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McCook Gazette

Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous slated

Monday, August 16, 2010

HAYES CENTER, Nebraska -- the Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous 2010 will be Sept. 24, 25 and 26 near the actual site of the historic campground of Buffalo Bill Cody, Gen. George Custer, Gen. Phil Sheridan and the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.

The event, now in its 11th year, was initiated to commemorate the famous buffalo hunt which was held for the son of Russian Czar Alexander II when he visited Nebraska in 1872.

The Rendezvous, sponsored by the Hayes Center Lions Club, is held at Camp Hayes Lake just 11 miles northeast of Hayes Center. Parking is provided and a shuttle runs from the parking lot to the rendezvous site.

A weekend full of fun and exciting activities is planned beginning on Friday with Student Day for fourth through sixth grade students from area schools.

A highlight of the weekend is the featured storytellers. Jahnis J. Abelite of Arlington, Washington will be on hand to portray the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.

Steve Alexander of Monroe, Michigan will portray Gen. George Custer, Kirk Shapland of Dighton, Kansas will entertain as Buffalo Bill Cody, and Steve Ervin of Cambridge, Nebraska will depict Chief Spotted Tail.

New to this year's storyteller program will be Marla Matkin from Hill City, Kansas. Matkin portrays Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of Gen. George Armstrong Custer.

Muzzle loader enthusiasts will enjoy the various black powder shoots and hawk and knife throws which take place throughout the weekend.

Sunday afternoon entertainment will feature a gospel concert.

Other activities throughout the weekend will be the frontier ladies tea on Saturday afternoon, a community church service on Sunday morning, trail ride, children's games, costume contest, demonstrations of frontier era crafts, and tours to the original monument site.

Concessions are available on Saturday and Sunday. Featured will be buffalo burgers, campfire stew and homemade pie.

Campsites are available for primitive and modern camping.

The Lions Club is sponsoring two drawings to raise the funds for the Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous.

The club is offering chances on an original 1861 Springfield muzzleloader rifle. Tickets are $5 each or six tickets for $25. The club also is selling chances on a beautiful handmade quilt. Names of the lucky winners will be drawn on Sunday afternoon. Tickets may be purchased from any Lions Club member, at AmFirst Bank in Hayes Center or during the Rendezvous weekend. You need not be present to win.

Young and old alike are invited to enjoy the Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous for a genuine prairie experience. Step back in time for a weekend of family-oriented entertainment and feel the spirit of the old west come alive. There is no charge for admission however donations to the Lions Club are accepted.

For more information or a schedule of events, contact Doris Vlasin at 308-286-3463, Jan Singleton at 308-286-3676, email to jisingleton@gpcom.net or go to the event website: www.granddukealexis.com.

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  • SO....You celebrate the finale destruction of the bison heards that roamed this continent? The destruction of the native people. Genocide!!!! YOU CELEBRATE THIS!?!?!?!

    OH....YES I REMEMBER.... YOU ARE THE GOOD CHRISTIANS THAT "SETTELED" THIS CONTENENT!

    IDIOTS!

    -- Posted by kaygee on Mon, Aug 16, 2010, at 9:14 PM

  • K...you are way out of line. My take on this is reliving history..offering a glimpse of what it would have been like to living during that period. History....we read and reread about Hitler and the likes of him as well as our children will read about 911, the wars, etc., that doesn't make us heathens it simply is a way of learning and passing along history.

    -- Posted by java mocha on Tue, Aug 17, 2010, at 8:24 AM

  • Kaygee you really need to get some help. That and a dictionary.

    History is what it is a lesson for future generations to learn from. The world was a much different place in the 1870's. This is an interesting weekend you might go and check it out, I thought liberals were suposed to have an open mind and be accepting of others divergent ideas and views.

    -- Posted by Chaco1 on Tue, Aug 17, 2010, at 9:35 AM

  • of course, given the opportunity Montezuma, Sitting Bull, or Geronimo would have never crossed the Atlantic, invaded Europe, and settled that continent...only those white devils of European ancestry are capable of such atrocities and the native tribes of North America never fought among themselves for control of resources, but lived in absolute perfect peace and harmony as if they were on Avatar!

    -- Posted by cornhusker on Fri, Aug 20, 2010, at 9:57 PM

  • I guess she never went to the masacre canyon monument and heard the story.

    -- Posted by Chaco1 on Sat, Aug 21, 2010, at 9:17 AM
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