Longmire Days Returns To Buffalo — July 17-19

The town of Buffalo and legions of "Longmire" book and television fans couldn't have had better news Wednesday even if they heard Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire found a cooler of Rainier beer in the desert.

Longmire Days will return to Buffalo. For real. With dates.

"We are looking forward to another year of Longmire," said Angela Fox, CEO of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce.

"We just got the word today that it will be July 17th through the 19th, and we are hoping to get all the events scheduled," Fox said Wednesday. "We right now have nothing on the plans. We just know it's happening."

"Longmire" book series author Craig Johnson adapted Buffalo as the model for the fictional town of Durant, which is the county seat of the fictional Absaroka County where Walt Longmire and his deputies keep order amid modern western dramas with Indians, businesses, environmentalists, dysfunctional families, and their own lives of love, joy and loss.

Despite Longmire's success after three seasons, the A&E Network unceremoniously dumped it in August.

That prompted a lot of speculation about what happened, and created a social media firestorm mostly through the Longmire Posse.

That storm got results.

In November, Netflix announced it will produce 10 episodes of the show in 2015.

And Fox assured fans that Longmire Days would return.

The question was when.

That was officially settled Thursday by a committee of local business people, Craig and Judy Johnson, and the actors, Fox said.

So far, three actors have confirmed they will attend: Robert Taylor, who plays the sheriff; Adam Bartley who plays the deputy nicknamed The Ferg; and Louann Stevens, who plays the sheriff's office secretary Ruby.

The actors, Buffalo, Johnson and the fans have embraced each other in the past two years as they whoop it up for a weekend of fun, fellowship, street dancing, motorcycle riding, softball playing and other events, more than doubling the town’s population, and selling out hotels across northeast Wyoming.

The fan base is global. Some Americans and foreigners have said they plan their western vacations with Buffalo and Longmire Days as one of their stops.

The logistics have been dizzying for Longmire Days organizers, and it probably will be even more intense because of the attention with the cancelation and the renewed series.

Fox and the organizers are working on the details, she said.

"There still will be a street dance, there still will be a softball tournament, autograph signing; so all those major things will still be happening," Fox said. "But some of the little side things might be gone or something new in its place."