HUMBOLDT — Early morning rain passed and the sun emerged as a crowd of enthusiastic celebrants of all ages gathered Saturday for Humboldt’s 160th birthday bash, which was only dampened by an injury out on the playing field.
Local singing cowboy, Delbert Shields, set the tone for the all-day event with a compilation of soothing Western ballads performed in the gazebo on the town square, as a crowd of approximately 150 people trickled in and socialized.
Historic Preservation Alliance President Tom Rutledge welcomed the crowd during a monologue that detailed the evolution of the event; a speech interrupted once by a conjured-up telephone call from President Donald Trump wishing Humboldt a happy birthday.
Local Boy Scouts led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and Girl Scout Aisley Galloway doled out birthday cake. Cindy Hollinsworth read the mayor’s proclamation officially naming May 20, 2017, a day of community-wide celebration.
Assistant Chief Raymond Red Corn of the Osage Nation spoke on the tribe’s relationship to the area.
“We were less than five miles away when Humboldt was founded,” Red Corn said of his ancestors. “My great-great-grandfather’s father is buried somewhere a few miles south of here.”
In 1870 the Osage agreed to sell land in the area and relocate to Oklahoma, he said.
“By treaty they lost all of Missouri, by treaty they lost the northern part of Arkansas, by treaty they moved here and by that time I think they kind of figured things out,” he said. “You got this thing called a deed — we want one of those.”
With the money from the sale of land here, the tribe purchased the Oklahoma land from members of the Cherokee tribe, a deal that worked to the Osages’ advantage after oil was discovered on the premises.
Not long after Red Corn’s speech a parade of antique cars and Mahaffie’s stagecoach, pulled by two French Percheron/Morgan cross horses named Hotshot and Star, brought baseball players dressed in 1800’s garb to the Walter Johnson Stadium for a double-header of old-fashioned baseball.
Spectators mingled while indulging in hot dogs cooked by Humboldt Lions Club members and stagecoach rides and a petting zoo provided by Four Points Ranch that included a 9-day-old donkey. Herman Sleeper of the Osage Nation Cultural Center obliged curious minds with information about the tribe’s customs and traditions.
The spirit of the event was dampened only during the first inning of the first game when Wichita Bull Stockings “Hillbilly” Aaron Campbell, centerfield, suffered a compound fracture to his ankle while chasing a ball hit by the third batter. Campbell was airlifted by helicopter to Via Christi Hospital St. Francis in Wichita. After the Midwest AeroCare craft departed, his teammates were joined by players of the opposing Topeka Westerns in a group prayer. Afterward, the games resumed.
HUMBOLDT CELEBRATES
