The saloon will open early for young and old during Saturday’s Santa Fe Trail Festival at Overbrook. To keep the peace during the celebration, no hard liquor will be sold.

 

Saturday morning, grab your hat, hitch up your team, load up the young’uns and head into Overbrook to relive the history of life along the Santa Fe Trail.

Overbrook’s seventh Santa Fe Trail Festival gets under way at 8 a.m. Saturday for early risers who want their biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Competitors in the chili cookoff will also start heating up their pots early in the day at the Overbrook fairgrounds.

For those who want to explore the history of Overbrook and the life of its inhabitants along the Santa Fe Trail, local historian and police chief, Ed Harmison, will offer a presentation on the history of the trail. Harmison’s presentations will be at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the old schoolhouse. Another event at the schoolhouse is a puppet show presented at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Anyone who is a might parched by mid-morning will be happy to know the saloon opens at 10 a.m., but they will have to settle for sarsaparilla and root beer, as no hard liquor is allowed.

Also at 10 a.m., the Kansas Draft Horses will put on a show in the fairgrounds arena.

By 11:30 a.m., the ham and beans will be a’cookin’ and ready to ladle out of the pot.

Then everyone can work off their lunch with some line dancing with the band Rhythm Buster at 1 p.m.

Also at 1 p.m. and then at 1:30 p.m. in the arena, the Kansas Pride & Glory Riders will put on their program “Honoring America”.

Kids’ games, sponsored by First Security Bank, will start at 2 p.m.

At 3 p.m., the Osage County HAY Club will host a fun horse show in the arena, and bingo games begin. For those hungry for cake, a cake walk begins at 3:30 p.m. with tickets 50 cents each.

In addition to the scheduled events, historic crafters and re-enactors are known to stop in Overbrook on Santa Fe Trail day, in addition to Dutch oven cooking, a petting zoo hosted by the Young family, wagon rides in the arena and old fashioned carnival games.

The annual event is sponsored by Overbrook Pride.

Chili cooks will start heating up their pots early Saturday morning during the competition that decides who makes the best chuck wagon chili along the Santa Fe Trail.