In Clark Fork, The Fourth Really Happens

Thomas Jefferson would’ve been proud.

The Fourth - an annual celebration for the small town of Clark Fork, nestled in the Cabinet Mountains - was celebrated the way it was intended.

“People show up from all over the country,” said Mike Tuel, a member of the Rod and Gun Club and one of the organizers of the Clark Fork Fourth of July.

John Mundy was the only former resident to drop in from the sky. Joined by Dan Carroll, owner of the Spokane Parachute Club, and jumpers Dave Ruckert and Noe Cortez, John returned to Clark Fork by way of a Cessna 182.

“It’s the only way I can do 120 mph legally in Clark Fork anymore,” John said Thursday, grinning while he packed his red, white and blue parachute.

The Fourth didn’t start with the jumpers. It started, appropriately, with the parade headed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, while the Clark Fork High School band played on the adjacent high school lawn.

Some years, in order to make the one-block parade last longer, it is turned around at the gas station and sent back down the blocked-off section of state Highway 200 along the Clark Fork River.

This year the parade lasted over 15 minutes. It included a truck - donated by GTE to Search and Rescue in honor of Sonny Anderson, who died on Antelope Mountain last fall - and Darrell Derr’s new gravel screening plant. Candy sprayed off Derr’s spanking clean crushed rock conveyer which displayed a huge American flag and a sign that spoke for everyone: We Dig Clark Fork.

Long-time favorites, such as Mary McFarland on her Harley and Councilwoman Linda Reed in her sweeping rose-colored lace dress, also participated, along with Richard Hanna in his 1925 Ford one-ton truck, Denny Craig on his decorated three-wheeler and kids with their horses and bicycles.

In the morning, Bob Hays, as always, organized the races. “Our very own Olympics,” said Norma Speelmon. The boosters ran the dunking booth. After winners of many raffle items were announced, as always by Dave Reynolds,- native-born Doug Speelmon, as always, organized the turtle races and watermelon eating contest at the ballfield.

“A lot of people that come here say it’s the best they’ve ever been to,” said Donny Dawson, who won the Little Saw contest in the afternoon. Donny’s sisters, Shirley Crawford and Barbara Broadway, “pushing 60” they said, beat women just out of high school in the Jill’s Crosscut Saw Competition.

“It’s the only kind of saw we had growing up,” Shirley said.

Travis Kiebert, who had the only logging truck in the parade this year, won the Big and Medium Saw events. Indicative of Clark Fork’s logging history, seven people correctly guessed Kiebert’s logs contained 5,600 board feet of lumber.

Enterprising Kerynn Sivicky, who spends summers on Antelope Mountain with her grandparents, Ralph and Doris Manfredi, sold turtles to those kids who hadn’t made it down to Denton Slough to find their own.

“I take may dog, Whinny, to the Beaver Pond,” said 13-year-old Kerynn, “and she sniffs around and finds the turtles.”

Most people returned the turtles to the pond after the races.

Fifty or more years ago, Clark Fork had “a few little games and everyone had their own fireworks,” said Moni Maloney. But now the whole town contributes to the display at the ballfield at dusk. Comp White, who collected donations for years, retired three years ago and people like Mike Tuel, wearing a fluorescent pink baseball cap with “Fireworks Donations” emblazoned on it Thursday, have taken his place.

“In this day and age of ours when minimum wage is normal,” said Tuel, “here you still have a group of people who really care about this city and give a lot of time and money to make the Fourth happen.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Susan Saxton D’Aoust is a free-lance writer and author who lives in Clark Fork. Panhandle Pieces appears every Saturday. The column is shared among several North Idaho writers.