VALLONIA

There’s something special about an event that draws 30,000 people to a community.

People who attend Fort Vallonia Days know they have to arrive early to get a parking spot. Vehicles fill harvested cornfields and line up along State Road 135.

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Then they make their way to the center of the town to check out the food and craft booths, flea market tables and demonstrations and activities around the historic fort.

There’s typically a line of people outside Bluebird Cafe to purchase a famous fish sandwich from the Driftwood Township Volunteer Fire Department, and the same goes for the gymnasium cafeteria to pick up homemade food from Vallonia Christian Church stand.

The parade also is a popular attraction, as people take a break from browsing the festival grounds to see the various entries.

Keeping all of this going for 50 years is no small task. It takes a lot of work from dedicated people.

Fortunately, Vallonia residents come together to make it happen.

“All year long, the upkeep of all of this is not cheap,” said Jackie Gibson, president of the Fort Vallonia Days Association, noting new roofs have been put on buildings and grounds have to be maintained.

“It’s just a goal all year long to keep things nice,” she said. “Little things are added here and there, and it’s just what we’re always focused on is to keep it up. There’s so much history, and that a little community like us can keep something so big going, just knowing the attraction and the people that come for it is amazing to me.”

Since the Vallonia Lions Club and a steering committee came together in 1969 to start the festival, there have been many volunteers work to make it a great event.

“When you look at certain different families at the very beginning, their children have been involved. It’s just moving from generation to generation,” said Gibson, whose father, Gene Johnson, was involved in getting the festival started.

“We just have so many good volunteers,” she said. “We have so many good committees and people that just do their job that there isn’t a thing that (the four officers) have to do. Occasionally, somebody steps down from their position, but we never have to just beg anyone (to serve).”

Knowing this is the 50th year of the festival, the Fort Vallonia Days Association has made an effort to do more advertising and bring back a few activities from years gone by.

One is the Anything Goes kids obstacle course for ages 5 to 12, set for 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday in the field behind Vallonia Christian Church.

The course will include crawling under string or caution tape, climbing up and down a hay bale pyramid and flipping tires along with a sack race, a rock wall, a log carry, hula-hoop hops and milk jug hurdles. Each participant will receive a 50th anniversary wooden nickel.

Also new this year is a pumpkin decorating contest from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday.

There will be new demonstrators around the fort, too. Participation has dwindled in recent years, so Sandra and Mike Warren took that over to build it back up.

“They went around and visited some different festivals and just really made lots of contact with some of these people,” Gibson said. “We really wanted to try to spruce it back up for the 50th, but we would like to be able to continue these demonstrations because I think that’s just so vital.”

Nearly 20 people are expected to be a part of the festival demonstrations, including a blacksmith and people making wooden bowls, ropes, brooms and cornhusk dolls, tatting, weaving rugs and baskets and chair caning and doing native archery.

“When they got all of these new things, I said, ‘That’s what this is all about. That’s what this was all formed from back in the day when the Native Americans lived here. That’s what they had to do to survive,’” Gibson said. “I think it’s one of the most important parts of the festival. It’s really neat to see what some of these people are going to be doing.”

Both days of the festival, Fort Vallonia Days souvenirs can be purchased at a stand in front of the Joe Jackson Hotel. Shirts, hoodies and crocks with the 50-year logo on them will be available with proceeds going to the Fort Vallonia Days Association.

The parade, which always starts at 1 p.m. sharp Saturday, will have some of the festival’s founders as grand marshals. Gibson is expecting about 15 people from the Lions Club and founding committee.

Three of those people include Johnson, Jerry Martin and Anita Sturgeon.

Sturgeon said in the late 1960s, Lions Club members and local residents gathered for a meeting. They wanted to start something for the town, but there was no money to get it going.

Martin said he, Johnson and two other men and their wives went to Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to see the setup of Fort Harrod.

“We tried to pick up the replica of what the fort looked like at that point in time,” he said. “From that, we generated the thought that it’s going to cost money to do this, so we had all kinds of functions. We started this fort just based on some ideas of the time, and now, here we are.”

