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"Arkansas City," the book by Land Rush Museum Director Heather Ferguson, will be released Aug. 25. The museum will host a day-long book signing party Aug. 30. Copies may be purchased for $19.95 plus tax. Autographed copies are available.

From 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sept. 14, the museum will host its annual Pioneer Festival and Western Heritage Days.

There will be two living-history, re-enactment troupes setting up to portray western-era citizens. The Riders of the Cimarron will have gunfights, and Aces and Six Guns will portray daily activity on Main Street.

Also that day, there will be a couple of blacksmiths, a rope maker, a soap maker, a washer woman, a leather artist and much more. The Southern Plains Fiber Guild will also be demonstrating knitting, tatting and other fiber arts.

The museum will have cowboy church at 11 a.m. conducted by Donnie Huffman. At 1 p.m., James Jordan will give a first-person account of Buckskin Joe, everyone's favorite Ark City character. At 2 p.m., Clarina Nichols will tell us about abolition, women's suffrage and prohibition. And at 3 p.m., Stephen A. Douglas will tell everyone about the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Westward Expansion. During the day, Bill Shelton will give rides in his stagecoach.

There will be a boomer camp set up to demonstrate how it was for boomers before the run, and a Civil War camp depicting what it was like for soldiers during the Civil War. There will be kids' games throughout the day; sack races, a mock land rush, a hay scramble and even a mechanical bull.

Admission to the museum will be included with the tickets. The festival tickets will include a pork burger meal. Adults are $5 and children are $3.

For more information, call the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum at (620) 442-6750.