Results of fair is part of Grant County history
The 2011 Grant County Fair has one more day and then it will be history, recounted in the pages of the Columbia Basin Herald and other Columbia Basin newspapers. The winners of the various competitions will be listed, with others vowing to do better next year.
Following are a few items about the Grant County Fair in 1949 as reported in the Friday, Sept. 16 edition. Read on.
E-mail from Cheryl
Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins:
From the Columbia Basin Herald on Sept. 16, 1949:
4-H Pig Project begun by Kiwanis pays off at Fair
Each pig won a ribbon and two won two each at the Grant County Fair last Weekend. 4-H club members entered two sows and 13 pigs, all pure bred Chester Whites and all part of the Kiwanis Club sponsored stock-improvement program.
One sow, kept by Gaylord Weaver, took two blues, grandchampion sow, and first in the 4-H class. Wayne Fannin won a blue for his gelt, and then won reserve champion with the same pig.
Others winning blues with their stock were Kay Lybbert, George Fannin and Gaylord Weaver with a gelt. Weaver's gelt won her blue in the open stock class, others were in 4-H competition.
Red ribbons went to David Benson with a brood sow and another for his boar, and to Newell Jorgenson and Florrie Cavin for gelts.
David and Florence Benson and Everet and Sterling Gale took whites with other gelts from the same two litters.
Florrie Cavin of O'Sullivan Dam won grand champion hog with her own animal, not part of the 4-H competition.
Of the 14 well bred pigs, four have been sold and the others were retained for breeding stock.
Parade is hailed as best held in Moses Lake
Floats, bands, marching units, decorated cars and trucks and farm machinery combined to make the rodeo parade Saturday afternoon the longest and the most colorful the city has ever seen.
The American Legion post, with its float depicting the marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima, won sweepstakes honors.
Among the commercial float entries, the Scotch number of Columbia Basin Hardware was judged best. It carried a bagpiper and two Scotch lassies dancing the Highland fling. Second was the washerwoman float of Basin Supply and third was the wagon team entry of Lee's I.G.A. Food Store and Boyd's Market.
The Mae-Flower float of residents of Mae Valley took first in the civic division. The style show float of the Senior Women's Club took second and the Peninsula Improvement Club float, which placed first in the July 4 parade, was third.
The Moses Lake Grade School Majorettes won first prize among marching units, with honorable mention going to the Ephrata Veterans of Foreign Wars Junior Drum and Bugle Corps.
In the pet division, the float of the Moses Lake Stockmen, a 4-H Club, took the honors. Percy Driggs was proclaimed the best-dressed cowboy, with runner-up honors going to Eddie Robbins. Jean Harling was the best-dressed cowgirl.
Among the junior paraders, Norma Jean Clink was judged the best-dressed cowgirl and Brent Noel the best cowboy. For comedy, Gene Thompson, the clown who rode the fire truck, was picked, and Darley Greenough's bike was the best decorated.
A total of $225 in cash prizes was distributed among the parade winners Sunday afternoon during the rodeo by Russel Hansen, chairman of the committee, which raised the money by donations from merchants and farmers. The judges were Ben I. Peterson, John Prichard and Alex Law.
Vern McGee, was assisted by a corps of volunteers, acted as parade chairman for the Columbia Basin Rodeo Association.
The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.
I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.
Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.
Today we backtrack a bit and then continue the story of Coulee City, by Alfred Twining recorded July 30, 1975:
Speaking about Fourth of July the homesteaders used to come in along about 1901, 1902 and 1903 ?an immigrant train would come in almost every day from Spokane and then the homesteaders would decorate with flags and bunting and every?thing else and the whole family would be loaded on the wagon coming in for the celebration.
And they had firecrackers all over town, trash and papers and things strung all over. Hogs and cattle and sheep and chickens and everything running loose around town and they could have had a fire, but didn't seem to ever have one. One kid one time slipped up behind me and lit a firecracker and dropped it down my shirt collar. I turned around and he was gone and I don't know who he was.
The difference in location, between the town of Coulee City and McIntee, was very little. McIntee was right up by the springs. I remember seeing his cabin, but it was burned down later. But it was sitting, ?you have been to the rodeo grounds I suppose, and the cabin set south and a little bit east of the grand stand.
The railroad built on into Adrian in 1903 and 1904. There was quite a boom. There were seven saloons in Coulee City at that time. They started to build toward Waterville from Coulee City. Water?ville thought they'd be on a railroad at that time. Several grades were built up the hill, but they were never completed. They never completed that rail?road, but finally the Great Northern built down along Crab Creek to Wilson Creek.
Dan Paul used to sell beef to my brother-in-law, Billy Smith. He was head cowboy and used to drive cattle from Coulee City to the Cascades where they had the Great Northern camp. He'd sell the cattle and bring the money back by horseback, all in gold, mostly.
Tom Cook used to work for Dan Paul. Dan Paul was quite a character. He never drank very much, but when he did he was gone for a week or two. He told me one time, "I got in a poker game in Spokane. I kept losing and losing and losing. So darn it, I thought I'd just buy a pot. So I made $800. And they called me and beat me."
Colonel Box came in about 1906, 1907 or 1908. He homesteaded up on top of the hill on the, road to Mold. His daughter, Alzina, was one of my first girl friends. She finally lived in Ephrata. She was married to Roy Craig.