LUBBOCK, Texas (NEWS RELEASE) – The following is a news release from the National Ranching Heritage Center:
Candlelight at the Ranch has always been about celebrating a frontier Christmas, but four generations of volunteers in 41 years have made this event a Lubbock tradition as thousands of visitors will gather for a pioneer Christmas from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Dec. 13 and 14 at the National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC).
“This year we’ve had more volunteer sign-ups than we’ve ever seen before,” said Helen DeVitt Jones Endowed Director of Education Julie Hodges. “More than 200 community volunteers-many dressed in period clothing-will help recreate what Christmas might have been like on the open prairie during frontier days.”
The annual event is free to the public with a minimum suggested $5 donation per family. In addition to more than 4,000 luminaries lining the paths of the 19-acre historic park, holiday scenes created in the historic structures will be lit as much as possible with only lanterns, fireplaces and campfires.
“Pioneer ranches had no electricity, so we try to take each of our historic structures back to what it would have looked like at Christmas in its own time,” Hodges said, emphasizing that 45 of the 51 structures in the historic park are between 100 and 175 years old. As a result, many new volunteers have both fire and firearm safety training in the days leading up to Candlelight.
Sylvia Pickens will spend her time at Candlelight holding her great-grandmother’s long-handled waffle iron in the open fire of a 19th century stove as she makes French Cake Waffles from a family recipe that is more than 100 years old. Although Pickens has volunteered in many NRHC structures since 1990, she prefers to spend Candlelight in the kitchen of the 1888 Las Escarbadas XIT Ranch division headquarters.
“Las Escarbadas is my favorite because it tells the story of the state of Texas,” she said. “It’s Texas history to the ‘nth’ degree.” The three-million-acre XIT was the largest ranch under fence in the United States and probably the world at the end of the 19th century. Its owners received the land in exchange for constructing the state capitol in Austin after the original capitol burned in 1881.
John Levacy has a similar feeling about the time he spends at the 1879 JY Masterson Bunkhouse. “The JY is where real cowboys spent their time,” Levacy said. “It’s a direct tie to cowboy life on the frontier.”
This will be Levacy’s 30th year to volunteer during Candlelight. Bunkhouse visitors will see Levacy whittling, carving and braiding by the light of kerosene lamps. The cowboy poet used to play hisguitar during Candlelight, but for the last 15 years he’s been carving squirrels, rabbits, coyotes and guns-all popular pastimes for frontier cowboys.
Amy Pope was just a child when she started volunteering in 1989 with her parents, Mike and Patsy Bohn. Because of their German heritage, they volunteered in the Hedwig’s Hill Dogtrot House, a log house built in 1855-56 by German immigrants in Mason County, Texas.
Today Amy and her husband Philip volunteer with their own three children in the Harrell House, which was originally constructed in 1883 as a single stacked-rock room on a ranch near Snyder, Texas. As the ranch prospered, additional rooms were added in the early 1900s.
Amy will cook Christmas cookies on a 1910 stove while the family samples her cooking under the watchful eyes of thousands of Candlelight visitors. This year will be special for the Pope family because Amy’s parents will join them at the Harrell House as three generations of volunteers dressed in period clothing truly make Candlelight a family event.
In addition to individual volunteers, many community and campus organizations as well as musical groups will welcome guests to Candlelight. Visitors can purchase refreshments in the decorated 1908 Four Sixes Barn while they listen to Brazos West play Christmas music with a Texas swing. Kettle Korn will be available on the patio and the Street Sweets Food Truck will sell coffee and sweets.
Santa Claus will be located in the Pitchfork Pavilion but will leave promptly at 9:30 p.m. To avoid long lines, Candlelight uses an “open range” concept that allows visitors to choose in what order they view the historic structures, which lighted pathways they take and when they exit the park prior to closing. The NRHC is wheelchair and stroller accessible.
In cooperation with the NRHC, the International Cultural Center (ICC) at Texas Tech will host a celebration of German Christmas traditions from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13. The ICC is located within easy walking distance of the NRHC and the event is free to the public.
The National Ranching Heritage is located adjacent to the Texas Tech University campus at 3121 Fourth St. For more information, call (806) 742-0498 or view nrhc.ttu.edu
(News release from Texas Tech University/National Ranching Heritage Center)
