History enthusiasts gathered at Ramp Ranch southeast of Canadian on Saturday, Sept. 10, to honor the 148th anniversary of the Lyman’s Wagon Train Battle—which took place on that site and raged for five long days from Sept. 9-14, 1874. The battle was one of many waged during the Red River War, a campaign by the U.S. Army to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indian tribes from the Southern Plains, and to enforce their relocation to reservations in Indian Territory.
The weather is cooling down, and the smokers are heating up this week as competitive barbecue cookers prepare for the Canadian River Beach Club’s 14th Annual Calf Fry and Cook-Off, which will be held once again at Jones Pavilion on Saturday, Sept. 24.
Without community comment, the annual hearing for the adoption of the district’s budget and tax rate for the new fiscal year is usually a routine matter. Not so this go-round on Sept. 6.
After rehashing the budget that shows an $802,384 net operating loss, two Hemphill County Hospital board members balked. Revenue for the FY 2022-23 budget is $24,461,525 (including tax revenues), with $25,263,909 in operating expenses.
For over six decades, Dick Wilberforce has photographed nature and wildlife, and has focused his lens on every living thing, from bobwhite quail and bighorn sheep to bobcats, grey foxes, and the elusive lesser prairie-chicken. He has published a series of books featuring his photographic art.
A 7-pound monkey attacked a rural Texas veterinarian, and he lived to write a book about it. However, that’s only one of the 28 stories he tells.
Country Vet: Thirty Years of Treating Animals and Trying to Understand Their Owners is a humorous memoir by Randy L. Skaggs, DVM. It was released on Sept. 1.
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: This 18 to 20-inch prairie rattler was spotted lurking under a lawn mower in an alley about halfway up Willard Street, between Willard and Main, last week. It was described as a young rattler, with only one button...but still plenty lethal.
Prairie rattlesnakes are venomous pit vipers native to western North America. Where there is one, there will be more. Please be on the alert.
