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By Jim Taylor
STUTTGART – Talking like a duck pays surprisingly well at the annual World Championship Duck Calling Contest held each Saturday after Thanksgiving in Stuttgart. The winner of this year’s 65th annual competition will take home $8,000 in cash, a boat, a Labrador puppy and a prize package valued at another $10,000.
The championship loot would likely amaze Thomas E. Walsh, who on Nov. 24, 1936, was awarded a hunting coat valued at $6.60 when he won the first such contest. He would probably be surprised as well that the contest and Wings Over the Prairie festival of which it is a part have in recent years been drawing more than 60,000 visitors to Stuttgart.
The festival’s primary site is downtown Main Street, which on Thanksgiving weekend becomes a major shopping venue for sportsmen. This year, more than 200 commercial vendors of a wide variety of hunting and fishing gear will be on hand, while an Off-Road Village will feature displays of trucks, sport utility vehicles, ATVs and boats. Continuous seminars on training hunting dogs will also be offered at the village.
The festival’s Sporting Collectibles Show will feature items such as hand-carved decoys, rare and deluxe duck calls and limited edition wildlife prints. A juried arts and crafts show will be held nearby. Hours for all exhibitors are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 24, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25.
This year’s world championship duck caller will be determined beginning at 2 p.m. on Nov. 25. The contestants, all winners of sanctioned state and regional duck-calling competitions, will come from 34 states and Canada. Included will be the winner of the festival’s Arkansas State Duck Calling Championship to be held at 10 a.m. on Nov. 25.
Additional duck-calling contests, the World Championship Duck Gumbo Cook-Off, a Sportsman’s Dinner and Dance, a Queen Mallard pageant, a 10-K race and a carnival midway are also on tap for the festival.
Other scheduled duck-calling contests will include:
Nov. 24 -- Chick and Sophie Major Memorial for high school seniors, 11 a.m.; Junior World’s Championship for ages 13 and under, 1 p.m.; Intermediate World’s Championship for ages 14-16, 3 p.m.; and the Women’s World Championship at 5 p.m.
Nov. 25 -- the Champion of Champions contest, which is held every five years and features previous world champions, will follow the 2000 world championship.
The duck gumbo cook-off will be at noon on Nov. 25 in the Grand Prairie War Memorial Auditorium at 600 West 20th Street. Music will be provided by the band Hoosier Daddy. Admission is $15 at the door and is limited to those 21 and older.
The Sportsman’s Dinner and Dance from 6:30 p.m. to midnight on Nov. 24 at the auditorium will feature steak and chicken with music by the Memphis Soul Revue. Tickets are $25 and are available through the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce.
The festival’s Queen Mallard and Junior Queen Mallard will be crowned at a pageant with a $5 admission to be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 at the auditorium.
The Great 10-K Duck Race will begin at Seventh and Main at 8 a.m. on Nov. 25. The $15 entry fee includes a race T-shirt.
The festival’s carnival midway on Main will open at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1 p.m. on November 23, 10 a.m. on Nov. 24 and 9 a.m. on Nov. 25, closing at 10 p.m. each day. A $10 armband day will be held on Nov. 22.
For a schedule of festival events and more information, visit the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce web site at www.stuttgartarkansas.com or contact the chamber by phone at (870) 673-1602.
Uploaded: 11/21/2000
Uploaded: 11/21/2000