They started looking for a place for the festival. They couldnt find a place in woodstock that was large enough. They found a property that might have worked, down the road from woodstock, but that fell through. Out of desperation, they found an Industrial Park near middletown, new york. It was fairly flat. Kind of uninteresting land, but it had Good Transportation access. They started building, started advertising. They built the stage. They had artists creating art installations and everything was going smoothly until the locals caught wind of what they were doing and it wasnt going to be a 50,000 person folk festival after all, what they were promised. Jimi hendrix had been booked, and a number of nonfolk bands were booked, prominently. The town basically rewrote its laws to outlaw the festival. And that left Woodstock Ventures with about four weeks to find another location. That is when they came in contact with max. Max yasgur, the dairy farmer in bethel. About 90 miles northwest of new york city. When Woodstock Ventures approached him, in july, 1969, and asked if he had any property that might be suitable for a rock festival, when he showed them a couple of pieces of land and when they came to this property, which was one of his hay fields. He grew alfalfa on this hill. Woodstock Ventures Partners noticed it was a natural bowl. It was a perfect shape, perfect size for the type of rock festival they wanted to have end right there on the spot they made a deal with max to lease his property for the rest of the month, so they could move their rock festival to bethel. And the rest is history. Bethel is still very much like it was in 1969. The road system hasnt been upgraded very much. The economy is still very rural. Max and miriam left shortly after woodstock. They moved to florida and soon after, he died. The property went to a woman by the name of jean gellis and she kept the property, kept it agricultural. In the mid1990s she put the property up for sale and a local man by the name of alan gary set up a foundation and purchased the land. He recognized that woodstock was a big part of this regions history and worthy of commemoration. And created the Bethel Woods Center for the arts, which has an outdoor performance pavilion. A worldclass museum, and of course, the Historic Site itself. Our mission at bethel woods is to inspire people through the arts and to follow at least the examples of the 1960s of peace, brotherhood, acceptance. I think the people who come here can feel that, just by walking the ground they feel that vibe. Coming our way, right here you can see the culture weve got more horses than people in wyoming. The cspans cities tour is traveling the country as we explore the american story. This weekend we take you to sheraton, wyoming. Located along the bighorn mountains, the city of 17,000 is known for its cowboy culture and open ranges. With the help of our spectrum cable partners, this saturday at noon on book tv, a look at sheraton and the state through its local authors. It is 100,000 square miles. 580,000 people. A single driver economy. No ocean and no major city. We are utterly singular. And on sunday at 2 00 p. M. , we explore the history of sheraton and the surrounding area on American History tv. The landscape is our artifact. When people come in, you really see and start to absorb how crucial the artifact that we preserve in wyoming, which is our landscape, how that has shaped the westward expansion. Watch cspans cities tour of sheraton, wyoming, saturday at noon eastern on cspan twos book tv and this sunday at 2 00 p. M. On cspan3 American History tv. Week nights this week we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3. On friday we featured the 400th anniversary of the first africans in regina, beginning with remarks by Virginia Governor ralph northam. Senators mike warner and tim kaine. Curator karen sherry share stories about individuals who lead slave revolts, educated fellow free people and took part in abolitionist john browns raid on harpers ferry. Then the history behind the smithsonian institutions africanamerican museum in washington, dc. Enjoy American History tv this weekend every weekend on c span3. American history tv products are now available at the new c span online store. Go to cspanstore. Org to see what is new for American History tv and check out all of the cspan products. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the woodstock music festival. Back in 2009, book tv covered a talk with the cofounder of the festival, michael lang, who reflected on the execution of the concert that took place on max yasgurs farm in upstate new york. Now, from our archives, here is michael laying on woodstock. It is wonderful for us to be here, in a state where we feel the spirit of woodstock so well. I have to say,