By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The Copperas Cove Historical Society is kicking off this year’s Heritage Festival on Friday, Oct. 10, with Bluegrass & Barbecue at Ogletree Gap Park.
The event begins at 6 p.m. with food service, and BBQ is $20 per plate, catered by Big Dog BBQ. From 7-9 p.m., there will be a bluegrass concert given by “Dueling Hearts,” with free admission. Those coming for the concert only, should bring their own chairs.
On Saturday, Oct. 11, this year’s festival will begin with an opening ceremony at 8 a.m. with a flag raising at the Stage Stop. At 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. the Ol’ West gunfighters will put on a show at the Old West Town.
The 1st Cavalry Horse Detachment will also be performing at 1 p.m. In addition to vendors there will be kids’ games, a pie eating contest, arts and crafts vendors, and food trucks. The festival is free to attend and runs until 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The festival, formerly an event of the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce, was brought back in 2022 after a hiatus since 2008. The event celebrates the history of Copperas Cove and the surrounding area. Copperas Cove began as a rural ranching community in the 1870s, centered around a small store approximately two miles southwest of the present townsite.
Residents had applied for a post office under the name “Cove”, but the postal authorities rejected the name because another Texas post office by the name already existed. The residents then submitted the name Coperas Cove, due to the mineral taste of the water nearby. The Coperas Cove post office was then established in March 1879 with Marsden Ogletree as Postmaster.
The town also had a feeder route of the Chisholm Trail running through it, and eventually the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built its track across the southern corner of Coryell County in 1882, which resulted in residents moving their community two miles northeast to the current downtown area in order to take better advantage of the rail service. The name was changed to Copperas Cove in 1901, at which time the town had an opera house, three hotels and a variety of businesses, according to the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce’s website.
The Copperas Cove Historical Society formed in 2019, when local historians and interested citizens started meeting together to discuss the history of the area and the city they live in. From the beginning, the Cove Historical Society has expressed desire to bring back the Ogletree Gap Heritage Festival.
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