25-6-27 Ft Griffin Fandangle

On Friday night about 7pm, five of us headed to Albany TX to see the Fort Griffin Fandangle show. Since the show started at 8:30pm, the park entrance gate is locked at 10pm, and Albany is an hour's drive, some planning was required. We left Elaine's truck parked inside the entrance gate and all rode together in my car.

This 87th Fandangle show which was written by Robert Nail first played in 1938.in the high school stadium. In 1965, the Prairie Theatre was designed by Albany engineers and built by Albany townspeople and construction firms. 

After we parked, we climbed onto a metal wagon towed by a tractor and headed up the hill to the stands.

The grandstand was built on levels for each row and had metal seats. By the time the show started, the seats were almost completely full. The actors in the show must either live in Albany or have relatives who live there. That's pretty amazing considering that there are 230 men, women, and children acting in the show which is put on in June two weekends a year. 

The show began with a narrator telling us how the show began. She also said that the correct pronunciation is FANdangle with emphasis on the first syllable. It's about Ft Griffin outpost and town as well as the people who lived there over the years. The fort was established i July 1867 and part of a defense line that ran from Ft Concho in San Angelo to Ft Sill in the Indian Territory. The lawless frontier town grew up below the fort near the river. The Fandangle is a story of the land and the people who lived there.

The show began with a grand entrance of riders thundering down from the hilltop.

Clashes between the Comanches and settlers were depicted.

Lots of group singing.

And plenty of horse riding scenes.

These cattle are part of the official Texas State Longhorn herd brought in each year to be part of the show. They were milling around during their scenes.

A few times it got exciting when they getting active. The big one in the middle top of the picture was keeping a real close watch on the cowboys managing them.

Traveling pioneer scene.

This was a song about a lonesome cowboy and a snake which was pretty funny.

There are people of all ages performing in the show......including young children.

After an Indian raid.

The flag was lowered depicting when Ft Griffin was deactivated.

But the town lived on.....

The saloon and dancehall was a big part of the town.

Saloon girls dancing and singing.

When the train came through town was a big deal....the train was amazingly well done prop.

And oil was discovered.....

People died but the town lived on.

The grand finale with the whole cast "on stage".

The show was very well done for the most part. It was a little long sitting there on hard seats and a few scenes seemed a little out of order but overall an amazing performance that we really enjoyed.

We had a long drive back to the park but the deer kindly stayed off the road and there was no traffic at all. We parked my car in the parking lot in front of the Corps office which was outside of the park and walked in to Elaine's truck. Unfortunately, when Emma went to climb into the truck, her hiptwisted and she hit her leg on the running board. Elaine drove Franki back to their site to get their car while I waited with Emma. In spite of lots of the powder she has to stop bleeding, we couldn't get it stopped. Elaine took my granddaughter back to our sites and I took Emma and Franki to the Emergency Room in Coleman. Fortunately at 1am, they weren't too busy. By the time we got there, Emma's shoe was filled with blood and her pants leg was soaked. They didn't want to do stitches with her thin skin but got it stopped and cleaned up before headed back to the park and changed to their car parked inside the park. It was about 3am by then. They drove me back to my site. Franki said they almost hit a skunk on the way back to their site and Emma's leg was bleeding again. They used some more of the powder to stop bleeding and put a pressure bandage on it which did a much better job than the one the doctor put on. Getting her leg propped up again helped a lot too. They were both glad they went to the show. Emma said she is used to dealing with this and a day or so later things were much improved.