BOLIVAR — The celebration of the Bolivar Bicentennial and Pioneer Oil Days starts Sunday and runs all the way through next weekend. The calendar of events is a combination of activities celebrating the oil history of the community and the town’s 200 years.

There is something happening every day of the week, featuring everything from food to races and contests, music, antique cars, fireworks and a parade.

Bicentennial chairman Kelly Lounsberry said the committee has worked to combine both elements from Pioneer Oil Days and the 150-year celebration of the town from 1975.

The Baldwin’s Tractor Pull for kids is one of many events planned during Bolivar’s Bicentennial celebration and Pioneer Oil Days, which will go on for more than a week.

“We realize that times and people have changed a lot over the last 50 years, but we thought they would still enjoy some of the old events like the bathtub races and the Brothers of the Brush contest,” he said.

New this year is a sand sculpture by well-known local artist Eric Jones. Lounsberry said the sculpture will showcase the oil history of the town and other iconic features. Jones is featured in the “Guinness Book of World Records” and is well-known for his patriotic sculptures as well as his works featuring the Buffalo Bills.

The sculpture will be located on Main Street next to the Heritage of Flame building.

On Sunday there will be an official ceremony opening the bicentennial featuring speeches by local dignitaries including the mayor and town supervisor and Allegany County Legislator Deb Root and Board of Legislators Chairman Brooke Harris. A time capsule will be buried and the bicentennial king and queen will be named.

Some of the other events this year includes an antique tractor pull in the morning and the bathtub race Sunday, a cemetery tour on Monday, a historical talk with local historian Craig Braack on Tuesday, Wednesday will feature music from the Mosaic women’s choir, the Genesee Valley Chorus and a middle/high school concert with Bolivar-Richburg students.

June 26 is for kids of all ages with fire truck rides, a scavenger hunt and a movie under the stars. June 27 celebrates the men and women who brought oil riches to the county with the Oil Producer’s Wall of Fame induction ceremony and celebration and a fireworks display at dusk.

June 28 will feature the Pioneer Oil Days parade and car show. The car show has 12 different categories and will be on Main Street after the parade. The Brothers of the Brush and Mustache contest will also be judged.

On June 29 the event ends with the Bolivar-Richburg Central School graduation ceremony. For times and other features of the bicentennial and POD Celebration see the list below or go to the bicentennial website.

“Hopefully the weather will be good for the week-long series of events to celebrate Pioneer Oil Days and the Bolivar Bicentennial,” Lounsberry said.

The town of Bolivar was formed from the town of Friendship on Feb. 15, 1825.

According to the history of Bolivar compiled by the Bicentennial Committee, available on its website, “By 1825, enough citizens lived near the confluence of Root Holler and Little Genesee creeks that they decided to form a town. They chose ‘Bolivar’ to honor the then living Liberator of South America, General Simon Bolivar.”

Historically, from 1825 to 1881, the population of Bolivar seldom exceeded 160 residents, who made their livings as farmers, loggers and tanners. On April 27, 1881, that changed when, “A huge oil gusher was struck in the nearby town of Wirt.” Known as the Richburg Discovery well, it produced more than 400 barrels of oil a day, “beginning the oil boom that forever changed the Bolivar valley.”

“Within 10 months of the discovery the population of Bolivar grew … to as many as 12,000 prospectors who moved into the valley to make their fortune in the oil fields. Business exploded with an Opera House, six clothing stores, 14 blacksmiths, four meat markets, seven doctors and 11 attorneys, and a telephone exchange,” according to the history.

Wells were drilled everywhere and by the end of 1882, approximately 7 million barrels of oil had been extracted from the Allegany oil field, mainly in and around Bolivar.

Millionaires were born with the flow of oil and built grand houses along the streets of Bolivar. By 1920 oil production had ebbed, but a new recovery method of flooding the wells with water initiated the second oil recovery and propelled Boliver into a prosperous future.

