Dudley Mosele holds up his cane syrup at Saturday's Heritage Syrup Festival in Henderson. The syrup festival featured cane syrup making, arts and crafts booths, basket weaving, folk music and much more for the entire family to enjoy over the weekend. (Schuyler Wick/Tyler Morning Telegraph).

HENDERSON – It was a cool, cloudy afternoon in Henderson on Saturday. If you have ever wanted to see what life was like in bygone days and to experience hands-on crafting, all while seeing how old-fashioned cane syrup is made, the 29th annual Heritage Syrup Festival in Henderson was the place to be.

Held on the second Saturday in November every year, the Depot Museum grounds draw thousands to watch how syrup makers operate the mule-powered equipment to produce cane syrup.

The cane is grown locally, squished out of a crusher and the juice is piped down into a pan where it is cooked over a fire and workers skim the top off the syrup. The syrup master tells when it is done, and workers run the syrup into pans and let it settle. Syrup made earlier is available for tasting and purchase.

“In the South, people came together as a community and social event and brought cane, firewood, mules and much more to cook and help one another out,” said Vickie Armstrong, director of the Depot Museum.

“That is what this syrup festival is made for, to keep history alive and bring people together with blacksmith, wood carving and basket weaving to name a few.”

Aside from the making of syrup, the fun-filled event featured hundreds of arts and crafts booths and an antique car and tractor exhibit downtown in the National Register Historic District in Henderson.

“This is our fifth year here, we love the corn dogs, sausage on a stick, turkey legs, craft booths, family activities and making new friends,” said Henderson resident Sheron Thurmond, who brings her son Zane Maverick Jenkins,6, every year.

Folk and bluegrass music filled the air as families enjoyed wood carving, a petting zoo, basket weaving, learning how to make rope and an East Texas Civic Theatre performance of a melodrama at the Opera House.

Those who tired while walking around looking at the many displays and booths and watching demonstrations of baling hay, making string with wool and crafting with survival skills, could take hayride shuttles between the museum and downtown sponsored by the Rusk County 4-H Club.

The Heritage Syrup Festival seemed to satisfy those who came from all over East Texas and some all the way from Louisiana, Houston and San Antonio.

Local high school student Dillon Martin worked a booth for his drama club.

“Henderson just isn’t Henderson without this festival, it’s a Henderson tradition every year,” he said.

The Heritage Syrup Festival holds a spot in the hearts of many local residents as it continues to be their yearly tradition.