HSU Celebrates 37th Annual Western Heritage Day

(ABILENE, Texas)–Western Heritage Day is an important event for Hardin-Simmons each year. It is a time for HSU to host local elementary aged students from around the community and show them what life might have been like for the Abilene area back in the 1800s.

Thursday, April 25 was HSU’s 37th annual Western Heritage Day. The faculty, staff, students, and friends of Hardin-Simmons were excited to help out and enjoy the day of celebrating and learning.

There were numerous activities and stations for the children to learn from and enjoy, including sheep shearing, folk music and dancing, a branding pit, performances by the World Famous Cowboy Band, HSU’s Six White Horses, boot and hat making demonstrations, and a farm animal petting area.

Classes and groups are encouraged to bring sack lunches and enjoy the experience of eating outside among all the festivities by having a picnic next to the pond.

HSU’s Western Heritage Day is made possible each year by contributions from the Guy Caldwell Endowment for Western Heritage and the Lee and Lou C. Evans Endowment for Western Heritage.

Many of the different organizations around campus volunteer to help in some way, like running a certain activity station or setting up decorations and equipment. The Irvin School of Education sponsors a reading station that education students use as a time to interact with the children and practice some of the skills they have studied in their classes. The books that are read at the station are centered on cowboys, west Texas, or just farm animals, so the children can be immersed in the culture portrayed in the stories.

HSU’s Western Heritage Day began in 1981 as a small Founder’s Day celebration during the Abilene Centennial. In a video about Western Heritage Day, retired HSU faculty George Newman explains the history of the event, saying, “Lawrence Clayton, B.W. Aston, Randy Armstrong and myself just had a little campfire where we cooked some biscuits and some beans…we just had a small celebration within the campus.” Afterward, they decided to create an event that would celebrate the western heritage of HSU and Abilene. “The whole idea was to introduce children to what it was like in the west,” said Newman. “So many of them, even our college students, had not had any background with horses or animals…had no idea of the rich history.”

While the original small campfire event took place in front of the Sid Richardson Science Center, the first annual Western Heritage Day was moved to the area of campus on the lawns beside the pond.

The new event seemed like a good way for elementary school lessons about Texas history and related topics to have an application outside the classroom for the students learning about them.

37 years later, the event has become a beloved tradition at Hardin-Simmons. We are glad to be hosting Western Heritage Day once again this year.