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The fictional Absaroka County comes to Buffalo again for the 10th annual Longmire Days

A float in the 2017 Longmire Days parade.
Brendan Bombaci
/
Flickr via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A float in the 2017 Longmire Days parade.

Buffalo will again host Longmire Days beginning on Aug. 18, which attracts several thousand attendees annually. Sponsored by the Longmire Foundation, the event celebrates the fictional Absaroka County in the TV series Longmire, which is based on Buffalo and Johnson County.

The show is based off of Craig Johnson’s Longmire book series.

“We’re doing two horseback rides, we’re doing a big pig roast afterparty, we’re doing the hardware of Longmire [which] is a new event for us this year,” said Jennifer McCormick, Director of the Longmire Foundation. “They’re going to talk about why Craig chose certain vehicles and the rifles and the sidearms and all of the hardware that they used in the books and in the series.”

Longmire Days has attracted thousands of attendees in years past. The actors from the TV series have made regular appearances during the multi-day event. Both the 2020 and 2021 events were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. McCormick said they’re expecting fewer attendees than in previous years, but that anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 people are expected to attend, given the number of tickets sold and discussions that have been had on their Facebook page.

“We're rebuilding,” she said. "It's a process. We think we'll have fewer people, but we still expect a really good crowd. People seem excited about it.”

Supporting charities has also been a part of the Longmire Foundation’s activities, which has donated various amounts to different organizations over the years.

“We have selected the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center,” she said. “They got a $30,000 donation from us last year, [and] we really support their work. They do a lot of work without a lot of paid help, so that money is dispersed out into the community.”

One of Johnson’s most recent books, Daughter of the Morning Star, deals with missing and murdered indigenous women.

A new event centers on the history of the area.

“We also added a new event this year with our local museum [the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum],” McCormick explained. “It's the history of Johnson County and they're working with Craig Johnson and Robert Taylor. They'll be doing diary readings and confessions from the cattle wars. It's going to be really interesting, and it's sold out very quickly.”

A full list of events can be found on the Longmire Foundation’s website. The festivities will run through Sunday, Aug. 21.

Hugh Cook is Wyoming Public Radio's Northeast Reporter, based in Gillette. A fourth-generation Northeast Wyoming native, Hugh joined Wyoming Public Media in October 2021 after studying and working abroad and in Washington, D.C. for the late Senator Mike Enzi.
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