Fort Griffin Fandangle
Albany, Texas

When: mid-late June

Where: The state's oldest theatrical musical takes place at the Prairie Theatre, an acre-wide amphitheater in Albany.

Sunset in the tiny town of Albany is always a beautiful sight to behold, as the last rays of light cast shadows over Fort Griffin State Park, Whitney Theater and The Old Jail Art Center, where pre-Columbian pottery and terra-cotta figures from the Han Dynasty are showcased. But each year during the final two weekends in June, sundown seems to conjure up the spirits of the town's frontier forefathers as over 400 of Albany's 2,000 residents make last minute set preparations and don period costumes to bring back the pioneer past of the oldest town in Northwest Texas.

Visitors are first invited to chow down on a chuck wagon dinner served just outside the historic courthouse. Later, they enjoy an outdoor aural and visual Lone Star spectacle complete with stagecoaches, fiddlers, cowboys in ten-gallon hats and Native Americans on horseback, creating a musical mosaic of the life and times of Albany's ancestors.

Initiated in 1938, this tribute to yesteryear, which also includes a daytime parade during the fete's second week of performances, is viewed by 10,000 fans of the old west each year.

For more information:

• visit www.fortgriffinfandangle.org