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Wild , Wild West at Hastings Museum

Hastings, Neb. – It’s a wild, wild west summer at the Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Featuring an exhibit, large-format film and planetarium show all about cowboys, you will have a hankering for driven cattle on the trail. The Ride ‘Em Cowboy exhibit takes you through the history of cowboys in Nebraska up to the modern day. The large-format film Ride Around the World shows you how cowboys in different parts of the world are so different but yet very similar. In the sky show The Cowboy Astronomer, Baxter Black gives his unique western take on the night sky.

Ride ‘Em Cowboy exhibit

In Ride ‘Em Cowboy exhibit, located in the East Gallery, venture back in time to the Nebraska Territories as cowboys drove cattle north from Texas to graze the grasslands of Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana. Gather round the campfire and listen to old cowboy sings. Peer inside their tent and chuckwagon to see what life was like on the trail.



As homesteaders moved west, so did the cowboys and their cattle. Fences started going up and ranching began. Life was different now and the cowboys had to adjust. Learn why they began to brand their cattle and what the brands mean.

Discover how cowboys became cowboys and what they wore and why. Saddle up in the kids corral and practice lassoing a sawhorse cow. Don’t get mixed up with the outlaws in the Law & Disorder area or you could end up in jail.



The exhibit also features 30 black and white photographs from Chuck Guildner personal collection. This Hastings College alumnus has traveled the West capturing authentic images of modern-day cowboys.

The exhibit will be on display from June 5 through January 13, 2008, in the East Gallery.

Ride Around the World film

Ride Around the World takes you on a journey to four continents to meet vaqueros, gauchos, baqueanos and cowboys from across the world. Travel the vast landscapes and open skies on a ride through spectacular locations as only the Lied Super Screen Theatre can provide. The film opens to the public on June 5.

Running through this global journey is the story of the Four Sixes Ranch in West Texas, an in-depth look at working cowboys on a large American ranch. Through hard work and humor, you experience what it would be like to be a cowboy or cowgirl for a day. The film also features compelling music and unforgettable characters. Ride Around the World can be seen several times daily at the Lied Super Screen Theatre from June 5 through December 3, 2007.

The Cowboy Astronomer sky show

Hear cowboy poet Baxter Black present a view of the night sky from a unique western perspective: how he was fooled as a young’un into taking an all-night watch by looking at the North Star and how that experience inspired him into learning more about the sky in the sky show, The Cowboy Astronomer, beginning June 5 in the J.M. McDonald Planetarium. You’ll hear Native American stories about the stars. You’ll see where stars are being born and how stars die. There’s even a snippet of star poetry from Alfred Lord Tennyson. It turns out this cowboy knows quite a bit about the night sky! The Cowboy Astronomer can be seen daily at the J.M. McDonald Planetarium from June 5 through August 19, 2007.

Celebrate the life of the cowboy during our Chuckwagon Roundup, Saturday, July 21, noon to 4:00 p.m. Enjoy a BBQ lunch, go on an old-fashioned wagon ride and hear some great country music.

With all the fun activities and events at the Hastings Museum, it will have you hootin’ and hollerin’ all summer long. To contact the museum, please call (402) 461-2399.


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