Book Club

If you didn't attend the book club meeting last night, you missed a lively discussion. We had read The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier by Scott Zesch. We talked about everything from views of Native Americans, immigrants to Texas (especially Germans), and the death of the buffalo, among many other topics. If you haven't read the book, I'd recommend it. It read like a novel.

Next month, we're meeting on Tuesday, August 18, and we're reading City on Fire: The Explosion that Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle by Bill Minutaglio. I've been interested in the topic since my first trip to Texas City a few years back.

Chuckwagons!

The Chuckwagon Committee has been meeting monthly since February to plan for this year's Up the Chisholm Trail chuckwagon cook-off. We sent out information to a BUNCH of wagons in March. Slowly, entries started coming in. And NOW we have 13 wagons confirmed. That's more than we had total at the event last year! While we're sure that we'll get more (we're aiming for 15 total), here's who is coming:

Bertie Bell from San Angelo
Wish Bone from Axtell
Crew 1298 C&C from Corsicana
Rodgers Ranch Chuck Wagon from Bertram
Wagon Wheel C from Prairie Hill
Texas Stampede Chuckwagon from Watauga
R-D Chuckwagon from Canton
Break Away Wagon from Stamford
Rocking K Chuckwagon from Slaton
Dove Creek from Copperas Cove
M bar S from Burton
The Buckaroo Band from Houston
Bear Creek Ranch from Kerrville

Mark your calendars-- September 11 and 12. I promise you won't be sorry!

Happy 4th of July!

Just a quick reminder that the Museum will be closed on Saturday, July 4.

Just this morning I was reading about when the first July 4th was celebrated. From Live Science:

The following year [after independence was declared], no member of Congress thought about commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence until July 3 - one day too late. So the first organized elaborate celebration of independence occurred the following day: July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia.