Heritage Week 2008
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| Museum's
Heritage Week 2008 ( June 2-7 )... |
In 2006, Helper was voted as the #10 True Western
Town! In 2007, we became the #1 Top Ten True Western Town. Due mainly to
the Western Mining & Railroad
Museum, Heritage Week
and the Balanced
Rock Regulators. Come and see what makes us #1 and help us celebrate
our "badness!"
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - "Ghost Towns by
Dusk." @ 7PM
A guided driving tour and preview of SueAnn Martell's next book, Coal
Camps of Eastern Utah through the area ghost towns. Stay until dark
for some scary (but true!) local ghost stories. Admission is by donation.
Caravan starts at the Western Mining & Railroad Museum.
Thursday, June 5, 2008 - "2nd Annual Bordello Ball"
@ 7PM
Come celebrate Helper's unique past with the 2nd Annual Bordello Ball. The
event features a sit down dinner, lecture by Utah outlaw and lawman historian
Joel Frandsen, and a live auction. All proceeds benefit the Western Mining
& Railroad Museum Expansion Project.
Advanced tickets are required - $25 per person or $45 per couple.
Old West-style costumes are encouraged. Don't worry tenderfeet, no dancing
is involved, but we guarantee you will have a "ball!"
Photos of some of the Bordello Ball Auction items are here...
Carbon County Photo Quilt - Handmade Front - 392k
Carbon County Photo Quilt - Handmade Back & Closeup of an "inset"
- 392k
Butt
Quilt - Handmade from the butts of jeans - 272k
Rosary #1 - Handmade from Paua Shells - 156k
Rosary #2 - Handmade - 216k
Friday, June 6 - "1st Annual Helper Model Railroad
Show"
@ Noon-7pm & Saturday, June 7 @ 9AM - 6PM
The Ophir Tintic Model Railroad Club displays their model setups from tiny
"N" scale and some "HO" scale! At the Helper Civic Auditorium.
Free Admission.
Friday, June 6 - "Old West Evening Outdoors"
@ 6PM
Famed local Helper band Hillbilly Voodoo and Old West Entertainment at the Main
Street Park Stage (next to the Post Office). Bring your lawn chairs or blanket.
Food available for sale. Admission is free.
Saturday, June 7, 2008 - "Old West Chuckwagon Breakfast"
@ 8AM - 10PM
At the Balance Rock Eatery - 148 South Main Street,
Helper.
Saturday, June 7, 2008 - Family Heritage Day @ 10AM - 4PM
Guided Museum tours!
Old West shootouts by the Balanced Rock Regulators!
Mining safety demonstrations by West Ridge Coal Mine at Main Street Park!
"Exploring Castle Country - The Immigrants of Carbon County" traveling
exhibit
from the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections at the
Rio Theatre.
Old Time photographs with "real" outlaws!
Food & Vendors' Row! Helper Merchants' Sidewalk Sale!
Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
Saturday, June 7, 2008 @ 2:30-5PM - Bordello Bed Race
Come see some of Utah's fastest themed Racing Bordello
Beds and Teams compete down Helper's Main Street.
Admission to most events is free, but donations
are appreciated. Turn of the century costumes are encouraged at all events,
but not required.
Events subject to change. Keep checking back for
a current schedule of events.
Click here for the Detailed Schedule of Events!
Click here for Sponsor and / or Vendor Information!
Click here for a free download
of the 2008 poster! (1.9Megabyte Hi Resolution version.) |
| What is
Heritage Week... |
Heritage Week was the week-long celebration of the Western Mining & Railroad Museum. (As of November
2008, it has been turned over to benefit the non-profit organization, the
Eastern Utah Tourism & History Association.) Helper is NOT your
stereotypical Utah town! In fact, Helper is the black sheep of Utah -- and
mostly proud of it! Helper has a unique and colorful history of railroads,
coal mining, bordelleos, riots, and outlaws! It is a fact that there were
more bars and brothels in Helper than there were churches -- and Butch Cassidy
robbed the Castle Gate payroll here.
Teply Graphic Arts & Publishing, LLC (TGAP) has
been a proud sponsor, event coordinator, marketing agency, participant and
gun-toting outlaw of this event for the last four years -- but it has grown
to a size where TGAP can no longer be a 90% sponsor/underwriter! However,
that is a saga for print elsewhere! That's why we are offering Image Replicas
Mercantile -- buy a museum quality historical photo reproduction (or
other Old or New West merchandise) and support Heritage Week.
Heritage Week has gained national coverage
and notoriety to the point that True West Magazine named
Helper, Utah as a Top Western Town for two years.
