Photo by Jenny Kirk Samuel Lutheran School students, from left, Hailey Schaffran and Hailey Lyons, play elderly long-distance friends in “How the West Was Really Won.”

MARSHALL — The history of the West comes alive as Samuel Lutheran School third- through eighth-grade students portray various characters and share their stories as they present the spring musical “How the West was Really Won” on Sunday.

Audience members will meet cowboys, Indian girls, settlers and pioneer women, gold and silver prospectors, Bill Cody and miner Joe Watson among others. There will also be times when the students sing and perform a square dance.

“The storytellers kind of take us through history — of what happens as they moved west,” director John Festerling said. “The Indians weaved it into their blankets when they told a story. They don’t have a written language or a book. The blankets were their diaries. In the cowboy scene, he talks about cattle drives and there’s also a scene about the Pony Express.”

While Festerling and the students are excited to present the musical — weather permitting — there’s a little sadness involved as well. The show marks the final one Festerling will direct as he is retiring at the end of the year after a 40-year career in education.

“I’m retiring this year, so this is my last one,” said Festerling, who has served as a teacher and the principal at Samuel Lutheran School for many years. “I’ve actually done this (musical) five times over the years. The first one was back in 1986, I think. last time we did this one was in 2008. It’s a good one.”

Festerling said he considered selecting a completely different musical, but the financial commitment ended up being too high.

“It got expensive when I contacted the rental companies for the royalties and stuff,” he said. “So I decided to fall back on this on. We got some nice furniture to use — Larson’s gave us the nice couch to use and there are things from other people, too.”

The costumes also help bring the stories to life.

“Some (characters) are western people and some are modern people — but mostly western,” fifth-grader Austin Rubendall said. “All of this is actually mine. Some teachers have costumes that the students can use, but most people bring their own costumes — their parents make them or they just buy them off Amazon or something.”

Rubendall’s role is that of a storyteller.

“I come up to the microphone and I have stories with the prompter (Sam Manian),” he said. “He tells things, like ‘You should really get on with how this happened’ and “Tell them about this.’ I think (the show) is going to be really good. There’s really good scenes.”

Hailey Lyons and Hailey Schaffran portray Martha and Eliza, long-distance friends who write letters to each other.

“I am Martha and I live in the East,” Lyons said. “I’m more fancy and elegant. I like the fact that it’s like letters between us, so like a friendship, but it’s long-distance.”

Schaffran is cast as Eliza and lives out west.

“I came there in a covered wagon, apparently,” Schaffran said. “I was on the Oregon Trail. I like how I get to have such a rustic interior to work with.”

Through the two elderly women, real-life history is revealed. Festerling said Martha is shocked about the living conditions when she gets her first letter from Eliza, that she’s traveling in a wagon and they have horses and mules.

“The water freezes in the buckets and there aren’t the comforts of home,” Festerling said. “They burn prairie coal, which is buffalo dung, for heat out here. So she thinks its awful.”

Festerling adds that Eliza suggests her friend come for a visit, but Martha worries that the stagecoach is too dusty or would be too cold in the winter.

“We kind of go through the history,” he said. “Then there’s a little bit about the wars that come, the firing at Fort Sumter, Lincoln getting shot — we talk a little bit about that — and then it gets patriotic with a couple of songs.”

Along with larger-group numbers, there’s also a solo and a duet during the musical.

“Some of the songs are really good,” Lyons said. “I think my favorite part, though, is probably the square dancing. It’s pretty cool to watch.”

Lyons added that she thought one of the biggest challenges in preparing for the musical was learning the square dancing.

“It’s pretty hard,” she said. “It was difficult for them to learn where to go.”

Schaffran said she felt the toughest parts were “learning the lines and practicing all the time.” She’s optimistic that it’ll be a good show to watch.

“I think it’s coming together pretty good,” she said. “We just need to work on singing a little louder.”

The performance, which begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, features 26 students.

“My favorite part is when they send the letter out East and Thomas, he’s sitting down and he goes, ‘Oh, boy! When are we going?’ But then he gets surprised and doesn’t get to go on a trip,” Rubendall said.

Festerling noted that there are also scenes about prairie life, discovering gold and celebrating the Wild West.

“The settlers talk about being in a sod house and having to hold an umbrella over a pot when they cook because the dirt falls from the roof,” Festerling said. “Then Marshall says, ‘Hey, there’s gold, there’s gold. There’s silver in Nevada. There’s also Buffalo Bill Cody, who was always announcing things — the Wild West Show — you know.”

Another scene depicts girls unpacking treasures from the boxes.

“They have a Bible, a coin, a needle, a saucer and a cup and different special things they packed from home,” Festerling said. “They always had some special trinkets and things they took with them.”

The Iron Horse scene talks about the train coming.

“It’s about the white man coming,” Festerling said. “That’s what the Indians were singing — the white man is coming with the Iron Horse and tack. It’s kind of about them running over their property and stuff.”

While the students got their final practice in on Friday, a potentially historic storm is threatening to delay the production.

“The plan is still to perform on Sunday at 3 p.m.,” Festerling said. “I don’t know for sure what the weather is going to do to us, but we have everything set up and I don’t want to extend it for another week. They’re ready for it. It’s going to get old and they’re not going to be excited about it anymore.”

Pushing the musical back a week runs the risk of interfering with other scheduled events. But safety will end up trumping inconvenience if it comes down to it.

“It’s supposed to stop Sunday — it’s just whether or not it’s going to be so bad you can’t move,” Festerling said. “There’s also 50 mile an hour wind predicted. (Whenever we get to perform it) I think it’ll be a good show.”