Visitors ripe for Dixon Melon Day

By Ed Moreth

for the Leader

Even though the number of attendees were a little low, the committee chairman of the Dixon Melon Day Festival said the event was a success and those who went to it enjoyed the event.

"They had a great time," said Jim Barnes, who took on the coordination efforts this year, along with a handful of Melonites, who assisted him in the 16th Annual Melon Day Festival, which took place all day Saturday. Barnes said there's really no way to know how many people attended the festival, because it's free, but he guessed there were about 800 in attendance throughout the day.

The celebration began at 7 p.m. with the traditional Dixon Volunteer Fire Department breakfast at the senior center, followed by the Melon Day Walk/Run, and ended around 10 p.m. with a dance at the senior center. In between, community members and visitors had the chance to check out the vendors, see a parade, listen to music, and even take part in a kid rodeo or the Farmers Olympics obstacle course.

"It got off to a slow start, but I think it went pretty good," said Mary Cole, one of the coordinators. Cole also organized the run/walk, which had only 11 runners this year.

About 15 vendors participated in the festival this year, one more than 2006. They also had kids' games, a three-on-three basketball tournament, a horseshoe tournament and a parade.

Barnes said that one of the highlights of this year's event was the group of descendants of Joe Dixon, the town's namesake, who had a reunion last week and were the grand marshals of the Melon Day parade.

Of the 40 men, women and children, 26 are actual descendants of Dixon, said 72-year-old Nelson Leach of Farmington, Conn., and a grandson of Dixon. Joseph M. Dixon, who lived from 1867 to 1934, served as a Montana senator, representative, and governor, said Leach, who added that Dixon was originally a Quaker from North Carolina, who moved to the Missoula area in the late 1880s. He also served as Secretary of the Interior and was part of the Bull Moose Campaign for candidate Theodore Roosevelt. None of the descendants present knew why the town was named after Dixon. Leach said it had been called Jocko City, and Barnes said it had also previously carried the name Plum Creek Station, perhaps during the big railroad boom there.

"What a better honor than to have them as our grand marshals," said Barnes, who's lived in Dixon for six years. "It was nice to have them here."

Leach noted that they had four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and 15 great-great-grandchildren present. The other grandchildren included sisters Dorothy "Poo" Penrose and Nancy Silvernale of Seattle and Liz Stearns of New York City. The family members were donned in a special T-shirt to denote their family name.

The parade, which began at 11 a.m., and lasted about 25 minutes, was led once again by the Mission Valley Honor Guard and followed by the Joe Dixon descendants and an array of about 25 units, 19 which signed up for the parade competition. The Dixon Descendants float won first place in the miscellaneous category, said Cheryl Morigeau, who coordinated the parade for the fourth consecutive year. Kelly Morigeau, formerly a Dixon resident who lives in Deer Lodge, and Jim Murphy served as judges for the parade.

Dixon resident Yvonne Dennis took first place in the classic car category with her 1942 Jeep. Reese Middlemist, also of Dixon, took first in the tractor class with his 1956 International. In the children's class, Shakira Burrafato, 6, and Siarra Mattson, 3, both of Dixon, nabbed top honors with their "Driving Miss Daisy" car entry.

Cheyenne Cole, 14, Mary Cole's daughter, took first in the novelty and humorous category by painting her horse "Trigger" green and entering him as a John Deere tractor. Cole said it took her and her friend, Helaina Beebe, 14, about three hours to paint Trigger.

The Mission Valley Garden Club placed first in the clubs/organization category, and in the business floats category, a 40-foot long, 12 1/2-foot high, drooling basset hound took first place. Owned by Stuart Morton of St. Ignatius and created by friend Dale McCollum, the chief architect, Barry the Basset was built in the likeness on Morton's own basset, Barry. The float represented Stuart's NAPA of St. Ignatius, with Morton driving the ATV that pulled the giant Barry. Morton said they've had a float in the Dixon parade for about 10 years. The basset float was rigged to make it look as though the dog was walking, and water dribbled from its mouth for drool.

Don Grazier of Ronan, who used to live in Dixon, took first in the art category with his steel goose piece. In the mounted adult class, Glenda Whitworth of Dixon won. And the grand prize went to the Lake County Bank in St. Ignatius. Driven by Steve McCollum, the float included television characters Sponge Bob, Gary the Snail, and Patrick the Starfish.

New this year was the Car Bash, which Barnes said was established to help educate people about the ills of drinking alcohol and driving. A Moiese resident donated an old Grand Am automobile and for $4 a person could take three swings at the car with a sledge hammer. Barnes said that one of the reasons to have the Car Bash was so people could take their anger out on the car, not on the highway. He said that the only takers were grade school and junior high kids, which he didn't make pay. "We just let them swing away for free," said Barnes, who gave them a short lecture about driving and drinking. "Kids love to bash a car," he said.

Once again, Harley and Joey Hettick set up two pickup trucks of an assortment of melons from Dixon Melons. The Hetticks also donated watermelons for the traditional melon-eating contest, which was won by Shae Galloway, an 11-year-old boy visiting his grandparents in St. Ignatius. Galloway nabbed $10 for his fast eating. Second place went to Emanuelle LaChance, 8, of St. Ignatius. Ten children took part in the contest.

In the horseshoe tournament, which had six teams, first place went to Rod Hyvonen of Charlo and William Croft of Ronan, $65 apiece. Martha Hyvonen and Jim Hawley of Paradise took second and won $40 apiece. Third went Doug Morigeau of Dixon and Jerry Gasser of Ronan, who won $25. Finished after 7 p.m. The tournament has been going on about 16 years. Morigeau and Gasser lost their first match and came back to take third, according to Jim Murphy, who's been running the tournament for 12 years and was a contestant this year. He said that Hyvonen and Croft didn't lose a match.