Caldwell trip

Beside the cattle drive, the weekend spent in Caldwell, KS has a number of other events going on.

This arch was completed a week before the celebration
and was dedicated as part of the events. 

From a distance this was more convincing. He hung Saturday and Monday
but was removed before the storm Sunday.
This "Opera House" is a replacement for another more fitting of the name
that burned down a long time ago.

It doesn't hold a lot of people so just before leaving I finally elbowed
my way through the door far enough to get this picture.

Caldwall got to take part in the cattle drives for Oklahoma's anniversary
a few years back and Kansas's anniversary this year because it's 2 miles
from the state line and on the Chisholm Trail.
The trail goes north by the town I went to school in and then across the
street from the family farm. At least thats where markers stood. In places
the trail was a mile wide.

All through town these signs can be found. Each one tells about a
historical building or event. Most events, like this, involved gunplay.

click any picture to enlarge it

These metal cutouts are permanent installations on many of the roofs
along the main street. For the festival more were placed on the ground
to shoot back.

This was the group I drug down with me. Yummy smiling on the left,
Jerri on the right, her two girls in the middle. It was about 104°F at the time.

The previous picture was where we were waiting for this quick draw
demonstration. One person hits a button, between 2 and 5 seconds later
the light in the middle of that black rectangle comes on and a timer starts.
The timer stops and the light goes out when the metal gets shot.

This old bank is now a photo studio. It's allegedly haunted by someone
who hung himself in the safe.
A brothel used to be on the second floor of this building.
No idea if the brothel and bank were in business at the same time. 

The drug store has a nice display of old bottles in their window. 

Meanwhile, on the trail, there was a bit of excitement when the cattle flushed out a covey of quail which caused a bit of a stampede. The cattle got over it quickly.