Thousands of School Children to Decend on Campus for Western Heritage Day
Thousands of elementary school children will visit the HSU campus Thursday for the 27th Annual Western Heritage Day celebration.
HSU faculty and staff will show up in their western duds to help reconstruct scenes from a time when life was a lot simpler. Faculty and staff will instruct little cowboys and cowgirls as they rope "steers," pump water from authentic hand pumps, and play old-time games.
The children will be able to pet goats, sheep, donkeys, and even a llama. They will also meet the Six White Horses.
There will be an authentic pioneer church service held under a brush arbor, horses shod, and western craftsmen and women demonstrating quilt-making, linen weaving, and campfire cooking.
The HSU Spurs will paint faces, while a Texas Ranger and posse keeps an eye out for those ornery types. Each year everyone seems to enjoy the Cowboy beans and biscuits.
Event coordinator Leianne McMillan says she estimates 4,500 children from Abilene and surrounding communities will attend the event.
Western Heritage Day: The Beginnings
The following, written by Dr. George Newman, professor of biology emeritus, tells us how Western Heritage Day got its start:
Can anything good come from discussions held in the "Faculty Lounge"? If you were to ask that of an administrator, their answer would probably be "no." But on occasion, among the fertile, and oftentimes not so fertile, ideas tossed about, a real gem is discovered.
In the fall of 1981 as a part of HSU'S participation in the Abilene Centennial Celebration, Lawrence Clayton and B.W. Aston put together an outdoor ceremony honoring Ms. Tommie Clack and Dr. Rupert Richardson. This event was held on the lawn of the Sid Richardson Science Center where we built a campfire. My duty was to control the fire and not let the glowing coals get out of control. This event was held primarily for the HSU family and a few honored guests, and a good time was had by all.
Now back to the faculty lounge. As I recall, a discussion developed among a group of renegades, namely: Lawrence Clayton, BW Aston, Bill Curtis, Randy Armstrong, and myself. We were talking about how much fun we had at the outdoor ceremony honoring Ms. Clack and Dr. Richardson. Lawrence and I were the only ones of the group who had children at the time, and we bemoaned the fact that our kids would come home once a year wearing a McMurry Indian headband. With the centennial ceremony fresh in our minds, we started discussing the fact that HSU had a heritage just as rich as any other university in the land.
From that discussion, the idea was borne that led to the first HSU Western Heritage Day held in the spring of 1982. The whole campus joined in and enjoyed the fun. It truly was an event that everyone bought into. Each year an idea would come about that would lead to a new event being added as an attraction for the elementary age students to enjoy.
We always tried to keep the exhibits as close to actual events reminiscent of our pioneer history. You see, HSU would probably not have made it through the early years without the support of West Texas ranching families. Descendants of those early pioneer ranching families continue to this day to provide support for Hardin-Simmons University.
Lou C. Evans established an endowment in her will that is used to this day to give financial support for the events of Western Heritage Day at HSU. Aunt Lou C. was my great-aunt and was the daughter of James B. Gillett of the Texas Rangers. He served as a Ranger from 1875 to 1881, after which he became the police chief for the city of El Paso. Captain Gillett wrote the book Six Years with the Texas Rangers.
Yes, something good, on occasion, can come from discussions in the faculty lounge.
~ This remembrance is written on the eve, 11 April, 2007, of the 25th celebration of the HSU Western Heritage Day. ~ George A. Newman, Ph.D.
Western Heritage Day is made possible by the Guy Caldwell Endowment for Western Heritage and the Lee and Lou C. Evans Western Heritage Endowment.
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