Smokiam Days celebrates city's history

SOAP LAKE - Eileen Beckwith put the finishing touches on her float, draping bead necklaces on mannequins Saturday morning.

"It's a small town getting ready to have some fun," Beckwith said. "This is going to be a really big parade this year."

Her Soap Lake for Locals float was one of several participating in the Smokiam Days parade. The two-day festival took place Saturday and Sunday and featured bed races, a salmon and rib feed, vendors and a parade.

The parade's theme was "Remember When," and a sign above the Beckwiths' truck read, "Remember when ... The nudist camp." A laminated newspaper article on the side of the truck told about the city council approving the camp in 1947.

"We knew there had been a nude beach," she said. "The council gave them permission to remain and they couldn't stay over night, they couldn't charge and they had to haul out their own trash."

The camp has been a legend in the city, Beckwith said, and after receiving a copy of the article she and her husband, Burr, decided to make the float. They rented the mannequins from a Moses Lake agency, and stood them up "nude" in the bed of the truck.

"Last night, we had a wedding rehearsal, so they were taken apart in pieces in the back of the other pickup," she said. "We went to the wedding rehearsal and then to the rehearsal dinner and people said, 'What have you got going on in the back of your pickup.' We said, 'Come to the Soap Lake parade and see.'"

Beavers and Linda Curran prepared for the parade nearby. Beavers, dressed in animal skins and moccasins with bells, was representing the American Indians, who used to come to the lake, he said. His wife had a sign for her Open Door Mission.

Beavers rode in the back of the truck, with a drum he made and a goose wing attached to a wooden paddle.

"He had a shop out on MarDon road, and the owner of the place, their dog pulled down a goose and he tried to save it and he couldn't, so we called the game department and they said, 'Yeah, if you're using it for that purpose go ahead," Linda said. "So we were able to keep the wings."

Drying the wing took about a month, and a day to make the handles, Beavers said. He also made the drum with an eagle painted on the front.

"The drum is made out of deer rawhide," he said. "The first drum I ever made was all hand-made. I made the frame by hand, and I'm sitting here stretching the hide on it, getting it all tied up, and my mentor, he looked at it (and said,) 'Pretty good job you did there. I might even have you make a few for me.' Really pumped my pride up. (Then his mentor said,) 'But I got one question.' I said, 'What's that?' He said, 'What did you put the hide on inside out for?'"

When organizers told the couple the theme, Linda thought they could combine the mission with the couple's participation in American Indian traditions.

"He was mentored by a Spokane elder," she said. "He learned how to do drums. He learned how to live the native way."

Opal Smith was also waiting for the parade to start. Sitting in a wheelchair with a headband made of flowers, the Soap Lake resident had a different piece of history. She carried a folder detailing her lineage back to four European royal houses.

"An aunt and a cousin (made the family tree) about 15 years ago," she said. "I've had it for a long time, but I never did anything with it and it's been on the shelf and off the shelf, on the shelf and off the shelf."

She decided to take the family tree to the parade and get in the parade because she's royalty, Smith said.

Kelly Skotland, the parade coordinator, called the parade a success. After the event was initially canceled because of lack of participation, she received a call to help with it, and helped revive the project.

After the parade, three teams raced beds down Main Avenue. The wheeled bed frames were pushed down the hill by teams. The winning bed was a wire-framed cot with a metal steering handle. Skotland said it was the chamber of commerce's bed.

"That was my bed," she said. "It was fun. To me, I thought it went very smooth."

The event added karoake this year, along with vendors selling items including clothing and food, Skotland said.

"People of all ages can come and sing," she said. "I thought karoake would be more of a (draw,) because there are so many different types of people here and with karoake it's so (inclusive.)"

Skotland stopped people walking by, asking them what they thought of the parade. They answered they enjoyed it.

"I thought it went well," Skotland said. "I love seeing the people in the park. Everybody is having a good time and this is a family thing. The Fourth of July has always been (about) family."