One of Yellville Arkansas festivals is the Famous Turkey Trot, so named to call attention to the county's abundance in their wild turkey population. The Turkey Trot has been held every year on the second Friday and Saturday in October since 1945. when the festival first began one of the highlights was when they would drop live turkeys off the rooftop of the county courthouse, this was known as the turkey toss. Later they started dropping the turkeys from a low flying airplane which became known as the turkey drop. The bad thing about the turkey drop is... Turkey's can't fly very well and some were killed as they hit the ground. Animal activist have caused quite a stir and demanded the custom be stopped. As a result the town no longer admits to hosting the turkey drop, however, a mysterious airplane still shows up dropping the turkeys during the festival... The local television stations have been running ads saying it is against the law to drop live turkeys from low flying planes and anyone doing so will be arrested... I'm wondering, is this advertizing in disguise?
Some of the other highlights listed for the festival include the Miss drumsticks competition (where the contestants faces and bodies are hidden while only their legs are judged), view the parade, the turkey calling contest, street dance, turkey dinners, and rodeos. I'm looking forward to see if they drop the turkeys, old traditions are hard to kill... Can't say that for the turkeys though.
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