Fort Concho National Historic Landmark will join San Angelo’s Lost Meadows Mule Refuge to celebrate National Mule Day with ongoing activities from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the fort’s Living History Stables, 236 Henry O. Flipper St.
According to a City of San Angelo press release, Lost Meadows will bring its baby mule, Journey, plus other adoptable mules who will be available for photo ops throughout the day. The fort’s mules, Mac and Barney, will also be onsite. The day’s events are free and open to all.
Linda Hermes, author of the children’s book series, Hoot and Holler, will be signing copies of her books from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the stables classroom. Hoot and Holler recants the tales of two adventuresome 1870s U.S. Army mules at Fort Concho.
Fort Concho, in its historic period of the 1870s and 1880s, had hundreds of mules and horses for the many wagons and cavalry units that served the post. Since the mid-1980s, the fort has housed mules onsite, a living history and interpretive program started by former site director John Vaughan. The Lost Meadows Mule Refuge shelters 150 animals and its mission is to “provide safe refuge, medical care and training to wild-born, abused and unhandled mules across the United States.”
National Mule Day marks the Oct. 26, 1785, date when a Spanish donkey arrived in America, specially requested by George Washington to breed American mules. President Ronald Reagan signed the proclamation establishing the celebration date of Oct. 26 on the event’s 200th anniversary in 1985.
