A ROOTIN-tootin', gun-slinging, bushwhacking, Indian summer is forecast for the North-East next year.

Tumbleweed and wagon trains may be absent from its streets, but western fans are expected to hit the trail to Middlesbrough in memory of world famous frontiersman Buffalo Bill.

Rumour and local history has it that William Cody took his famous wild west show to Teesside in the summer of 1903.

The circus was camped on Ivy's Field, where the Newport Settlement stands on Union Street, close to the town centre.

Plans are being drawn up for a festival next summer to mark the anniversary of the visit.

It will include displays, talks, history tours, native American storytellers, drummers and artists.

Poets will work in schools and with community groups, and there will be outdoor theatre, folk songs, traditional crafts, line dancing, a hoe-down, gunfight re-enactments, circus skills workshops, games and competitions.

Bob Beagrie, of Cleveland Arts, said: "People don't believe it when you tell them that the Wild West Show and the world famous frontiersman, showman and aviator was camped at the bottom of Union Street, 100 years ago.

"There is some written evidence and a lot of rumour and hearsay that's been passed down through families. Middlesbrough itself was like a frontier boom town then.

"It is a fantastic idea and deserves to be marked by an event of some kind and a series of arts residencies in schools.''

The arts organisation is working with others in the area to develop ideas and find funding for the festival, which will celebrate Buffalo Bill's one-night visit.

A history trail could take in the grave in Middlesbrough's Linthorpe Cemetery of a Mohawk Indian.