History, Music and Shopping Attract Masses to Christmas at Old Fort Concho

Merchants, musicians and visitors from all over Texas mixed on the dusty grounds of Fort Concho on Saturday, kicking off the holiday season with the fort’s annual Christmas event.

Between knick-knack peddlers and those in period dress, the smell of fire-baked cobbler, kettle corn and frequent gun- and canon fire provided a backdrop to drifters, some stopping to purchase small items, others sitting in circles Indian-style as a chief told stories to small children.

“It kinds of kicks off the year for us,” said Sammee Favre, who had come with four generations of family to take part in the festivities. “It’s kind of fun. We’ve got kids and grandkids and aunts and uncles and we all ate breakfast together, and now we’re kind of seeing the re-enactment people, and just having a lot of fun.”

Favre said attending Christmas at Old Fort Concho has become a holiday tradition for her family, and is something they look forward to all year.

Among the neat lines of canvas tents a Bandera woman, Cynthia Eglin, worked a piece of black elk hide, lacing hide strips through holes she’d punched to form a pouch.

Eglin’s business, Spirit of the Heart, is a full-time venture, and among the items she makes and sells are purses with fringe and beads in various colors.

“I try do things as traditional as I can with all of the animals and the good spirits in mind,” she said. “[I] try to keep the education alive, and the dreams. I was born with a great gift of my hands and my foresight in seeing how things are made. I just started making, and I dream sometimes, and that’s what I create with.”

Eglin said she started out going to rendezvous and pow-wows, then gradually began attending other festivals and events as well. Two years ago she came to Christmas at Old Fort Concho for the first time, but was unable to make it in 2013 due to the ice.

“I love it here and I love the people,” she said. “It’s a great gift and an honor to be able to do something that you really love and like to do. And you can make other people smile.”

Dressed in a long, fringed and beaded dress made out of hide, Eglin said she wears her garb when she attends events, but still has her jeans and her iron horse, a Harley.

Unique to her purses is the design, which is based on the hide itself, not on the work of scissors. Eglin explained that she doesn’t cut her hides to make a particular shape or style of bag, but rather focuses on the hide itself and what it would best be suited for.

“I lay the hide out and the edges tell me what that is going to be,” she explained. “If it has a ripple in it, really nice, then it’s a purse. If it doesn’t, then I make something else. I try to do things naturally and the way that they were done.”

In the middle of the field, a group of re-enactors gathered as Robert Broene and William Tolar packed shells with powder

“I got started back about ’86, when I was in the navy stationed at Goodfellow. I saw these guys with neat old rifles and I like rifles…so I enlisted.

Broene is currently a sergeant in the infantry in the Spanish-American war, and had a trio of rough riders along with him, whom he’d taken to Cuba to teach them how to be soldiers.

Knowing the history of the roles they play is imperative for re-enactors, who are often called upon to visit area schools and teach children about various events in history.

“We don’t do specific individuals, but they do the rough riders, so they’ve got the whole story of the rough riders to draw from with Teddy Roosevelt,” he said. “I’ve got the whole history of the army.”

Both Broene and Tolar have studied history and read voraciously, making the task of getting into character simpler as the aim to pass on their knowledge of the past.

“We love history, we love sharing it with people, and I think this is by far the best,” Boerne said, “because if you want to know something about the Spanish-American war, well here,” he said, handing over a 130-year-old rifle.

The rifle was bought from a collector many years ago, as were several the re-enactors carry and fire during events at various forts.

With canon fire scheduled every so often and a chorus of pops from guns to follow, the feel of the fort and what it represents was alive among visitors.

Christmas at Old Fort Concho runs through the weekend, ending on Sunday with a Winter Rendezvous and Retreat Ceremony that starts at 3:30 p.m. For a full schedule of events, click here.