Celebration draws crowd

HOT SPRINGS – Over the weekend the normally peaceful Main Street of Hot Springs, was transformed into a bustling town as the Homesteader Days celebration was held.

From Friday, June 13 through Sunday, June 15, the 65th annual festivities were in full swing and large crowds turned up despite the overcast weather that hung around town for the duration of the weekend.

“I know it was a rainy weekend but I still think we did pretty well,” said Leslee Smith, president of the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.

The celebratory weekend kicked off Friday at noon, as Main Street was closed off to vehicular traffic and opened up to pedestrians, as Arts and crafts, in addition to food booths set up along the main drag for the weekend crowds.

All manners of booths could be found from one end of the street to the other, with some vendors selling tie-dye shirts and others selling handmade crafts.

The food vendors also featured a variety of options as Indian tacos; wood-fired pizzas, ribbon fries, bratwursts, kettle corn and mini-donuts.

Smith noted several new food vendors were present at the event.

The opening night of the annual weekend celebration also featured plenty of live music.

“Our attendance was up, the rodeo was really well attended,” Smith said.

On Saturday the celebration continued to roll through Hot Springs with car show signups starting at 9 a.m. and the Skunk Alley Run, both the 3k and 10k events, setting off from Wall Street Place at 9:30 a.m.

An arts and crafts market was held at the Tribal Nutrition Center on Spring Street starting at 10:00 a.m. and an ice cream social took place at the senior center at 11:30 a.m.

As morning turned to afternoon, the focus of the celebration shifted towards the younger members of the crowd.

In addition to the Ducky Race the town’s park played host to a bunch of races for the youngest Homesteader Days attendees.

From sprints from one side of the park to the other, to three-legged races, shoeless races and sack races, children of all ages hurried from one end of the park to the other.

The parents were incorporated into some of the three-legged races and there was a good deal of amusement as adults and children struggled to find their stride, while attached to one another.

The kiddy games concluded with a water balloon toss, where teams of two tried to keep their balloon from popping.

As expected it wasn’t long before the majority of balloons had popped and the civil competition had escalated into an all out water melee.

Balloons flew in all sorts of directions and very few kids left the park with dry clothing.

Saturday afternoon also featured a doll show at the LaRue Hot Springs Museum, the car show awards and musical performances by the country rock duo of Bruce and Betsy Mullens.

The afternoon capped off with a roots rock performance by Andrea Harsell.

The evening brought with it the rodeo down on Broadway, followed by a street dance, which continued late into the night.

The final day of the celebration kicked off with a pancake breakfast at the Masonic Lodge at 7:30 a.m., followed by the Grand Parade from the high school to Main Street at noon.

The grand parade was followed by the homesteader reunion at the senior center, where residents enjoyed lunch with one another.

According to Smith around 70 people attended the luncheon with second and third generation homesteaders filling the room.

The second day of the rodeo on Sunday afternoon officially ended the weekend, but not before the Symes Hotel hosted a Father’s Day Barbecue, featuring live blues music courtesy of John Kelley.

Smith noted the strong turnout during the weekend was bolstered by two Hot Springs High School class reunion’s, one for the class of 1974 and one for the graduates of 1954 taking place over the weekend.