DATES SET FOR RANCHING HERITAGE FESTIVAL

(KINGSVILLE, October 3, 1996) - Travelers, food aficionados and cowboy enthusiasts alike may want to don boots, chaps and cowboy hats for the 1997 South Texas Ranching Heritage Festival slated for Friday, Feb. 21, and Saturday, Feb. 22, on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus and at Kingsville's J.F. Northway Exposition Center.

The annual event is a celebration of ranching heritage in South Texas, a way of life that has existed for nearly 250 years. All across America, communities host cowboy or ranching celebrations where the cowboy way of life is honored and celebrated. Visitors who attend the 1997 South Texas Ranching Heritage Fest in Kingsville, however, will learn about cowboys and ranch life of a different sort.

While the cowboy of the American West is what many people identify with when they think of ranching, South Texas produced in the early 1800s the foundation of cattle ranching and cowboys drawn from a mix of Anglo and Mexican cultures. The techniques and arts of the Mexican vaqueros were integrated with the technology of Anglo settlers moving into the region. Today, the skills of the vaqueros continue to be a significant part of South Texas ranching culture.

The annual festival, held Friday and Saturday, will draw from a wide variety of elements to display such skills passed on from generation to generation.

Real cowboys will craft various equipment on site, including ropes, hat bands and belts from horsehair, while scholars will deliver a series of presentations on ranching in South Texas. Cowboy poets, musicians and storytellers will entertain audiences by campfire with spun tales and music. Guests will also have an opportunity to sample the prize-winning results of a chuckwagon cook-off between camp cooks. The menu will include traditional ranch foods of the region, including carne guisada (meat stew), arroz (rice) and pan de campo (camp bread).

Cowboy celebrations are not complete without the heart-pounding excitement of a rodeo. The rodeo featured at the South Texas Ranching Heritage Festival, however, will not be a rodeo in the traditional sense. Cowboy and cowgirl teams from Texas ranches will compete in events where greater emphasis is placed on practical, day-to-day skills performed on ranches, such as livestock penning, roping and cutting animals from the herd, and trailer backing.

Other activities will include a museum exhibit of panoramic images of the American Southwest, an evening dance featuring country and tejano artists, and a sunrise cowboy church service to wrap up the festival. For more information call (512) 593-2810.

-TAMUK-
-Mary McAdam