The history states, “Bolivar was one of the wealthiest communities per capita in New York state,” based on the production of green crude oil.

During World War II the production of oil was declared an essential war industry, and while many local men headed for the battlefields of the Europe and the Pacific, many also stayed in the oil fields. In the 1950s the secondary recovery of oil peaked and oil production declined.

Today the forests of oil wells that once stretched across the fields from Richburg to Bolivar and beyond are preserved in old photographs displayed on the walls of the elegant homes that still grace the streets of Bolivar and in the memories of the children and grandchildren of the oil pioneers.

That history has been celebrated since the 1980s with the annual Pioneer Oil Days, or POD.

A schedule of events for the coming days follows:

SUNDAY

• Genesee Valley Antique Tractor Pull, sponsored by Hahn and Schaffner, 9 a.m.

• Chicken barbecue at the tractor pull by Trailblazers Snowmobile Club

• Bolivar Post 772 American Legion Cornhole Tournament, 1 p.m. at the Bolivar Legion on Main Street, $10 per person. See Legion’s Facebook page.

• Bolivar Bicentennial ceremony, 5 p.m. at Community Park on Main Street.

• The Great Bathtub Race immediately following the opening ceremony.

MONDAY

• Lions Club Euchre Tournament at American Legion. Registration at 5:30 p.m., games start at 6 p.m.; $15 includes registration, food and soda.

• Bicentennial Cemetery Tour, 6 p.m. at Maple Lawn Cemetery.

TUESDAY

• Lions Club Family Fun Night, 5 p.m. at Shaner Field featuring the Bolivar Lions Club ice cream social, Faith Bible Church penny carnival, ACCORD Head Start face painting, Methodist Church bounce house and bicentennial historical games.

• Baldwin Family Children’s Tractor Pull, 6:30 p.m.

• “Boomtown New York” book signing with George Bradley, 6 to 7 p.m. at the Pioneer Oil Museum (Hahn & Schaffer site).

• Braack will present “The Unusual Ways that Towns & Villages Got Their Names,” 7 p.m. at Pioneer Oil Museum.

WEDNESDAY

• Concert Celebrating Bolivar: A musical tribute to 200 years, 7 p.m. at Bolivar-Richburg Middle/High School. The Mosaic choir is directed by Norene Ferris, the Genesee Valley Choir is directed by Matthew Morris-Purks. Bolivar-Richburg music students will also be featured and there will be local celebrities and nostalgia.

THURSDAY

• Bolivar Lions Club Scavenger Hunt, 5:45 (Hahn & Schaffner site). At 6 p.m. there will be team costume judging by Eric Jones. The hunt begins at 6:15 p.m. and will feature interactive historical stops on the route.

• BRAG Strawberry Shortcake Festival, Richburg-Wirt Museum, 6 to 8 p.m.

• Fire truck rides for children at the Bolivar Fire Hall, 6 to 8 p.m.

• Movie Under the Stars at the Bolivar Library parking lot, 9 p.m. (Movie to be announced.)

JUNE 27

• Oil Producers Wall of Fame inductions, New Oil Museum at the Hahn & Schaffner site, 6 p.m.

• Wine and cheese tasting, New Oil Museum, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

• Pioneer Oil Days fireworks show at dusk.

JUNE 28

• American Legion Auxiliary Breakfast, 7 to 11 a.m.

• Pioneer Oil Days Parade, 10 a.m.

• Pioneer Oil Days Summer Cruise Car Show immediately after parade.

• Duck Race, Main Street Bridge, noon.

• Firemen’s chicken barbecue at the fire hall, noon until gone.

• Bicentennial Brothers of the Brush beard and moustache contest judging.

• Live music on Main Street with Generations, 12:15 p.m. at the parade judging area.

• Bolivar Central and Bolivar-Richburg Central Alumni Banquet at the Bolivar Country Club, 2 p.m.

• School tours, see alumni website for details.

JUNE 29

• Bolivar-Richburg graduation, 1 p.m.