A two-day festival featuring a mountain man competition and lawn tractor races drew hundreds of people to Water Valley.The annual Water Valley Days was held Aug. 13-14, with a wide variety of activities taking place around the community core. Water Valley Days is hosted by the Water Valley Community Association (WVCA).ìI think we had good attendance,î said Joyce Lobitz, event organizer and secretary for the WVCA.ìWhen I saw how many cars there were and how many people there were I just had this moment of panic, thinking ëOh my goodness.'îWhile organizers do not have a head count on attendance, Lobitz said about 400 people were fed for the breakfast that kicked off the event Saturday morning.ìWe ran out of plates,î she added.Water Valley Days includes a parade, which once again proved to be a popular feature for festival goers.ìThe comments I received from it were that it was the best parade ever,î she said of the parade that included about 40 entries.ìWe had a lot of local businesses take part, too. We had a lot of support from Cremona and Cochrane. That's always great to have area towns give us a boost that way.îThe theme of the parade was the 50-year anniversary of Mountain View County. As part of the salute to the county's milestone, organizers asked for vintage vehicles to join the parade.ìWe had a number of the older vehicles on hand, which was nice,î Lobitz said.Another feature to Water Valley Days, which Lobitz said adds to the uniqueness of the event, was the mountain man competition. This contest includes competitions such as stripping bark from tree trunks and shooting cutouts of rabbits with slingshots.ìWe had an increased interest in the mountain man competition,î Lobitz said.The rugged contest returned last year after a lengthy time off. Last year the competition had three teams and this year it drew five teams.ìIt has been revived,î Lobitz added. ìIt's a really neat event. It might be in other places but I have never seen it done.îAnother event noted for its uniqueness is a lawn tractor race. The low-speed race featured participants buzzing around a track that included the Water Valley strip mall.ìIt was pretty neat to see how many and who was racing,î Lobitz said of the event that included 18 lawn tractors.Lobitz said it was important for Water Valley Days to offer something for people of all ages, which meant an assortment of children's activities.ìWe even had a little children's rodeo with stick horses,î Lobitz said, adding that old-fashioned sack races were another source for family fun.ìIt was consistent with our Water Valley idea with remembering the past and celebrating our history.îAfter a 20-year hiatus from the festival, Water Valley Days brought back its men's cake baking contest, which drew eight entries.ìThat was a successful group,î Lobitz said. ìIt was wonderful. We even had a homemade ice cream cake.îTo help the weekend go as smoothly as possible, Water Valley Days received assistance from about 75 volunteers.ìFor us to be able to put on something of that size is really quite something,î Lobitz said, adding that some volunteers came from outlying communities.ìWe just couldn't do it without our volunteers.îWater Valley Days is funded through donations and fundraising efforts throughout the year.
