The Faith and Freedom Club of Medina hosted a two-part meeting on Thursday, July 31, celebrating local cowboy history and sharing a harrowing personal account from the recent floods.
The first portion of the meeting featured a short documentary by Bandera County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director James Hernandez. The film, titled Stompede Days in the Free State of Bandera, chronicles the history of the Stompede festival, which ran from 1948 to 1961. Hernandez directed and shot the film himself.
The short documentary included interviews with several longtime locals, including Sonny Haas, Judge Richard Evans, Pat Boyle, Jenna Montague, Ople Boyle, James McGroarty, Roy Dugosh, Kelly Scott, Homer Stevens, Glen Clark, Barbara Searcy, Judy Hicks, and Cecelia Schmidtke — many of whom were teenagers during the heyday of the Stompede in the late 1940s and 1950s.
The film highlighted the explosive popularity of the event. While the first Stompede drew 10,000 visitors, later years saw as many as 30,000. With local accommodations quickly overwhelmed, guests camped out along the Medina River. The influx of tourists revitalized Bandera’s dude ranch industry and helped solidify the town’s national reputation as a Western tourist destination.
Courtney Garrison describes her experiences with the July 4 flooding in Hunt. BULLETIN PHOTOS/ Tracy Thayer
The Stompede was a celebration of cowboy culture and featured rodeos, street dances, armadillo races, cowboy parades, Western games, and shooting exhibitions. The event’s official flag was a pair of oversized blue jeans bearing the words “Free State of Bandera.”
The event became so popular that it drew national coverage from CBS News. But its eventual downfall was attributed to its increasingly chaotic nature. Several of the interviewees agreed that segments of the community had grown uncomfortable with the unruly atmosphere.
According to the documentary, Bandera County Sheriff R.B. Miller ultimately shut the event down in the early 1960s. After one particularly raucous Stompede, Miller began arresting large numbers of attendees. When the jail filled up, he chained the remaining detainees to oak trees on the courthouse lawn.
Despite the event’s end, the spirit of the cowboy endures. In 2005, Congress officially designated the fourth Saturday in July as the National Day of the Cowboy — a legacy tied closely to the Stompede. That day is now celebrated in 15 states across the country.
For more information or to view the documentary, residents can contact the Bandera County Chamber of Commerce at [email protected] or 830-796-3280.
The second half of the meeting gave the floor to Courtney Garrison, a recent flood survivor, who shared her harrowing experience at the Hunt Store. Garrison is the daughter of Paul Garrison, a well-known mule expert from Medina.
Garrison, who was employed at the Hunt Store, lived with her 10-year-old daughter on the building’s second floor. On the night of July 4, she was awakened by strange sounds coming from downstairs. When she opened her door, she saw floodwaters rising rapidly up the stairwell.
She and her daughter quickly fled to the rooftop. “We could feel the building swaying,” Garrison said. Part of the building collapsed while they were still on the roof. “We lost everything,” she said, recounting how they watched cabins and RVs float past them in the rising waters.
Garrison said the water rose quickly but receded just as fast. “My family lost everything but luckily came out with our lives,” she said.
She received one of the RVs donated in Kerrville to provide housing for flood victims. Garrison praised the outpouring of support from the community. “Everyone showed up to help,” she said, emphasizing how grateful she was for the assistance provided to those who lost their homes.
While Garrison said her daughter remains traumatized, she is hopeful that returning to school and reestablishing a routine will help her recover. “When a normal routine is established and she returns to school, I think it will help her cope,” she said.
Garrison also expressed her appreciation for Kangaroo Towing and Wrecker, the company that helped coordinate the RV donations. “They’ve given out 750 RVs in five years to victims of natural disasters,” she said.
The Faith and Freedom Club announced its next meeting will take place on the second Monday of August. Refreshments will be served at 3 p.m., followed by the program at 4 p.m. at the Roy Camp Pavilion at the Medina Community Library.
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