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FRONTIERS DAY IN PARIS

© Bertha Sutliff

The Paris Chamber of Commerce has sponsored yet another Frontiers Day that brought hundreds of people to their city. Known as the "Gateway to Magazine Mountain," Paris is growing by leaps and bounds. People came from afar just to see the community dressed in their clothing of the eighteen hundreds. Atop Mount Magazine, a Highpoint Rendezvous displayed frontier skills of firearms, firestarting, skinning and tanning, tomahawk throwing, spinning and dying, period trekking and Dutch oven cooking. This event was free to the entire public.

The 2001 Frontier Day Celebration took place around the Courthouse Square in Paris. The anticipated attendance at this year's fall event was estimated to be between 3000 and 5000 people.

Activities began with a community breakfast hosted by the St. Joseph Catholic School Parent Teacher Organization. The breakfast was served till 10:00 a.m. at the St. Joseph School Cafeteria at a cost of $3.00 per person.

At 9:00 a.m. the square came alive with the sounds of marching bands and honking horns. This year's Parade Grand Marshals were the emergency services personnel, fire fighters and law enforcement officers.

After the parade the main focus was on the food, art and craft vendors, entertainment, children's activities, log sawing and nail driving contests, a pumpkin carving contest, the annual Frontier Day dress revue, a rummage sale and auction and the Frontier Day Pageant.

This year's pageant took place in the local Paris Cinema where there were 42 entrants competing in six categories. A small admission fee was charged for the adults but children five and under were free.

Vendors are always welcomed at the fall event. This year there were more than there had ever been at any of the previous festivals. Across the square you could smell the popcorn, cotton candy and candied apples. A special treat was a large plate of funnel cake. If you've never eaten funnel cake you have really missed a treat.

Somewhere on the courthouse lawn was a giant smoker, filled with delicious smoked meats. Just around the corner was the hot dog stand and a little further on stood the hamburger shack. You could stand a mile away and still smell those fragrances mixed with the cool mountain air.

Children are a big asset to this small mountain town. This year more activities had been planned for their entertainment. A train ride was one new event this year. Another was a puppet show, and we can't forget the pumpkin-carving contest.

The copyright of the article FRONTIERS DAY IN PARIS in Arkansas is owned by Bertha Sutliff. Permission to republish FRONTIERS DAY IN PARIS in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.