The former President, depicted by Dr. David Byland, will arrive in Frederick on Saturday afternoon, April 10, for a wolf hunt campfire dinner that evening at the Pioneer Townsite Museum. The event comes exactly 105 years after Roosevelt’s visit to Frederick, Oklahoma Territory, in April 1905 for a wolf hunt with Jack “Catch ‘em Alive” Abernathy at Panther Springs on Deep Red Creek.
The Roosevelt-Abernathy Wolf Hunt Campfire Dinner will kick off Abernathy Days in Frederick, a 10-week celebration of the 100th anniversary of the famous 1910 trip of Jack’s sons Bud and Temple Abernathy, then ages 6 and 10, alone on horseback to visit Roosevelt in New York City.
Tickets to the April 10 wolf hunt campfire dinner are $10 for adults and $5 for children 12-and-under. They may be purchased at Frederick’s Bancfirst, First National Bank, Frederick ACE Hardware, or the Frederick Chamber of Commerce. In Tipton, the tickets may be purchased at Southwest Rural Electric.
Tickets may also be purchased at the Pioneer Townsite Museum, 580-335-5844, or from the Tillman County Historical Society, P.O. Box 833, Frederick, OK 73542.
All proceeds from the event will go to the Tillman County Historical Society for operation of Frederick’s Pioneer Townsite Museum.
Dr. David Byland, a professor of history at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, is a well-known Roosevelt scholar and impersonator.
The Pioneer Townsite Museum will be open from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 10, with numerous special exhibits and live demonstrations that harken to early years of the area’s settlement.
At 4 p.m. that afternoon, Roosevelt will “arrive” at the townsite’s Frisco Depot, the same structure where his private train car arrived on April 5, 1905. The depot, originally located on West Grand Avenue, was relocated to the Pioneer Townsite two blocks away in the 1980s.
The public is invited to wait at the depot that afternoon to greet Roosevelt on his arrival.
From the depot location the crowd will move in parade fashion to a temporary grandstand on North 9th Street much like the one that was set up for Roosevelt at 9th and Grand Avenue in 1905. At that location Byland will make general comments similar to those made by the President in 1905.
Following Roosevelt’s greetings to the people of Frederick, a brief ceremony will be held at the Tillman County Courthouse Square to bid a symbolic send-off to Bud and Temple on their trip to New York City. The two Tillman County boys began their famous trip on April 10, 1910 – exactly 100 years to the day earlier.
Two modern-day area youngsters will portray Bud and Temple for the send-off.
At 5 p.m. that evening the Pioneer Townsite will re-open for holders of tickets to the wolf hunt campfire dinner.
Ticketholders should bring their lawn chairs. Most museum exhibits will be closed during the dinner event, but the evening will be packed with great entertainment.
A campfire will be built in the open area west of the museum’s red barn.
A dinner of Wolf Hunt Stew, cornbread, and cobbler will be served at 5:30 p.m.
Following the meal, Byland will entertain with stories much like the ones that Roosevelt must have told around the Panther Springs campfire in 1905.
Numerous area citizens will stand in for the wolf hunt’s famous participants which included Samuel Burk Burnett, Tom Waggoner, and Comanche Chief Quanah Parker.
Two teepees will be set up to represent Quanah Parker’s camp, and the evening will include performance of Indian dancers.
Tickets for the April 10 Wolf Hunt Campfire Dinner will be available through Thursday, April 8, or until the limited number of tickets have been sold.
Abernathy Days in Frederick will run through June 19 with numerous celebrations and special community events to mark the centennial of the Abernathy boys’ famous adventure.
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