“The Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball”

The Ball originated in 1885 to honor area cowboys, their ladies and families. The first Ball was held in Anson’s Star Hotel,which was later destroyed by fire. Pioneer Hall in Anson was built for the Ball with construction started in 1938 and completed in 1940. The Ball has been there ever since.
The Ball is memorialized by the famous Larry Chittenden poem “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball” (Ranch Verses,Knickerbocker Press/New York,1893, the poem put to music and published in the John and Alan Lomax classic book “Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads”(1910), the large 1930s mural in the US Post Office in Anson, and the 1936 water color by the late Maxine Walker Perini on permanent display at Abilene’s Grace Museum,to name a few. It is also the acknowledged genesis for Michael Martin Murphey’s annual “Cowboy Christmas” concerts throughout the West. Cowboy singer Michael Martin Murphey and his Rio Grande Band have been playing the Ball for the past 16 years.
The annual re-enactment of the 1885 Ball is always the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights before December 25th, and is open to the public.