COTTAGE GROVE – Spirits were high at Coiner Park last weekend when the Wild West blew into town for a few days. The Spirit of Bohemia Mining Days celebration paid tribute to the 66th annual BMD festival, filling the park with rich local heritage, artisan vendors, classic fair food, and interactive opportunities that got the kiddos involved.
Matthew Hewlett has been taking old-timey photos in his Jail Cell Photobooth since 2019 and just last year stepped up to lead the reinvented SBMD. Despite a few hiccups with getting enough power to operate two stages and over 80 vendor and food booths on opening night, Hewlett said, “This is on some level better than Christmas for me. I get to see not just folks I know or family, I get to meet everyone in Cottage Grove and see folks I saw last year and the year before. This is almost like a huge family reunion,” he said.
Folks dressed in old western attire dispersed through the park in cowboy hats, boots, and bandanas, with fake, prop-like weapons strapped around their waists. City Councilor Dana Merryday fashioned a full suit, complete with a pocket watch and top hat, to play his part as Bohemia City Mayor. The voice of the festival can be attributed to Cowboy Buck, who served as the master of ceremonies for the main stage.
Thursday night also featured a Miner’s Dinner, inviting guests to step into the boots of a prospector and enjoy a hearty, camp-style feast, just as miners used to do. The Chuckwagon Area – a designated spot in the front corner of the park – held tables, chairs, and a large grill filled with steaks manned by Aaron Kitterman. For $15 a plate, folks could get steak, a baked potato, cornbread, baked beans, and a cookie, all prepared by Wanda and Dave Johnson and Sylvia Kitterman.
Remember that fair food mentioned earlier? Elephant ears, curly fries, funnel cakes, and corndogs could all be found in their usual spots at the tennis court parking lot, along with newer additions to the scene. Bates Steakhouse and Saloon catered meat sandwiches, Papa’s Doggs offered various kinds of hot dogs, and Bubble Bee Sweet served up blended bubble teas and sweet and savory bubble waffles.
A few other vendors around the park sold sweet treats, like Tim Eide’s Cone Heads ice cream. A Lemati Lemonade stand paid homage to the historic feud between Slabtown and Lemati. And who could forget Helen’s Cotton Candy booth?
Helen’s Cotton Candy has been at the BMD festival every year for the past 20 years, even when the owners moved to North Carolina three years ago. Savannah Armstrong, Helen’s granddaughter, ran the show this year, saying that due to health reasons, Helen was unable to fly over for the festival like she had in the past. Armstrong, 19 and from Creswell, said she plans on continuing to help run her grandma’s booth.
“Ideally they will be here to help me but if they aren’t able to, I definitely will be,” Armstrong said.
Friday feuds
The history of a feud between Slabtown and Lemati is not widely known among locals in the area where it once occurred. What is now Cottage Grove used to be split into two towns back in the day.
Lemati was located on the east side of the Row River, which was formerly known as the East Fork of the Coast Fork of the Willamette River. Cottage Grove used to be located only on the west side of the Row River. The CG side of town used to have wooden sidewalks, and because of that, it was nicknamed Slabtown.
In remembrance of the quarrel between the two sides of town, SBMD hosted feud games in front of the gazebo at Coiner Park. Gary Nelson and his partner, Ollie Nash, orchestrated historic gaming events starting Friday morning. When signing up to participate, players could choose which side of the old town they wanted to represent – Lemati or Slabtown. According to Hewlett, 20-25 people participated this year, “which was a great turnout and a lot of fun,” he said.
Feud games included outhouse cornhole, with toilet paper rolls instead of bean bags, and the board painted to resemble an old outhouse. A fuse winder tested people’s winding abilities as they were tasked with wrapping a string fuse around a prop of dynamite faster than their opponent. A game called Bohemia Deputies put players in the role of lawmen and had them hunt down wanted outlaws based on placards posted around the park.
“There’s a game that I think sounds like a lot of fun,” Nelson said. “It’s Digging in the Dark.”
