NEWS RELEASE: Save the Date! the Buffalo Soldiers Are Coming to Town, Texas Last Frontier

NEWS RELEASE: “Save the Date! The Buffalo Soldiers are Coming to Town, Texas’ Last Frontier Celebration, June 24-26, 2011, Morton, TX”

DATE:

May 18, 2011

CONTACT:

The weekend of June 24-26, 2011, Morton, Texas will host its eighth annual Texas’ Last Frontier Heritage Celebration and Buffalo Soldier Encampment in the Cochran County Park.

Step back into the early life and times on Texas' far western frontier! Join in a variety ofevents throughout the weekend celebrating Cochran County's western frontier heritage.

Enjoy re-enactments of life at a frontier fort and an authentic Texas Buffalo Soldier camp—brought to you by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Buffalo Soldier Living History Program, U.S. 10th Cavalry Fort Concho Buffalo Soldiers, and the U.S. 2nd Cavalry Camel Corps.

The theme of this year's event is "Frontier Fun & Games". A variety of new events will be featured. The young and the young-at-heart are invited to a vintage baseball game on Friday night in Levelland with the Buffalo Soldiers versus the “Beat Pete” Christy-KCBD-TV team. On Saturday join in a downtown parade in Morton, and then come to the county park to enjoy stories and enactments celebrating the historic town of Whiteface, an"iron riders" bicycle parade in which children 10 years of age and under are invited to decorate their bikes in a western theme and compete for prizes, a young ladies' prairie tea for girls 18 years of age or younger, archery competition, pack camel demonstrations, a military cannon display, Geocaching GPS workshop, tracking,map, and compass games, campfire stories and singing, and a live country music band and dancing for the entire family, among other festivities.

A special part of Saturday's events will be the public launch of Geocaching and Google Earth tours, as well as a live re-enactment, of an historic Buffalo Soldier Expedition of 1877 through far West Texas and eastern New Mexico. (The Geocaching tour will be known as “BSE 1877”.)

On Saturday, June 25th, a chicken dinner will be served at noon and a hamburger supper at 6:00 p.m., at the Cochran County Park, catered by the Oasis Worship Center of Morton. Following an outdoor Sunday morning community worship service enjoy a barbecue and soul food dinner, catered by Katherine Joyce, JJ’s Barbeque of Morton.

Event sponsors, the Cochran County Historical Commission and Texas’ Last Frontier Museum in Morton, extend a special invitation to join in the fun throughout the weekend. All non-meal events are free.

For more information, contact Dorothy Barker, Chair of the Cochran County Historical Commission, , (806) 266-5484 (home), (806) 891-5140 (cell), or Sammie Simpson, Curator of the Texas’ Last Frontier Museum, , (806) 927-5191 (home), (806) 946-7178 (cell).

News release prepared by Lu Ann Aday, Ph.D., Chair of Publicity, Cochran County Historical Commission, , (713) 664-7438.