The 5th Dust Bowl Days (DBD) Farm & Ranch Festival, held July 18-20, continued a tradition of bringing the community together by enjoying a variety of events in downtown Sayre.
Its purpose is “celebrating the love of the land. What we try to do through the Dust Bowl Days is to recognize, appreciate, educate and inspire our communities to realize not only the impact farming and ranching has on the economy, but also on the quality of life” said Kay Allen, Festival Chairperson.
FRIDAY NIGHT
Opening night, July 18, was Cruise In night – for 26 old tractors, that is – that paraded up and down Main Street starting at 6 p.m. in front of the Beckham County Courthouse like they owned it. Towns like Elk City and El Reno include cruises in their festivals, but thanks to Mireya Cotts and other planners, they cleverly gave cruising a fresh look and reinforced the farm and ranch theme. They encouraged producers from the age of five to seventy- five to bring their tractors, an essential vehicle for livelihood, to cruise downtown.
The action moved to the yard of the Shortgrass Country Museum and inside the Broadway Center as 300 attendees relaxed and enjoyed a warm summer evening eating dinner, playing chicken poop and regular bingo and listening to music.
Several donors pooled their funds to buy hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks and serve them to attendees. In turn, diners donated money to Sayre’s High School senior class. Couples and children danced to Mackynzie McKedy Band’s music.
Mayor Gerald Sherrill attended Friday night and said, “It brings lots of people to see what’s going on. It’s a big benefit to Sayre’s tax base. Kay (Allen) does a super job in what she does.” Sherrill mentioned that the festival, which includes the Wild Plum Jam, is Sayre’s biggest public event.
SATURDAY FUN
There were 33 entries to like at Saturday morning’s 9 a.m. parade on Main Street, which brought out local families. The parade, organized by Sherry Damron and sponsored by Northfork Electric Cooperative, included police and fire departments, farms (HIC, Damron, Drake, Hunter, Kenner, McEntire, Merrick, Spitz, Tucker), businesses (Fowler Insurance Agency, Rockin Diamonds Leather, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Vision Source, Lipscomb Ford, Red Dirt Tumbling, etc.), Sayre Public Library, and individuals (Marvin Stewart, Staci Diltz, James Edwards, and others). Children stuffed candy tossed to them in bags.
Afterwards, back up at the Shortgrass Country Museum, children had fun sliding down inflatable water slides and took turns getting wet in the dunk tank. Adults visited five vendors, including Oklahoma’s Historical Society and the Oklahoma Route 66 Association. Six food and drink trucks offered a variety of food. Some toured the Shortgrass Country Museum, checked out a 1971 Farmrail System locomotive and watched a blacksmith hammer horseshoes.
Alicia Bowman and her family, who live in Sayre, participated. She said the festival is “nice to have for Sayre. There’s food, inflatables and snow cones.”
Few children participated in activities at the Trinity Fellowship Youth Center on Main Street because it was two blocks away from the main event. That was unfortunate because there were hands-on Dust Bowl learning activities like creating a bracelet while reading about the effects of the dust bowl, putting dirt and wheat seeds in a burlap cloth to grow plants and learning about nature from park rangers stationed at the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site. Nelda Tucker, who oversaw these, provided interesting depression era recipes like “Liver Pudding,” “Stewed Squirrels” and “Fried Rabbit.”
Outside in a mobile medical bloodmobile, staff from Our Blood Institute were happy that more than 20 donors gave blood. Allen’s committee of 13 planners and “doers” deserve credit for attracting different community sub-groups to attend DBD: the general population for downtown activities, Red Dirt music lovers at the Wild Plum Jam and religiously oriented folks for Sunday Singing and Dinner On the Ground (see The boys from Western Oklahoma rock Wild Plum Jam article).
Attendance at this year’s downtown events totaled 800 people, 50 fewer than last year. But attendance doesn’t drive Kay Allen, DBD Festival Chairperson. “Idon’t measure the success of DBD by the number of people or revenue received but rather by the excitement that you see in the people who were there,” she said. She said their excitement showed.
Allen thanked the people who provide financial and in-kind support. The “Dust Bowl Days Festival Planning Team appreciates our loyal and generous sponsors and donors for making this annual festival possible. We could not do it without them.”
She feels good about the 5th DBD Festival – it’s established now – and looks forward to an even better one in 2026. Next year’s event is also the 100-year celebration of Route 66, which runs through Sayre for 4.25 miles.