The first festival was just one day and drew 3,000 people. The hourlong parade featured two beauty queens, clowns, floats, horses, wagons, bands, old and new cars, race cars, fire engines, baton twirlers and various marching units, according to the Oct. 22, 1969, edition of The Brownstown Banner.

Behind the elementary school, attendees checked out the booths, stands, attractions and rides. The event also included a prince and princess contest, a trail ride, a muzzleloading rifle shoot, a garden tractor pull, a pumpkin pie contest, a talent contest, square dancing, a teenage dance, a drawing to win a pony and musical entertainment.

“I think you have to give Ron Shoemaker credit,” Sturgeon said of the inaugural festival’s chairman. “He looked outside of the box, and he had us going places that we never thought we would go.”

Other highlights over the years were a ball on Friday night in the annex building, wearing period clothing during the festival and men participating in a beard contest.

“I can remember being so excited when we were still in school down here at the elementary,” Gibson said. “I would be Friday sitting in classes seeing Mom and Dad out the window setting up booths. The first thing you wanted to do was go buy one of those grab bags. They would have those 25 cents or 10 cents, and you could pull out a grab bag, and we just went through that stuff.”

Local churches and organizations have relied on the festival over the years to generate funds.

Sturgeon said the Christian church uses part of its profits for missions and projects at the church, while a portion goes to the festival committee.

“I talked to someone in Salem at the grocery store and she said, ‘I come over every year for the food from your church stand,’” Sturgeon said. “She said, ‘Last year, I came over and I don’t think I bought a thing at any of the stands, but I had my food at the church stand.’”

One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is people flocking to the small community on the third weekend in October.

“It brings families together because you have people that come back for this,” Sturgeon said.

“It’s camaraderie and the fellowship,” Martin said. “There have been an amazing amount of accomplishments. It’s reunified the community. It really has.”

Johnson works in the museum during the festival and talks to people after they sign their name and residence on the guestbook.

“You’ll talk to them a little bit, and they say, ‘We wouldn’t miss this festival for nothing,’” he said, smiling.

That gives him a sense of pride, and others in the community take pride in Fort Vallonia Days, too.

“A lot of hard work has gone to keep it in the community,” Sturgeon said. “It’s just an opportunity to see gobs and gobs of people that you know. The social aspect of it is just unbelievable.”

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The 50th annual Fort Vallonia Days is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Friday

4 to 6 p.m.: Pumpkin decorating contest entries due

Saturday

9 a.m.: Fort Vallonia Trail Ride; state riding permit required

9 a.m.: Wes Hartley Memorial Muzzleloading Shoot

9:30 a.m.: Baby contest registration (gymnasium)

10 a.m.: Baby contest

10:30 a.m.: Pumpkin decorating contest winners announced

10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: American Red Cross blood drive (Vallonia Christian Church)

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Free flu shots (Vallonia Christian Church)

11 a.m.: Stars & Stripes Cloggers

Noon: U4ia Band

1 p.m.: Parade

2 p.m.: Tomahawk and knife throw

3 p.m.: U4ia Band

3 to 5 p.m.: Anything Goes kids obstacle course (field behind Vallonia Christian Church)

4 p.m.: Western dancing with the Country Kickers

5 p.m.: Karaoke with Tee Jay Entertainment

Sunday

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Helicopter rides (behind Vallonia Christian Church)

10 a.m.: Community church services (gymnasium)

10 a.m.: Team cornhole tournament registration starts (near fort)

11 a.m.: Live music by Dane Darlage

Noon: Baking contest (gymnasium)

Noon: 5K run/walk registration begins

Noon: Horseshoe pitch registration starts

Noon: Team cornhole tournament

12:30 p.m.: Horseshoe pitch

1 p.m.: 5K run/walk

1:30 p.m.: Brownstown Central High School show choir

3 p.m.: Contemporary gospel music with Resurgence Worship

4 p.m.: Drawings

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