Gold Dust Days turns 10

Fifteen-year-old Grace Elliot was manning the bouncy house and the crown-decorating booth at Gold Dust Days on Friday afternoon.

The Sultan High School student helped fit a gold sparkle-lined crown around Mickayla White's head. The younger girl had wandered across the sunburnt lawn in front of Gold Bar Elementary to make the delicate headdress early Friday evening.

Elliot has been attending and volunteering at the annual three-day event for years.  She struggled with trying to name the best part, but focused on the live music and vendors, adding she thinks Gold Dust Days is good for local businesses.

“I think it really brings the community together,” Elliot said.

That was the goal when residents first planned the community event 10 years ago. Sky Valley Visitors Center president Debbie Copple said Gold Dust Days was designed to help support local ventures. She said the founders wanted to ensure it had its own personality, distinct from other summer shows like the annual Sultan Shindig.

Many of the components represent a part of the town's history.

It is where Dakota Neuman started performing when he was 11 years old, Copple said. The country musician is now working and recording in Nashville, but comes back almost every year to sing, she said. He was the opening act Friday night, playing to his local fanbase.

Former mayor and event co-founder Joe Beavers also attended the first day. He started Gold Dust Days with Lonn Turner and Dennis Blansett, who is memorialized during the annual car show. The three were the “Mad Dogs” that got things moving, he said.

Beavers said he has been largely relegated to paperwork over the years. He “takes care of the oopsies,” which there aren't too many of anymore, aside from the minor mishap. He hopes the younger generations will eventually want to step up and take over planning.

For the first few years the event really took off, and attendance stayed high, Beavers said. The Great Recession knocked those numbers down for a while, but things seem to be bouncing back — more and more every summer, he said.

Each year the staples are brought in, such as the Grand Parade, car show and the Civil War encampment, “which stops a lot of people on U.S. Highway 2,” Beavers said with a laugh. For a while participants were able to learn how to fire a musket, but legal constraints shut that offering down a few years ago, he said.

New additions are also made from time to time, Beavers said. The Gold Bar Farmers Market has expanded significantly since last year, and is now an integrated part of the event, he said.

Marcia Foreman, who runs the Rat Bastards Car Club with her husband Ron Foreman, the nonprofit's president, said hosting the car show at Gold Dust Days has helped keep the craft alive in the community. Members of the local group have helped pass on a valuable skill set to one another, she said, adding it is very much an art form.

“For young people, there is not a whole lot left in terms of hot rodding,” Marcia Foreman said.

Copple said Gold Dust Days has always been a place for local artisans and crafters to display and sell their work. The event is dependent on community partnerships, including with the Sultan School District, which allows the Sky Valley Chamber to use the same site each year for free, she said.

Copple said Fire District 26 volunteers also help keep things running. They offer their time and put on demonstrations, including showing children how to blast a hose. Some also join in for the old-fashioned gunny sack races, which includes “a lot of fist pumps” from the smaller but competitive opponents, she said.

“It's serious stuff,” Copple said.