In this game, teams of two – a foreman and a miner – had to work together to win. The miner played blindfolded, could use only one hand, and had their feet zip-tied together so they could take only baby steps.
The foreman communicated with the miner using three words: move, turn, and grab. In the “mining area,” the goal was to navigate the miner to cards representing tools for victory. A lantern removed the miner’s blindfold, a pickaxe allowed manual use, and work boots enabled the removal of a zip tie around their feet. Collecting all tool cards plus a golden nugget meant success.
While the feud games picked up Friday morning, a pie-eating contest was also underway. Merryday could be heard calling for participants with a familiar slogan, advertising it as “finger-licking good.”
Ten contestants were selected to eat a chocolate pudding pie from Slabtown Coffee, with preference for those in western-themed attire. Six men and four women gathered under the gazebo as Merryday counted down. Each received a spoon, napkins, a water bottle, and a trash bag to aid in their competition.
Ray Perdue started off hot and was halfway finished with his pie after about a minute and 30 seconds, but Tobi D’Amore devoured his entire pie in only 3:22 and celebrated his victory with the chicken dance.
“My stomach hurts,” D’Amore said.
The lucky winner could pie anybody they wanted in the face. D’Amore chose Hewlett. White whipped cream covered Hewlett’s face he smiled and took it like a champ.
Perdue ended up coming in second place, and Ace Allison took third. Each winner received a medal and prize honoring their pie-eating dedication.
The ‘Centerpiece’
Saturday was the busiest day of the BMD festival, with an estimated 25,000 attendees over the weekend and around 5,000 at peak times. Thousands gathered on 10th and Main Streets for the Grand Miners Parade, a highlight of the festival.
For many, like Autumn Stere and her husband, attending is a family tradition; they’ve been going for 21 years, even attending the parade the day after their daughter Izzy was born. This year, they looked forward to seeing their other children ride on floats. Kids eagerly anticipated the candy, waving and dancing as firetrucks signaled the start of the parade.
Around 52 floats marched down the road, each sporting the logo of its respective club, business, or organization. Floats from Riverbend Materials, Dollar General, The Witches of Cottage Grove, Taylor’s Towing and Autowrecking Inc., Bohemian Tavern, South Valley Athletics, and a CGHS class of 1980 Reunion were all decked out in celebratory ornaments. A familiar face was spotted from the Cottage Grove Blackberry Pie Society float as “Gail from the Bookmine” fluttered an American flag. About 30 or so minutes later, the parade concluded with the chief of police and folks started to flock to the park.
Later that evening, awards were announced for the Lemati and Slabtown feud events. People visiting the park could stop by the information booth (cleverly called Bohemia City Hall) and vote for which old side of town they wanted to win in the feud.
Lemati won the voting portion of the feuds. The participant who won the feud games over the weekend was Reagan Roeder, a sixth grader from Cottage Grove. Roeder was also recognized as SVA’s middle school champion. According to Merryday, she had a mean hook shot.
“I was the only girl there,” Roeder said. “I only got beat by two boys, both in high school.”
Throughout the year, a feud erupted between local coffee shops over a fundraising effort for the festival. Since roughly January, Pour 818 and Slabtown Coffee have offered specialty drinks, and when purchased, each dollar from those drinks went towards BMD.
Slabtown Coffee ended up taking the victory on this one.
‘Incredibly proud’
A few days later, and after a bit of relaxation, Hewlett had a moment to reflect on all his hard work that he saw pay off over the weekend.
“I’m incredibly proud of the entire SBMD team – our volunteers, security, leadership, and everyone behind the scenes,” Hewlett said. “Even with the usual pre-event stress, folks walked away happy and proud of what they accomplished.
“Honestly, it’s hard to say what we did really well because I think the whole festival came together beautifully. Much like last year, people kept saying the festival just had a really good vibe – and while I don’t know exactly how to manufacture that, apparently, we’ve figured something out, because it happened again,” he said.