In 2006, we were #10. In 2007, we jumped to #1! |
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A lot of the credit goes to museum director SueAnn Martell's efforts
in resurrecting and reviving Helper's history. She is also spearheading
a much needed museum expansion -- which will also make the museum handicapped
accessible. In fact, she just won an award from the Utah Humanities Council
for her historic presevation efforts!
Her next major effort is to hijack a
time machine and stalk Butch Cassidy -- only to find the Castle Gate Payroll
gold and maybe steal his horse, and his guns, and have him autograph a photo
or two dozen! |
Every year there are events ranging from Cemetery and Haunted Tours
and guest lectures right up to the big finale where we shut down Main Street
and have members of the Balanced Rock Regulators shoot up the street with
Hollywood-style smoky blanks. We also have food vendors, a merchant's row
and a photo contest. Heritage Week grows every year and is rapidly becoming
Helper's biggest event!
This will be our second year for the
Bordello Ball -- where "soiled doves" will roam amongst
the dinner guests. This event will be a fund-raiser for the museum. Dinner
guests will be treated to a dinner prepared in the style of the old Helper
saloons and brothels while our guest speaker will tell historical tales
and topics. After the dinner an auction will further help to promote and
help the museum with its operations and expansion.
Wednesday,
June 4th, 2008 will be your last chance to buy tickets for the Bordello
Ball! After that, ticket sales are closed. Contact the museum at 435.472.3009
to pre-purchase tickets. Seats are limited!
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| How did
Heritage Week get its start... |
Originally set aside as part of the statewide Utah Prehistory Week,
Heritage Week was sort of a footnote. With such a vast and diverse history,
Utah and Helper's heritage needed its own week to promote history and the
preservation thereof.
In 2002, the Western Mining & Railroad
Museum under the direction of SueAnn Martell and with the help of Darrin
Teply, moved Heritage Week to the first week of June and took the lead.
The first Heritage Week was in 2003 and
coincided with the unveiling of "Helper - the Hub of Carbon County"
exhibit. This exhibit told over 100 years of Helper's history and how it
affected Carbon County. It was a quiet affair. While the first Heritage
Week was good, the second Heritage Week was a success! |
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The next year, with the help of a national game vendor and the Balanced Rock
Regulators reenactment and the Carbon County SASS group, Heritage
Week attracted visitors from far distances who came just for the event.
These areas were as far away as Las Vegas, NV and San Diego, CA!
Doing our own promoting and with people
"shooting up the street" we pulled in more money through the museum's
gift shop and visitors on the last day in FOUR HOURS (before Main Street
flooded in the rain) than any other of Helper's multiple day events!
Year after year, we have had repeat visitors
from Provo, Salt Lake, St. George, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada!
This success came to the notice of True West Magazine who
looked into other activities that the museum was doing and in 2006 named
us as their Number 10 True Western Town. We kept up with our history preservation
activities and in 2007 we were named their #1 True Western Town. Right now,
we're having ulcers trying to figure out how we're going to top that...
but we will! |
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| Vendor
Information & Form... |
We are looking for Sponsors, Vendors, Artists
and Performers! Heritage Week is a nationally recognized event right
here in the heart of Utah. Every year, we hope to make Heritage Week bigger
and better and spread the word about Carbon County, its unique history,
its sites, its people and its business opportunities. In return, every Heritage
Week brings repeat and new attendees from not only Carbon County and the
state of Utah, but surrounding states too!
Do you think you have what it takes to
be a part of the #1 True Western Town and the event that gave it that status?
Adobe PDF Forms are available below for download or call Heritage Week HQ
at (435) 472-6666 or the Western Mining & Railroad Museum at (435) 472-3009.
Heritage Week
2008 Artist/Vendor Form - 57k PDF download
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| Sponsor
Information & Form... |
Your sponsorship benefits everyone,
especially your business. As a sponsor, your company's message will
go out to festival attendees and to other people who will see festival advertisements,
promotional materials, sponsor cards and DestinationHelper.com! Your sponsorship
will also show a new customer base that you care about your community.
Sponsorships are available at four different
levels. All contributions are applied to directly offset costs for entertainment,
advertising, operations and materials. All festival staff are volunteers
and earn no salary. Running an event like this requires a large amount of
funding and many people who care! We hope you will pitch in and be a part
of the team.
Heritage
Week 2008 Sponsor Package (3 pages + Form) - 3.1Meg PDF download
Heritage
Week 2008 Sponsor Form - 57k PDF download
In the mean time, mosey on over to Image Replicas
Mercantile and see if you like something for that Old West Fanatic
in your life. All proceeds go to supporting the Western Mining & Railroad's
Heritage Week.
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