Before the Route 66 Rendezvous

Decades before San Bernardino, Calif., started its humongously popular Route 66 Rendezvous, the city had its Covered Wagon Days, reports historian Nicholas R. Cataldo in the San Bernardino County Sun.

The festival, which paid tribute to the city’s Old West days, started in the 1930s.

For four days in November, there was a covered wagon encampment where participants lived in the wagons in much the same manner and under similar conditions to those that confronted the pioneers when crossing the plains.

Special awards were given to the oldest covered wagon, the most original covered wagon and to the group that presented the best portrayal of pioneer life in the covered wagon camp.

Special courtesies were paid to all residents who had lived in San Bernardino for at least 50 years. A “Half-Century Club” was being formed during the time of the festival, and all old timers were invited to register.

Women were encouraged to wear pioneer-era outfits or risk “jail.” Men also were hauled off to the hoosegow if they didn’t grow a beard. Taverns left their doors open, Old West-style. Horses traveled streets covered in sawdust. Orange Show Stadium hosted two rodeos, and the Municipal Auditorium was the site of Grandpa’s Follies, featuring 12 can-can girls.

The festival drew as many as 125,000 people in the late ’40s. Inexplicably, it lost its luster in the 1950s and faded away.

Too bad. I think reviving Covered Wagon Days on a smaller scale — at the Orange Show grounds, for instance — would be fun and worthwhile.

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