A Day of Wooly Wonders at Museum
Come enjoy all things wool at the Frontier Times Museum on Saturday, January 18th. The museum will be hosting a fun family activity day from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm to celebrate Bandera’s traditional wool and mohair industry. There will be wool-themed arts and crafts and fun activities for children throughout the day along with an author’s talk and demonstrations.
Bandera has a long tradition of raising sheep and goats and was once a leading exporter of wool and mohair. This tradition continues in local ranches such as Naumann Angoras, owned by Dale and Bonnie Naumann, and with Jennifer Nimmrichter at the Sheepwalk Ranch. Robert Aguero will talk of this tradition. Author of Sheering Sheep and Angora Goats: The Texas Way, Aguero contends that just as the time of the vaquero is near to running its course, the days of the full-time sheep and goat shearers—tasinques—are coming to a close. Aguero is the son and grandson of tasinques, the itinerant shearers who labored with their hands in the dusty corrals throughout central and south Texas, harvesting the wool and mohair that fueled the industry known by the shearers and their families as la trasquila.
Aguero, himself a veteran of the shearing sheds, offers stories and perspectives gleaned both from personal experience and interviews with dozens of individuals intimately connected with the Central Texas wool and mohair industry. From the docienteros—virtuosos able to shear 200 animals or more per day—to the rancheros—the owners of the ranches who hired the shearing crews, year after year—Aguero has captured the essence of a way of life that is rapidly passing into history.
How does the sheered raw wool end up as beautiful yarn? Jennifer Nimmrichter of Sheepwalk Ranch will show examples of raw wool and will demonstrate the machines and the methods used to transform raw wool.
Aguero’s talk and presentation will begin at 1:00 pm. A sheep shearing demonstration will follow at 2:00 pm. Nimmrichter’s demonstrations will be on view from 10:30 to 1:00 pm. All activities are free with museum admission. Admission and activities are free for museum members.