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The Lonesome Duck Saloon at Dobby's Frontier Town in Alliance. The second floor houses a bordello. During Dobby's Frontier Days later this month, the local Lions Club will serve up sarsaparilla in the saloon.

“This is the end of the summer celebration after we’ve worked hard all summer and to show the community what improvements we’ve made on the facility as well as to have live entertainment, vending and great food,” Lori White, president of the frontier town’s group, said.

The festival will hold two afternoons of live entertainment that will kick-off at 1 p.m. with Mike Pancost on guitar and vocals. St. John’s Brass will take the stage at 3 p.m. featuring a wide range of booming bass sounds. Between the musical groups, Sunday’s entertainment will include Humanities Nebraska speakers, Lyn Misser-Smith and Deb Carpenter-Nolting, enlightening the crowd with the topic, “Nice women seldom make history,” at 2 p.m.

Along with the live entertainment, a local favorite from the mid-90s Rex’s Hamburgers, will be a new food vendor highlighted at the festival.

“One of our big highlights this year will be Rex’s Hamburgers recreated,” White said. “If you knew who he was, it was a little hamburger shop in Alliance in the 1950s that had sliders, but actually smaller, he had ten burgers to a pound. It’s going to be awesome to be able to sell those again.”

If you’re not a hamburger fan, Laurie Kielwitz will be offering hotdogs and brauts, and Jen Littlehoop will serving up Navajo tacos. There will be something for everyone with a sweet tooth at the festival as well, including Bruce Faber cranking out homemade ice cream.

“He has an old-time machine to make the homemade ice cream, and it is to die for,” White said.

Dutch Oven Jones will be cooking and handing out samples of mouthwatering delights and Dobby’s candy shop will be stocked with a wide range of treats.

“Our Candy Snap Comes to Life, it was established in Alliance in 1914, will be filled with goods from area bakers and candy makers that have donated their products,” White said.

For anyone willing to give it a try, the local Lions Club will be serving up sarsaparilla shots and bottles out of Dobby’s saloon.

“...It’s actually a root beer, a little bit more woody than what A&W and others are though,” White said. “In the old days, you had to be a certain height to be able to buy alcohol in the saloons. If you were under that height, they’d only let you have sarsaparillas. The Lions Club sells shots of sarsaparilla or bottles right off the bar in the saloon, which is neat.”

Another festival favorite will be Dobby’s shooting range featuring a fast draw competition and an opportunity to tryout your own quick draw reflexes on the range targets.

“We also will have the shooting range open with the fast draw competition,” White said. “There will be guys there that will give demonstrations, or you can strap on a pistol and challenge the targets yourself, which is always a lot of fun.”

Sunday’s festival activities will include a cowboy church service at 10 a.m. and Josephine’s Photo Parlor will be open for old-time dress up photo shoots.

Dobby’s Frontier Town is located at 320 E 25th St. in Alliance.

“We always let people know that their donations are critical to keeping our facility open,” White said. “We rely totally on our donations and our volunteers, and we are grateful for both. Dobby believed in teaching history and education to people with a hands-on experience and that’s what we’re trying to continue by preserving his dream through keeping the frontier town open.”

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Nicole Heldt is a reporter with the Star-Herald, covering agriculture. She can be reached at 308-632-9044 or by email at nheldt@starherald.com.

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The Lonesome Duck Saloon at Dobby's Frontier Town in Alliance. The second floor houses a bordello. During Dobby's Frontier Days later this month, the local Lions Club will serve up sarsaparilla in the saloon.

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