this evening at 7 p.m. at the firehouse.
June 15th - Nothing scheduled at press time.
June 16th - Main Street’s Frontier Days and Main Street Dance set for today (See ad elsewhere for all the details).
June 17th - Father’s Day. Attend the church of your choice.
June 18th - Trustees of the Culberson County-Allamoore I.S.D. are slated to meet tonight at 6 p.m. at the District Administration Building.
June 19th - Members of the Van Horn Rotary Club are scheduled to meet today at noon at Chuy’s. The Van Horn City Council is slated to meet tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
June 20th - Nothing scheduled at press time.