Beulah celebrates in big way

This article was originally printed in the Rapid City Journal on July 2, 1997, and is reprinted with the newspaper's permission.

by Amy Phillips

BEULAH, Wyo.--It may not be the longest parade ever, but it will be huge when you take the size of the town into account.

Beulah's first ever Fourth of July Parade (or at least the first one as far back as Mayor Zelma Hoyer can remember), has so far netted more than 30 entries, possibly as many as 40. Beulah has 33 residents.

Let's put this into perspective. If the city of Rapid City had a parade with 60,000 entries (one entry per person just like Beulah), and the average length of entries was, say, 15 feet, with 15 feet between them (for safety purposes), Rapid City's parade would stretch for 1,800,000 feet, or 341 miles.

If the parade lined up on Interstate 90, the first float would be in Rapid City while the last float would be in Sioux Falls.

That's a big parade.

Hoyer said Gregg Forsberg, owner of one of the two businesses in Beulah, the Sand Creek Trading Post, decided it would be nice to do something for the town this Fourth, which is Friday. A parade seemed like a good idea, and others jumped on the bandwagon to join him.

No bandwagons have signed up to be in the parade as of yet, but entries will include many generations of a local family, a locally owned Model-T car, an old farm truck, "Calamity Jane" and a Spearfish Volunteer Fire Department truck. Kids on bikes will also take part, and prizes will be awarded to the best entrants in two categories.

The goal is to be the biggest parade in the smallest town ever and hopefully convince the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records to make note of their accomplishment.

"We're hoping we have a good turnout," Hoyer said. "I thought it would be kind of fun; something to do in the summertime."

Everyone is invited to two street dances the evenings of July 4 and 5 at the Sand Creek Trading Post and the parade, which will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The parade route will follow old Highway 14. Main Street may be the proper place to hold a parade, but Beulah doesn't have one. It's just too small.

But it's not too small to have a mayor, un-elected though she may be.

"It was just kind of a fun thing, it wasn't a voted deal," Hoyer said.

She was named mayor in an impromptu fashion when a monument dedication was planned. The event had to be canceled, and someone had to speak with a voice of authority in the press release, so Hoyer was chosen.

She doesn't stay too busy with her mayoral duties, so helping to organize a parade seemed to fit well into her job description.

"Actually, I don't have too many duties, I just try to help everybody," she said.

And serve them cold beer. Hoyer works as a bartender and a clerk in the Sand Creek Trading Post.

What more could you ask for in a mayor?

"Yeah, I have people at the bar waiting for me to serve them now," she said.

Small-town Beulah has big-time parade

This article was originally printed in the Rapid City Journal on July 5, 1997, and is reprinted with the newspaper's permission.

BEULAH, Wyo.--Little Beulah, population 33, went big time Friday when possibly 2,000 people jammed into town for a Fourth of July parade of sweeping proportions.

Hoping to earn a line in the Guinness Book of World Records with the biggest parade for the smallest town ever, parade organizers had 40 entries early in the week.

By parade time Friday afternoon, they registered not 40, not 60, not 80 but 160 entries.

With llamas, logging trucks, kids on bicycles, cowboys on horses, cattle with horns painted red, white and blue, even three airplanes, the mile-long parade took an hour to pass along Beulah's two-block business district.

Sidewalk parade marshals variously estimated spectator numbers at 1,000-plus to maybe 2,500.

"It's absolutely crazy," said Gregg Forsberg as the 7th Cavalry Drum and Bugle Corps from Rapid City continued to serenade the throngs at his Sand Creek Trading Post.

It was Forsberg who got the parade idea moving as something nice to bring people to the old town, nestled along Sand Creek just west of the South Dakota line.

Zelma Hoyer, local bartender and ad hoc mayor, said entries and spectators came from as far away as Billings, Mont., on the west and Jasper, Ga., to the east.

The Georgian happened to be in the area and asked if he could march as Abe Lincoln.

Unique to this parade were the three airplanes, one of them towed and the other two taxiing, propellers whirring, along the parade route.

Forsberg said parade planners at first thought they would need one road outside town as a staging area.

"We ended up having to use three roads and part of a pasture."

Spearfish, S.D., native and longtime Beulah area rancher Marlene Simons said, "I've never seen anything like this, not in Beulah.

"It's even bigger than the (Sturgis) bike rally, and we make a big thing out of attracting people here during the bike rally."

Simons also spoke as the daughter of an oldtime, Spearfish-based circus family that saw a lot of community extravaganzas in its time.

As for the parade's bid for a Guinness record, Forsberg said documentation was still being compiled, but the tally of entries stood at 160 and counting.

How about a parade next year?

"Since I hit 50 I decided not to let reality get in the way of my dreams," Forsberg said. "So, we'll wait to see what happens."

 

Beulah parade entry count tallies 193

This article was originally printed in the Rapid City Journal on July 8, 1997, and is reprinted with the newspaper's permission.

by Dick Rebbeck

BEULAH, Wyo.--As the smoke cleared from Beulah's skyrocketing Fourth of July observance, a final tally showed 193 entries had paraded Friday through the town's two-block business district.

Early last week 40 units had registered for the parade, promoted as a quest for Guinness Book of World Records recognition as the longest parade in the smallest town.

Such a big early signup was notable for a town of only 33 residents.

Yet by parade time Friday, the tally exceeded 160 and continued to grow with spontaneous signups.

Parade organizer Gregg Forsberg reported a count of 193 after a final sifting-through of registration on Sunday night.

The Black Hills Roundup parade the same weekend at Belle Fourche, population 4,500, drew an estimated 160 entrants--144 by the deadline plus a flurry of walk-in marchers.

Participation at Beulah ranged from three airplanes flown in for the event to a bicycle tour group that coasted in off Interstate 90 to see what all the commotion was about.

Signups spanned the continent, from a California doctor who pulled his Suburban into line to a Georgia man who happened by and marched in an Abraham Lincoln getup.

Forsberg said there was no way to count the crown, but he expected it exceeded 2,500.

On Wednesday of the Sturgis (motorcycle) rally, we figure we're full at 2,500 people," he said. "There were that many or more here Friday."

A big part of the parade's appeal stemmed from a spontaneity that rubbed off on everyone as "a happy feeling," he said.

"It wasn't too organized. Anybody who wanted to could join in. We had a ball."

After a wrapup and sorting-out Sunday evening, though, Forsberg admitted a reluctance to consider a repeat next year.

He said Monday that, "When we finally went to bed last night, we were thinking, 'We don't want to do anything like this again.'"

But he likened it to a woman having a baby: At first she vows never to do it again, then comes around to thinking having a child might be a good idea, again.

"We will be giving it a try . . . again next year," Forsberg said.