Bristow Holds Western Heritage Days Festival

The City of Bristow held its Western Heritage Days Festival Saturday, complete with a cattle drive and rodeo to celebrate Oklahoma history.

Several longhorn cattle and cowboys went down Main Street during the festival's parade.

"A lot of kids that live in town, they have not seen horses," Bristow native Carl Chasteen said. "I mean, did you see the size of those Longhorns coming by?"

The festival had vendors, carnival rides, music tents and lots of fun animals.

Carl Chasteen is also a retired Army Colonel and says he's traveled the world and wanted to leave Bristow early in life.

But now he's come back for the festival and says there's no place like home.

"You need something....anybody needs something, and you've got people there to show up to help with very few questions asked," Chasteen said.

The event has been going on since the 60's but fizzled out for a few years.

Then in 2020, they brought back the rodeo and parade, and organizers say this will be the first full festival in 8 years.

Organizer Kristin Weaver says events like these are a huge deal for the community because it brings in more eyes to Bristow.

"It's vital for a small town like Bristow," Weaver said. "It might be the only reason you come to visit. But once you see how nice it is here, and once you see how nice the people are here, you'll probably come back."

For Chasteen and natives like Mike Jones, this is a special event where they can show off and go back to the place, they call home.

"It's so great to see people you haven't seen for in my case almost 30 years," Chasteen said.

"Bristow's population is about 4,500," Jones said. "I think 3,000 of them are on this main street right now."