The 95th Annual Idaho Spud Days celebration brings with it a long, rich history
SHELLEY: The upcoming 95th Annual Idaho Spud Days celebration is one of the longest-running annual events in Idaho, behind the East and West Idaho State Fair events.
The first Spud Day was held on Wednesday, October 19, 1927. It was touted in the Shelley Pioneer as “the greatest success in anything of the kind that has ever been pulled off in this part of the state.”
The event has continued every year since 1927 except for two years [1944 and 1945] during the height of World War II.
The Shelley Chamber of Commerce initiated and planned the first Spud Day celebration. Today, the Shelley Kiwanis Club sponsors the event and has done so for many years. According to Bingham County, the first Spud Day event was named “Idaho Annual Spud Day, home of the Idaho Russet Potato.”
The first spud day began with the booming of canons early in the morning as people commenced to arrive in town around 8 a.m. According to the 1927 news article in the Shelley Pioneer, “1400 cars were counted, and over 10,000 people enjoyed the fun and competition held in the small town of Shelley.”
Today, no canons announce the celebration. However, there are occasional unexplained booms that occur around Shelley. The attendance at last year’s Spud Day celebration was estimated at over 30,000 people.
“In 1927, the American Legion Band of Blackfoot furnished splendid music all day and night, and the clown band made of Shelley musicians finished fine amusement,” the Shelley Pioneer article stated.
Today, the Shelley High School band will perform during the parade. There will also be a lip-synch contest at 11:30 a.m. on the free stage at Shelley City Park.
Anyone who has attended Spud Day knows of the free baked potato giveaway. On the first Spud Day, they gave away free baked potatoes and have done so ever since.
“One feature of this day was giving away of real Baked Russet Spuds to the people, as well as serving all the passengers on every train and bus that went to Shelley.” The Shelley Pioneer article said. “This feature alone will have a tendency to make Idaho Russet famous. As far as we have been able to find out, this is the first time this action has been taken anywhere in the state of Idaho.”
People gather in long lines today at Spud Day for a free baked potato topped with real butter, sour cream, cheese, and salt and pepper. Approximately 4,500 potatoes are donated annually and cooked by the school cooks at the different school kitchens early in the morning. Hence, they are hot and ready to be handed out after the Spud Day parade. This year, Liberty Gold is donating spuds to the event.
Although there are no train or bus passengers today, Miss Russet and her attendants help prepare the potatoes to be given away.
The early article states, “The Free Picture Show at the Virginia Theater was crowded to capacity all afternoon.” The Virginia Theater is now closed except for about a month in October, where it is used as a Lost Souls haunted exhibit.
In 1927, a football game was played between Firth and Shelley. According to the Shelley Pioneer article, Firth defeated Shelley by a score of 28 to 0. A Spud Day football game was a regular featured event of the festivities until the mid-1970s.
On the evening of the first Spud Day, 28 rounds of boxing were held in Shelley featuring local fighters. The Shelley Pioneer article states, “The fighting contests [boxing matches] were said to be as good as headliners in large cities.”
Several contests were held on the first Spud Day, including the spud picking and spud loading contests. The spud-picking contest remains a staple of the Spud Day Celebration and has continued to this day.
“The first spud-picking contest took place on State Street. Seven hundred pounds of potatoes were dumped in a row on the ground, and each contestant was given a rubber–covered wire basket and potato sacks. At the signal, the contestants would race to see who could have their potatoes picked into the basket and then emptied into the sacks. The first one to have all the potatoes in the sack was declared the winner,” according to “The History of Shelley Idaho’s Annual Spud Day” by Dana Searle. (September 2007).
“A spud loading contest was also held, consisting of a team of horses, three men, and sacks of potatoes lined in a row with several hundred feet between each sack. One team member would drive the wagon slowly, while the other two men would load and stack the sacks of potatoes on the wagon,” Searle wrote. “The Horse Pulling Contest was won by Al Sessions, who was awarded a $100 harness for pulling 800 lbs [of potatoes] out of a trench with his 3060 lbs team of horses.”
According to the Shelley Pioneer, Albert Anderson and a professional spud picker, Geo J. Davis, won the boys’ spud picking contest. The spud-loading contest went to Vern Huntsman.
On the first spud day, activities were planned throughout the day and ended at midnight after a street dance attended by thousands of people, according to the Shelley Pioneer.
This year, a street dance will be held on Friday, September 15, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the northwest corner of State Street and Pine Street in Shelley. The new Street Festival Event will feature “For Pay” food vendors.
Praise in the 1927 newspaper article was given to the Shelley Chamber of Commerce secretary, F. C. Kendall, for his “untiring efforts to help in every way to put this affair over and to P. G. Pat, chairman of the committee, who handled all the donor’s spuds.
There were over 188,600 pounds of potatoes donated by nearly 300 area farmers. (Most producers donated 500 to 1,000 pounds.) Some potatoes were auctioned off in 50-pound sacks, used in the potato picking and bucking contest, and used as a weight in the pulling contest.
According to the Shelley Pioneer, a carload of selected No. 1 Baker potatoes was also auctioned off and sold to Chris Christiansen of Shelley for two dollars per hundred pounds.
