Sweet-gum logs are not the only things that get chewed up at Grant County’s Timberfest. Pounds and pounds of barbecued pork, chicken and brisket will be devoured on the Saturday afternoon of Oct. 4, as teams of pit professionals and hog-smoking hobbyists compete in the Go Hog Wild BBQ State Championship Cook-off.
Timberfest, set for Oct. 3 and 4, is organized by the Grant County Chamber of Commerce, and Jack Easley, the chamber’s vice president, is co-chairman for the barbecue cook-off.
“This is our third annual barbecue competition, but this one is different in a big way,” Easley said. “Gov. Mike Beebe proclaimed our cook-off as the state championship competition, and it is now sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society.”
The society, known in barbecue circles as KCBS, is the world’s largest barbecue and grilling organization with some 19,000 members and 450 registered competition teams. The teams, and some nonmember smoking and grilling teams, compete for points, with the top winners competing in the American Royal and Jack Daniels World championships.
Easley said that while this year’s Go Hog Wild competition is being conducted under KCBS rules, with society-approved judges, no points toward the championship will be give to the winner for this first year.
However, trophies will be awarded for the top-ranked teams in brisket, chicken, pork-spareribs and pulled-pork competitions. Cash prizes totaling $2,900 will also be handed out.
With a few weeks remaining before the competition, Easley and co-chairman Hershel Brannon are looking for more barbecue teams to take part in the cook-off.
“We want to have from 25 to 30,” Easley said. “We have more than 10 signed up now, but we would like to see more.”
While the Timberfest organizers would like to see more participants, Easley said he and other officials are not concerned that there will be too few competitors because they often wait until the last minute to sign up.
“We wait to check the temperatures and the weather because all those things can affect the cooking process,” he said. “In the last three years, it was very hot one year, unseasonably cool the next and then rainy last year.”
The competition will be a two-day event with a long night in between for the cooks.
“We have scheduled setup to begin at noon on Friday (Oct. 3), which allows the competitors to get the smokers and grills up and running and their meat inspected,” Easley said. “There will be a cooking meeting at 6 p.m., where the society’s rules are covered and any questions are answered by representatives from the barbecue society.”
Soon afterward, the cooking will begin. With the low cooking temperatures in the smokers, many of the categories of barbecue take all night and into Saturday to cook.
There will be a lot of meat, Easley said, that will be brought in for the competition.
“The teams get to bring as much meat as they can cook,” he said. “They might just cook one brisket and then hope
for the best, or they can cook up several, then pick the one that has the best bite in the bunch.”
They also have to fix enough to offer a bite to as many of the expected 10,000 visitors who decide to purchase tasting tickets.
“Visitors to Timberfest can purchase 10 tasting tickets and one voting ticket,” Easley said. “The ticket holders can taste something from 10 teams and then go back and drop their voting ticket in the jar for that team. The one who collects the most tickets wins a People’s Choice award.”
While the barbecue contest has grown each year, there are many other attractions during Timberfest, said Marilyn DeMoss, who chairs the Timberfest Committee.
“New this year is the log rolling that goes along with our timber and lumber theme,” she said. “Also new is a mechanical bull that we think will have people coming into the Courthouse Square in Sheridan and lining up to see if they can stay on the machine for eight seconds.”
DeMoss said an Elvis tribute artist will perform the night of Oct. 3, and there will be concerts on the front stage on Oct. 4, after a day of arts and crafts, a 5-K run and the Timberfest Parade.
There will be plenty of kiddie rides and, of course, the lumberjack competition.
Attracting competitive woodsmen from across the nation, the Arkansas Lumberjack Competition is always the most popular event of the biggest day of the year in Sheridan.
The events, such as the ax throw, chopping events and slicing up a log with a chain saw are based on the work that goes on every day in the timberland of Arkansas, but the tools can be very different.
“We do have three classes of stock chain saws that are finely tuned, but pretty-basic chain saws you can buy in a store. Then we have modified chain saws and, finally, unlimited chain saws,” said Kenneth Bragg, chairman of the lumberjack competition. “With those, lumberjacks usually take a snowmobile engine and cut it in half and modify it for a chain saw. It just has to be able to be started with a pull and cut wood.”
Even the equipment without motors is modified.
“Most of the axes used are custom-made by hand for the lumberjack and designed for a special use,” Bragg said. “The crosscut saws are modified and sharpened for use on a specific wood.”
Bragg said Timberfest uses sweet-gum logs that grow nearby.
“We pick out some trees before loggers come in, and we take then and mill them down to the right width we need,” he said. “It is a lot of work.”
The competition will begin at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 4 behind the Grant County Courthouse in Sheridan and go on for several hours. Admission is free.
To take part in the barbecue contest, contact Easley at (870) 917-7878 or visit gohogwildbbq@yahoo.com. For more information about other parts of the festival, visit www.grantcountychamber.com.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or at wbryan@arkansasonline.com.