Brown hail hits Talkeetna

TALKEETNA — Don’t look up.

That was the common wisdom Saturday in Talkeetna as the 37th Moose Dropping Festival hit its marquee event.

“We drop moose turds onto a target,” said Cary Birdsall of the Talkeetna Historical Society, which organizes the event.

About 6 p.m., tourists and locals gather in the parking lot of the Veteran’s of Foreign Affairs building holding their raffle tickets. The number on the ticket corresponds with a number painted on a shellacked piece of moose poop. At the given signal, the turds are released from a net and land on a target below.

“We used to drop them from a helicopter,” Birdsall said, “but the FAA doesn’t like having helicopters hovering over large crowds. Now we use a big boom and bucket in the VFW parking lot.”

Raffle prizes are awarded based on the proximity of the scat to the center of the target. First prize this year is $1,500.

Birdsall said this is the major fundraiser of the year for the Talkeetna Historical Society. It splits the proceeds of the raffle with the VFW. The festival continues today with the other big draw of the festival — Mountain Mother contest. It takes place today at 1 p.m.

According to the Talkeetna Historical Society’s Web site, the contest came about in response to the Wilderness Woman contest held in Talkeetna in the dead of winter. Unmarried women competed in various Alaska winter activities for a prize and a plaque.

The mothers of the town took offense to not being included and created a competition of their own. Moms strap a baby doll to their backs and then walk a log in hip waders carrying two buckets of water, shoot a moose target with a bow and arrow, catch a fake fish, chop firewood, change their doll and wash the diaper, and make a pie. Awards for winners in the past have included gift certificates to beauty salons and nice restaurants.

Other than the moose dropping and the Mountain Mother contest, there is live music in Village Park and vendors around the town through the end of the day.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.