After six years, admirers of cowboy culture have reason to dust off their spurs and squeeze into their chaps once again.

Ottawa’s Old West Cowboy Days event is back this weekend after a long break.

Peach Madl, the event’s organizer and a Lawrence businesswoman, said the event used to be huge and very expensive. When it lost its major sponsor, organizers didn’t want a smaller setup to be disappointing, so it has stayed on the back burner — until this Saturday.

“What we used to do was so incredibly crazy and wonderful that we thought we’d get the ball rolling in remembering it,” she said.

The weekend kicks off Friday with a new event that Bruce Eveland, operating manager of the Kansas Belle Dining Train, hopes will become an annual tradition: the Bourbon Tasting Run.

A different type of bourbon will accompany each of five courses on the train ride, finishing with a smoked maple dessert variety.

Saturday morning brings back some of the traditional events local families may remember, starting with more than 30 longhorn at 10 a.m.

“We have some great cowboys from Garnett who will be driving (the cattle) down Main Street for five blocks,” Madl said. “That’s always just so cool to see.”

Madl said she believes it’s important to preserve cowboy culture for kids and for those who don’t know what it’s like.

“As our population increases, our agriculture decreases,” Madl said.

However, there are still a lot of local “equine enthusiasts,” Madl said, and this event will likely appeal to them.

“We have a lot of different breeds (of horses) around here that lots of people don’t know about,” Madl said, so attendees can walk around their pens and learn about them.

There will also be a petting zoo, pie, carriage rides, barbecue and more.

Most of the events and activities are free and within walking distance of the Ottawa Municipal Auditorium, 301 S. Hickory St.

No cowboy celebration would be complete without the Duke. The Plaza Cinema, 209 S. Main St., will show “The Quiet Man” at 1 p.m. and “True Grit” at 4 p.m., both free.

However, true John Wayne fans may be more excited by what Madl has in the cinema’s movie memorabilia museum: costumes that Wayne wore in “McLintock!” and “The Horse Soldiers.”

The day will end in the auditorium on a musical note with Rusty Rierson and Travis Marvin Band performances. Tickets are $15, or $5 for kids 12 and under.

If this weekend goes well, Madl said, hopefully the event will become bigger than ever before over the next few years.

A full schedule of events is online at explorenekansas.com.

For more information about the Kansas Belle Dining Train, which also hosts many other types of events, visit kansasbelle.com or call 594-8505.