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Little town on the Prairie: why do so many people trek to Albany (population: 2,000)? For starters, it has a serious art museum, an imposing courthouse, picturesque storefronts, historic ranches--and every June it lets it hair down with a Texas-size spectacular under the stars. Fandangle, anyone?

Article Excerpt
FOR MOST TRAVELERS, the first hint that Albany might be a little different from other small towns in Texas is the Burma Shave-style signs just outside the city limits: "See Jane bop / Jack hunt and fish / Drive carefully / Stop wildlife squish / In Albany." Drivers who proceed on to the tidy town square (and Albany's single traffic light) can't help but be impressed by the monumental Shackelford County courthouse, a bronze-toned limestone beauty that has stood sentimental over Albany for 120 years now, its four-acre lawn nearly trimmed and ringed by pecan and mesquite trees. A few turns around the business district heighten the sensation of having driven onto a Hollywood set. The picturesque storefronts don't house cheapo dollar chains and video rental stores but a varied and upscale assemblage: a Texana-and-antiques shop, a chichi kitchen emporium, and a press--not an ironing service, you understand, but an independent book publisher, Bright Sky Press. And a sculpture garden only a couple of blocks away marks the location of the town's pride and joy, a Real Art Museum, with holdings the range from pre-Columbian artifacts to Renoirs.

Some 35 miles northeast of Abilene, and well off the beaten highway, Albany is the largest of Shackelford County's three towns: It has two thousand residents, give or take a few dozen. But it is so much more than a pretty little town. Besides the vaunted bucolic qualities that turn urban Texans misty-eyed--the easy pace, the friendly populace, the Dairy Queen filled with working folks--it also has a steadier economy and a more sophisticated mind-set than many cities ten or twenty or fifty times its size. Not surprisingly, it has been a ranching stronghold for more than a century; the town was on the trail to Dodge City, and its slogan since 1920 has been "Home of the Hereford," because area ranchers were instrumental in popularizing the breed. The county is also known for quarter horses, oil, and hunting leases ("We all raise game and have a few cattle on the side," says one cowboy). A nearby state park contains the ruins (haunted!) of Fort Griffin, an 1870's-era Army post. And best of all, Albany has the fabled Fort Griffin Fandangle.

Held the last two weekends of June, Fandangle, which debuted in 1938, is the oldest outdoor theatrical performance in the state. A Texas-size production crammed with cowboys, caw airy, critters, cancan girls, and much more, the show spins out on a three-acre stone stage on the grounds of a historic ranch. But the pageant's age and scope are not all that set it apart. Fandangle--a word coined to suggest Western-style liveliness and fun--is Albany's love letter to local history, and never has a town so unilaterally embraced its past,...

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