Ogletree Gap Heritage Festival returns

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove Historical Society is bringing back the Heritage Festival at Ogletree Gap this month, on October 15.

The Historical Society held a one-day preview event last fall at the Copperas Cove Public Library featuring many of the same pioneer demonstrations that will be found at this year’s festival. Some of those demonstrations at the 2021 event included making corn husk dolls, metal work, wool carding, fabric spinning and weaving, fire starting, music, dancing and storytelling.

This year’s festival, which will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature similar pioneer demonstrations including blacksmithing, dyeing and games in the Post Office area, carriage rides from the Post Office, plus entertainment and vendors set up in the pavilion area.

The opening ceremony begins at 10 a.m. under the pavilion. The 1st Cavalry Horse Detachment will be performing at 1 p.m.

“The purpose of the event is to revive the Ogletree Gap Heritage Festival, which ended in 2008, when the Chamber [of Commerce] held the last one,” said John Gallen, Copperas Cove Historical Society Secretary. “It is also to promote awareness and community engagement in the preservation of the history of Copperas Cove.”

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 was 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.

The Copperas Cove Historical Society meets the second Wednesday of every month, at 6 p.m., in the meeting room at the Copperas Cove Public Library. The next meeting will be October 19, 2022 at 6 p.m. at the Copperas Cove Public Library.