The race must go on

Warm weather, wreck don’t deter chuck-wagon event

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — Travis and Edna Yingling of Plainview have season tickets for Razorback football, but each year they miss the opening game to watch their family compete at the National Chuck-Wagon Races in Clinton.

Each year a week before Labor Day weekend, an entire cowboy city is created on Dan and Peggy Eoff’s 500-acre ranch at 2848 Shake Rag Road. While it may seem like it just popped up overnight like mushrooms in a pasture, the event is the result of nearly eight months of planning.

After turning west off Arkansas 65 onto Shake Rag Road in Clinton, visitors are treated to panoramic vistas of the rolling Ozark foothills. At the end of the road is the Bar of Ranch. Hundreds of vehicles are parked in an enormous hayfield, which is surrounded by scores of campers and recreational vehicles packed side to side, but that’s just spectator parking. People come from as far away as California, and announcers said international visitors from countries like Venezuela and Germany attended this year’s race.

Edna Yingling said, “We have our spot reserved and camp. It really is a family event. Travis gives up the first Razorback game each year, because we want to support John, Kim, J.W. and our friend Tom Green, who races with them.”

Travis Yingling, wearing a Razorback red shirt, grinned and waved, even though the temperature under the canopy was in the 90s.

“We rig up our fan, but I don’t think the heat is any worse than being outside at the football game,” Edna Yingling said.

In the Eoffs’ front yard there is a midway comparable to many county fairs, with concession booths selling carnival style food like turkey legs, cotton candy and kettle corn. There are also vendors selling everything from saddles and straw cowboy hats to air-brushed license plates and Confederate flag bikinis.

At the western edge of the midway spectators like the Yinglings set up their canopies and folding chairs on a ridge. The valley below is rimmed with more recreational vehicles surrounding the chuck-wagon racing track.

This year there were about 330 contestants competing in several competitions, with close to 5,000 horses and mules. Underneath a Razorback red canopy, the Yinglings sat in the shade on folding chairs with a box fan stirring the muggy summer air. Hanging from the frame of the canopy was a sign for the Fourche River Rough Riders chuckwagon team. The team, which includes Edna’s son John Yates, his wife, Kim, and their son J.W., has won the national race several times, including a three-year winning streak from 1999 to 2001.

Edna Yingling excused herself for minute to stand up and watch the race.

In front of the canopies was a sea of people sitting in folding chairs or on the ground, watching the race through the summer haze. So far away from the action, spectators saw the smoke from the starter’s gun and the wagons lunge forward a fraction of a second before the report from the gun crackedthrough the air. Horses pulled the wagons in the Oklahoma Land Rush, buckboard and chuck-wagon competitions. The wagons are pulled by a team of four horses.

The two mule divisions were a draw because the wagon driver did everything he could to get the ornery mules to go, including lighting firecrackers behind them.

Each chuck-wagon race lasts about a minute.

The chuck-wagon team consists of an outrider on a horse, the wagon driver and a “cook” who rides in the back of the wagon. At the start of each race, the cook loads tents, and the outrider loads a stove. The cook hops on the wagon, the rider leaps on his steed, and the race is on. The outrider not only has to keep up with the team but pass them before the wagon gets to the finish line.

The Fourche River Rough Riders competed in races Aug. 29-31. During Saturday’s race, the chuck-wagon passed the finish line first, but didn’t win because the outrider didn’t pass the wagon.

“They ran good, but John didn’t get to work his team as much this year because J.W. has been in a lot of rodeos. John’s been coming here since it started. He’s been here every year for 23 years,” Edna Yingling said.

What started with just eight wagons one weekend has grown into its own business surrounding a week-long celebration of the cowboy way of life - both past and present.

Although most of the campers bring what they need with them, many, like the Yinglings, go into Clinton daily.

“My husband goes to Wal-Mart each day for ice. Sometimes we have breakfast at the Huddle House, and I love antiques, so a lot of times, we go browse the antique shops,” EdnaYingling said.

Most of the businesses in Clinton welcome the chuckwagon race fans with open arms. Since there are only four motels in Clinton,many spectators, like Teresa Lloyd, of Houston, Texas, stay in Conway.

“This is our first time up here and it’s wonderful. This is what it must of been like it was before there were rodeos,” Lloyd said, sitting in a camping chair under the shade of a tree.

Spectators Kevin Williams, 47, of Springdale, and Ron Caldwell, 51, of Cincinnati in Washington County drove down for the day.

“It’s our first time down here, and it’s bigger than we thought it was going to be. I think I heard someone say there were like 35,000 people here,” Caldwell said.

Williams said he thought the Eoffs should move the races to September.

“I like racing and all, but it’s a little warm in August,” Williams said.

A pair of shirtless little boys hung onto their straw cowboy hats as they ran down the midway to get a snack.

It isn’t all team competition. Besides wagon racing, there is also the bronc fanning, where riders stay on a bucking horse for seven seconds. Judges score the riders on the difficulty of the ride and the ability of the rider.

One of the most popular events is the Snowy River Race,based on the 1982 Western movie The Man from Snowy River. Eight riders race down a hill, across a flat field, up and down another hill and through the river, which actually part of the Little Red River, while music from the movie blasts from loudspeakers.

Last year’s champion, Dennis Clevenger, held on to his title by winning the race all three days.

Announcers narrate the action on the track, their excitedvoices reminiscent of NASCAR or professional wrestling, booming through loudspeakers set up in tree branches, mixed with upbeat background music of rock and country .

“Some people have reported things missing from their camp. If it ain’t yours don’t touch it, or we’re gonna bring back hanging to the Bar of Ranch,” said one of the announcers.

Cowboy hats fly off in every race, and Saturday afternoon one of the wagons lost a wheel, which brought a response of “Oh!” almost in unison from the crowd. The “Shut ’Er Down Boys” wagon from Damascus flipped Saturday, injuring Arkansas Democrat -Gazette videographer Mike Cooney, 35. Three ambulances from Arkansas Emergency Transport are at the races each year to transport injured people to Ozark Health Medical Center in Clinton.

Between the midway and the Eoffs’ home, there are three small buildings built for the races, which look like the buildings in an old west ghost town.

There is the Longhorn Hotel, Strange Ernie’s Saloon and theGeneral Store. The General Store is an information booth and the Longhorn Hotel is a stage for the live entertainment like the band Confederate Railroad. Strange Ernie’s saloon is where the final awards ceremony took place after the final race Aug. 31.

Local winners Aug. 30 include the Desperados team from Center Ridge who won the 4 Up Mules Compton; the Omega Nightmares from Danville who won the buckboard competition; the Flying W team of Plainview who won in the classic category, and the Willhemakeit Ranch team from Clinton who won the big mules Compton Aug. 30 and Aug. 31. Other winners Sunday included the Rockin’ and Rollin’ team of Atkins, which won in the classic category.

After the races, the Eoffs spend about three weeks cleaning up and repairing any damage during the race. As for the horse droppings, let’s just say the chips fall where they may.

The natural, eco-friendly, biodegradable stuff fertilizes the Eoffs’ ranch, making the grass a little greener.

In January, the Eoffs will start planning for the 2009 National Chuck-wagon Races, which will be Friday , Sept. 4, Saturday, Sept. 5 and Sunday, Sept. 6.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 125, 136, 137 on 09/07/2008