The competitive parts of the Fest were a "Hare and Hound" chase where a lead balloon would drop markers along the way and the following balloons would try to drop their markers as close to the leader's as possible.

The mass takeoffs were a joy to watch, as the bags of all the balloons were spread out on the grass of Mentock Park, all facing the same direction so that they filled side-by-side. As they became upright they would be given a blast of hot air by the burners and would take off. We were at the park one day and up on an overlook the other, as can be seen from the pictures below.

There is an entire museum that covers Buffalo Bill Cody and his associates. The American Firearms museum has over 2700 guns on display that covers the history of firearms. It includes the entire Winchester Collection that was moved here from New Haven, CT in 1976. There is a collection of Western Art, a Natural History museum and a Plains Indian collection.

Lander is home to the Eagle Bronze Foundry where bronze castings are made for many artists around the world. If you are here, you must take the tour of this facility, it shows you how a sculptor's work is turned into a bronze casting, such as the one in this picture.

Lander has many bronze sculptures situated around the town as shown in the pictures below. The most prominent is the "Bronze Roundup" which consists of the cowpoke shown here and three full size longhorn steer. This was created in 2001 to salute the pioneers that originally settled the Lander Valley, and is shown in the pictures immediately below.