Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The fifth year of Oakesdale’s revived Old Mill Days will launch Friday evening and continue through Saturday night. It will include an adult and kids’ triathlon, parade, egg toss, beer garden and music from the Senders.
Preparations now enter the final days for Gail Parsons, Old Mill Days chairman, and many volunteers.
“It looks like things are going very well,” Parsons said.
It starts Friday with bingo from 6 - 9 p.m. at the McCoy Valley Museum along with pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw as the beer garden opens from 7 - 10 p.m. across from the fire hall
Saturday begins with the two triathlons and a five-mile run, all starting at 8 a.m. at the park.
The parade will start at 11 a.m. with grand marshals Teresa and Dick Lohman, a retired longtime teacher at Oakesdale and a farmer.
Afterwards the lunch hour gets underway with a cake walk put on by the Baptist Church and beer brats – simmered an hour in Henry Weinhard’s – hamburgers, hot dogs and potato salad served from the former Conoco station across from Crossett’s Market.
At 1 p.m., stacks of eggs arrive on Steptoe Avenue for the egg toss, sponsored this year by Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-Op.
A softball game will follow the egg toss along with kids’ games at the park and sidewalk chalk art.
Vendors will sell various items from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and cowboy poet Dick Warwick will play music in the afternoon. Face painting will run from 1-3 p.m. and a balloon artist will be on hand from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday evening, the beer garden will stay open along with the food station as the Senders take the outdoor flatbed stage from 7 to 11 p.m.
The Masons ice cream wagon will make rounds all day and the pool will be open for midnight swim from 9 p.m. to 12 p.m.
A silent auction will run Friday night from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the museum.
New features for this year’s Old Mill Days include a quilt show at the Presbyterian Church from 1 to 5 p.m., and a presentation by Steptoe Butte “apple detective” David Benscoter at 2 p.m. at the Fraternal Hall.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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