Longmire Days Rolls Into Buffalo, Known This Weekend As Durant, Wyo.
Tom Morton, Townsquare Media
Tom Morton, Townsquare Media
DURANT, Wyo. -- The pomp, the circumstance, the parade, the dancers, the author, the actors, the Indians, and the Ranier Beer are here.
For its fourth year, Buffalo this weekend morphs into author Craig Johnson's fictional alter ego of Durant, Wyo., which is the county seat of the fictional Absaroka County where Sheriff Walt Longmire and his deputies and staff enforce the law, try to keep their own lives in order, and work through modern issues of the West such as who really owns a recently discovered T-Rex dinosaur.
The books gave rise to the A&E "Longmire" television series starring Australian actor Robert Taylor as the complex sheriff, which the network suddenly canceled after its third season last year. A groundswell of Internet outrage lead to Netflix picking up the show for a fourth season beginning this fall.
Fans of the books and the show hail from across America and around the world, and also from Casper.
"I was a fan of the books before the TV show," Dob Wallace of Casper said after Friday morning's parade.
"I grew up on a Wyoming cattle ranch," Wallace said. "The Wyoming that Craig Johnson writes about is the Wyoming I grew up in. It's very faithful to the culture.
Last year, about 8,000 descended on Buffalo, and that number is expected to rise to about 10,000 this weekend.
This is the schedule for the weekend, according to the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce:
| 8am-8pm | SummerFest- Vendors in Crazy Woman Square |
| 9am-10am | Longmire Parade- Downtown Main Street (float registration required) |
| 9am-3pm | Episode screenings at Buffalo Theater |
| 10am-2pm | Autograph Sessions- Bomber Mountain Civic Center (Registration full for this event) |
| 11am-3pm | Poker School for novice, Occidental Hotel (registration required) |
| 3pm-5pm | “Book to Film” with Craig Johnson and Penguin (Kathryn Court and Gail Hochman)- Occidental Hotel |
| 3pm-5pm | A Conversation With…- Buffalo Theater (Registration full for this event) |
| 6pm | Home Run Derby- Prosinski Park |
| 7pm -9pm | Cowboys v. Indians Softball Game- Prosinski Park – commentary by Rob Taylor, Craig Johnson and Marcus Red Thunder |
| 9pm-11pm | JackDanny LIVE at The Red Pony (Cowboy Carousel Center) |
| Saturday, July 18th | |
| 9am-11am | 5k Run/3k Walk- Johnson County YMCA to Bighorn Mountains (registration required) |
| 7am-10am | Longmire Posse-Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast |
| 8am-5pm | SummerFest- Vendors in Crazy Woman Square |
| 9am-4pm | Car Show in FNB Parking Lot by Model A & Pioneer Car Club |
| 9am-3pm | Episode screenings at Buffalo Theater |
| 10am-1pm | Autograph Sessions- Johnson County Courthouse (Registration full for this event) |
| 10am-2pm | Native American Performances- Johnson County Courthouse |
| 12pm-6pm | Rock Climbing Wall on Fetterman near Crazy Woman Square |
| 2pm-6pm | Motorcycle Poker Run- Downtown Buffalo to Sheridan and back – with Adam Bartley & Zahn McClarnon (registration required, starting at 12pm at Century Club) |
| 3pm-5pm | A Conversation With…- Occidental Hotel- Actors TBD (Registration is now full for this event) |
| 6pm-11pm | Poker Game- The Red Pony (Cowboy Carousel Center) (registration required) |
| 6pm-11pm | Street Dance-Downtown Main Street |
| Sunday, July 19th | |
| 10am-2pm | Skeet Shoot- Buffalo Trap & Skeet Club with Rob Taylor and actors (Registration full for this event.) |
| 10am-2pm | Horseback Ride with actors- Paradise Ranch (Registration full for this event) |
| 10am-2pm | Native American Performances- Johnson County Courthouse |
| 3pm-5pm | Book Signing with Craig Johnson & Rob Taylor-Johnson County Library |
| 6pm | Charity Concert & BBQ with the Bob Barnes Band and actors- South Fork Mountain Lodge- $15, tickets sold at Buffalo Chamber and South Fork Lodge. |