By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer

Echoes of a century of Fort Reno history will come alive like frames from a living movie next Saturday.

The 2007 Fort Reno Candlelight Tour Re-enactment will lead guests by lantern and candlelight starting at 8 p.m. Saturday. Patrons will be guided through 13 scenes from Fort Reno’s storied past, spanning the gap from a cavalry post that was made permanent in 1876 to its current status as a research facility for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Jessica Wells, historic interpreter for the fort.

As one of the catalysts used to transport guests back in time, Wiley “Coyote” Smith said his scene will take guests back to a simpler time in the 1880s when the Chisholm Trail cowboy worked his way across Oklahoma toward the railhead in Kansas to sell his cattle.

Smith said he hopes to give people a piece of living history and a grasp of what it was like to be a cowboy when Fort Reno was a cavalry post and the Chisholm Trail was the closest thing there was to an interstate.

“I want to connect them to the past where things were simpler. People stuck to their word and a deal was sealed with a handshake,” he said.

The era that Smith will play on Saturday is much more than an acting role to him. He said he started doing historical re-enacting eight years ago as a hobby and now it is just who he is.

“I dress like this all of the time,” Smith said about the black cowboy hat, knee high boots and six-gun he wore on his side. “I always felt like I was born out of my time, even as a kid. This is not a costume, it is who I am.”

In its third year, the candlelight tour keeps getting bigger and better, said Fort Reno Visitors Center Director Bob Warren.

Warren said he will be narrating a scene in the visitors center about artist Frederic Remington.

“He is probably one of the most famous western artists in America,” he said. “Remington spent about three months out here at the fort in the 1800s sketching the Indians and the buildings. I will talk about who he was and how important his art has been to the history of this area.”

In addition to Remington and the Chisholm Trail cowboy, 11 other historical scenes will be played out across the fort grounds. Three women ranging in age from a grandmother to young children will be playing out a typical day in 1907 Fort Reno as the “Fort Reno Gossips,” Wells said.

“They will just be sitting around knitting and gossiping about the goings-on at the fort. It is an opportunity to learn about daily life in 1907 from a woman’s perspective,” Wells said.

Additional scenes include Essye Anne Blevins, played by her granddaughter, Theleda Fuller; Josephine Palmer, who staked her claim near the fort during the 1889 Land Run; remount cowboy Ira “Jack” Field; a World War II wedding; Army scout and interpreter camp; a portrayal of Capt. David L. Payne; a narrative showing the role the buffalo soldier played out on the frontier; the story of the famous horse Black Jack, told by Jack Whenry; the story of the Cheyenne Exodus, where Woodson Whitebird will tell the story of his people and what they were thinking when they escaped the fort and headed north; and retired Maj. Joe Mays with his gun collection spanning the entire history of the fort.