Easter Bunny Plans Ben Wheeler Visit

Kids Can Visit with the Easter Bunny, enjoy games and hunt for eggs during April 11 Ben Wheeler Inaugural Easter Celebration.

Ben Wheeler—"Ben" the Easter Bunny will be hopping into downtown.

Ben Wheeler on Saturday, April 11 bringing with him plenty of games, fun and candy-filled eggs for children to enjoy.

Registration for the Easter Egg Hunt begins at 9:30 a.m. at the main park area and hunt times begin approximately every 20-to-30 minutes until 11:30 a.m. At noon, final comments and game winners will be announced.

Children can also have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and decorate a keepsake photo frame to hold and display their special Easter memory.

When children aren’t visiting with the bunny or hunting for eggs, they can spend time at the petting farm, coloring at the crafts table or enjoying main stage entertainment by event emcee, the Big Caterpillar.

Ben Wheeler Development Company (BWDC) owned by Brooks Gremmels and Ben Wheeler Arts and Historic Foundation (BWA and HF), a non-profit 501 (c) (3) corporation created by Brooks and his wife Rese Gremmels sponsors the event.

The company and the foundation serve as the vehicles for reconstructing not only the new physical aspects of Ben Wheeler, Texas, but perhaps more importantly, reestablishing a sense of community to the town.

Together, the two entities are returning the southern Van Zandt County community aesthetic to the way it looked in 1935 and are working daily to bring new businesses, cultural attractions, and a new attitude to the area. The project began a year ago and will take at least two years or more to recapture the old-fashioned atmosphere with an even longer timeline for some projects.

In a community with a thousand or so nearby residents, BWDC and BWA and HF are planning music venues, multiple entertainment porches, new restaurants, new shops including; Wild Woods of Texas and The Flying Fish Gallery, and various businesses.

A fully restored downtown park complete with gazebos is also planned to be part of Ben Wheeler’s renewal.

Ben Wheeler, named for the first man to carry mail into Van Zandt County, thrived during the late 1800s and early 1900s as families arrived in horse-drawn wagons, rode horses, or walked to visit, get mail, buy supplies, and sell or trade goods at one of the several general stores.

The community included churches, barbers, blacksmiths, tailors, saddle and shoe shop, several gins and mills, a bank, the Berry Resort Hotel, boarding houses, a movie theater, lumber yard, a garage with gas pumps eventually, cafes, a school, and even a college at one time called the Alamo Institute. Ben Wheeler shrank after World War II as many people left for large cities to find work.

For more information about the Easter Celebration event, contact event coordinator, P.A. Geddie at (903) 833-2084.