St. Regis holds townwide celebration for Fourth of July

ST. REGIS - Residents from all across Mineral County descended upon St. Regis on Friday to spend  the day celebrating the nation’s independence starting with a parade in the morning and concluding with an hour and a half of fireworks in the park.

Led by the local American Legion color guard and the new rodeo princess Mary Grace Donally flanked by the previous queen and princess, the parade included a wide variety of floats, ATVs, custom made bicycles with 10 ft. high wheels and fire trucks from the forest service and St. Regis.

While children in the audience were treated to candy tossed from nearly every vehicle, the rest of the crowd was periodically doused from the water cannon atop a St. Regis fire truck.

The vehicle spraying the crowd with water brought up the rear of the parade and seemed to be well received from the crowd sweltering in the 90 degree heat.

The parade was followed up by children’s games in the community park and logger games for the older crowd. Managed by St. Regis volunteer firefighter Chuck Anderson, the logger games, meant to mimic work performed by actual loggers, was slow to start but eventually saw more people sign up.

Anderson said, at first, he was worried he might be the only participant.

“We haven’t had many people sign up yet but we expect more people to show up,” Anderson said.

More people did sign up and eventually the women contestants far exceeded the male participants. Especially popular among the female competitors was the hatchet throw and the chainsaw toss.

Other events included a sawing contest, a log claw tossing competition, the men’s axe throw, a swede hook log dragging contest and a Jack and Jill competition. The Jack and Jill contest saw men paired with women to see who could complete a variety of tasks including getting out of bed, putting on boots, washing pants, sawing a log and hauling each other in a wheel barrow in the shortest amount of time.

Winners in the logger games were Ron Jr. Stortz in the sawing contest, Chuck Anderson in the men’s axe throw, Lizzie Brewer in the women’s hatchet throw, Dallas Lewis in the claw toss, Tommy Lewis in the men’s chainsaw toss, Anita Lewis and McKenzie Stager in the swede hook log drag, Chris and Amy Quinlavin in the Jack and Jill contest and Amy Quinlavin again winning the women’s chainsaw toss with a throw of over 30 feet.

The day’s festivities ended with a spectacular display of pyrotechnics from both professionals and amateurs. Audience members were treated to over an hour of a seemingly endless variety of fireworks that lit up the sky above the several hundred area residents in attendance.

Not set to music or in any discernible order, the sky was filled with a professional display launched from the baseball field at the park and augmented by the participation of dozens of local fireworks enthusiasts who generously shared their wares with neighbors.

The evening’s show concluded with a barrage of displays that went on for nearly 15 minutes of non-stop explosive entertainment.