The 59th Homesteader Days hits Hot Springs
Photo by Aaric Bryan With rifle in hand, Raffy Samson lead his brother Rubin, in the covered wagon being pulled by their mother Retha, down Main Street in Hot Springs during the Kiddy Parade. The Samsons won the Homesteaders category.
The 59th Annual Homesteader Days went off without a hitch, according to event organizer Leslee Smith.
“I think it was extremely successful,” Smith said. “There was a pretty good turnout. I think we had more people than usual.”
The three-day celebration to commemorate the founding of Hot Springs (then known as Pineville) by homesteaders in 1910 started Friday with arts and crafts on Main Street and the film “The Story of the Bitterroot” in the old high school gym. There was also live music with Voodoo Horseshoes playing at the Symes Hotel and Black Ice playing at the Montana Bar.
Saturday got underway with 42 racers competing in the Skunk Alley Run. Thomas Jodoin, from Helena, won the 10K with the time of 33:23. Jodoin’s time also broke the course record set by Tony Banovich last year. Thompson Falls’ Shane Donaldson came in second and Jacob Naegeli came in third. Dixon’s Jennifer Vanderburg was the first woman to cross the line. In the 3K, Hot Springs’ Tyler Fisher and Arlee’s Philip Malatare both crossed the finish line in 13:01.
After the run, 46 kids lined Main Street, there costumes ranging from anywhere from dinosaur costumes to girls from Holland carrying tulips. Raffy and Rubin Samson won the Homesteaders category. The two were dressed as cowboys and Rubin was pulled in a covered wagon by his mother Retha Samson. Jackson Woods, dressed as a dinosaur, won the pets category and 7-year-old Karly Lawson and 2-year-old Lauryn Aldridge, dressed in traditional costumes from the Netherlands, won the miscellaneous category.
The kids didn’t have much time to rest after the parade because there was kiddy games at the park. About 50 kids competed in three-legged races, sack races, tug-of-wars and water balloon tosses for the chance to win a prize. For about the 12th straight year Dan Smith oversaw the games. “I kind of got it down now,” Smith said.
Ida Prosser’s duck was faster than the other 142 ducks in Saturday’s Ducky Race. Prosser’s plastic duck traveled the 100 yards of Hot Springs Creek in about two minutes. Michael Gray’s duck finished in second and Sebastian Black’s duck came in third.
Saturday came to a close with about 300 people dancing on Main Street to the music of local band the Skunk Alley Song Factory. The band played to about 2 in the morning. Smith said the people that came to the dance got a nice surprise when the Great Scots Pipes and Drums got on stage to play their bagpipes and drums. “I think they loved that,” Smith said.
The 12-member band from Polson was also one of the 43 entrants in the Grand Parade Sunday. Longtime Hot Springs residents Mac and Lolo McDougall served as the Grand Marshalls of the parade. The best commercial float went to HSTC. The best residential float went to the Hot Springs senior citizens. The best youth float went to the Kingdom Kids, from the Lutheran Church.
There was also a lot of history packed in this year’s Homesteader Days. The LaRue Hot Springs Museum had it’s grand opening Saturday. Smith said the opening of the museum added something special to this year’s Homesteader Days. “Last year, we didn’t have a building, we just had a dream,” she said. She said the museum is still a work in progress and they would like to continue to add pieces to its collection. “We’ll keep losing our history, if we don’t get busy recording it,” she said.
On Sunday, 20 second generation descendants of the original homesteaders of Hot Springs, Lonepine and Camas Prairie got together at the senior center for a reunion. Gladys Weltz, who turned 100 March 9, was the oldest descendant at the reunion. Her father, Henry Otto Spies, and mother, Meta Tina Spies, moved from Chicago in 1910 when Gladys was two years old. The Spies had 80 acres in the vicinity of Hot Springs Lumber and Feed, owned by Steve and Guynn Cavallini, just south of Hot Springs. There, Gladys and her older sister, Ruth, lived. Her younger sister, Dorothy, was born at the homestead in 1911. Gladys married Dewey Weltz and they moved to Noxon in 1952. They moved back to Hot Springs 17 years later, but in 1977, they returned to Noxon.
Many of the descendants were at the original Homesteader Days celebration in 1949, whichwas a reunion of the original homesteaders in 1949. Jim Thorpe, an Indian man and an Olympic athlete, was a guest at the original celebration. “It was quite a to doings,” said Rosie King, who’s father Emery Swisher settled in the Niarada area in 1912. King said she can still remember the square dance on horseback down at the airport that day.
The 59th annual Homesteader came to a close with the rodeo Sunday afternoon. In the two-day rodeo, cowboys and cowgirls competed in 11 events. “It’s get better and better every year,” said event organizer Laurence Walchuk. He said this year’s attendance was up 15 to 20 percent from last year. He said the large crowd must have liked what they saw because he was only getting positive feedback from them. He said one couple, who were traveling from Australia, saw the rodeo sign on the highway and decided to stop in. “They told me it was the highlight of the trip,” he said.
Hot Springs Police Deputy Jim Matthew said it was one of the quietest Homesteader Days Hot Springs had ever had. He said the city and county deputies didn’t write one citation during the celebrations.