Gym fundraiser

Inaugural Pig Eye Daze scheduled in Scotland

Calvin Whitfield’s grave in the Foster Cemetery in Scotland is covered with a metal “house” to protect the grave from the elements. Whitfield was killed by a wild hog in 1895 and was buried under snow. The story is that his father built a covering to protect the grave, and descendants have replaced and repaired the house. On Nov. 4, Scotland will have its first Pig Eye Daze, based on the nickname given the community after the incident.
Calvin Whitfield’s grave in the Foster Cemetery in Scotland is covered with a metal “house” to protect the grave from the elements. Whitfield was killed by a wild hog in 1895 and was buried under snow. The story is that his father built a covering to protect the grave, and descendants have replaced and repaired the house. On Nov. 4, Scotland will have its first Pig Eye Daze, based on the nickname given the community after the incident.

The first Pig Eye Daze in Scotland, Arkansas, (and perhaps the world) planned for Nov. 4 has a day packed with activities that range from a lumberjack contest to a rubber-duck race — and a few swine to chase.

The free-admission event will begin at 8 a.m. at the former Scotland High School.

About that unique name: “That’s what the old-timers used to call our town, was Pig Eye,” said resident Donna Baker, a member of the festival committee. “There are different kinds of tales that go around about it.”

It’s not a tale for the faint of heart. She heard that a little boy, maybe 10 years old, was killed by a hog, and his father hunted the hog, gouged out its eye and threw the eye on the ground.

Don Ramsey, president of the Pig Eye Daze Committee, said the basic tale is true.

An article written by Scotland historian Mary Hall relates that in 1895, Calvin Whitfield, 18, and his father, William, were taking corn to Scotland to be ground when a “wild razorback hog” ran into the street. Calvin tried to run it off, but the hog went through his legs, cut an artery, and he bled to death. His father put him in a wagon, took him home and buried him. There was snow on the ground, and his father built a little “house” over the grave in the Foster Cemetery.

To this day, Ramsey said, descendants replace and repair the metal structure to keep it close to the condition of the original house.

Ramsey said the rest of the story is that Calvin’s father hunted down a hog and plucked out its eye. Thus, Pig Eye. That part wasn’t recorded, but it’s been repeated through the years, he said, including by Hall’s father.

Ramsey added that Scotland was so named because settlers thought it looked like the country Scotland in the United Kingdom.

The festival is a fundraiser for the Scotland Community Corp., formed to take ownership of the old school buildings. Pig Eye Daze is an event to raise money to repair the roof of the old Scotland School gym, which is used by the community.

“People still come up there and play basketball and stuff,” Baker said.

Starla Mackey, a member of the Pig Eye Daze Committee, said the gym was built in the 1920s.

Members said the community could qualify for a matching grant. The estimate to repair the roof is $20,000, and Scotland needs to raise $10,000 to receive $10,000.

“We’d really like to raise the entire $20,000 and still get the grant so we can put a whole new roof on,” Mackey said.

Baker said members of the nonprofit community group were trying to come up with a fundraising idea, “and they were at a dead end.” The idea of having a Frontier Day was mentioned.

“So we started from that point, and we just kept working. We said, ‘OK, what are we going to name it?’” Baker said, and someone suggested Pig Eye Daze.

“It’s going to be fun; there’s something for everybody there,” she said.

Attendees may enter the school grounds beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, and breakfast will be offered for $6. Other food will be served throughout the day, ending with a fish fry at 6 p.m. The cost is $10. The day is packed with events in between.

In addition to old-fashioned fun, attendees can get a little education about the old days.

The Early Arkansas Re-enactors Association and the Mountain Man Rendezvous group will show what camp life was like in the 1800s, including demonstrations of flint-knapping, fire-starting, weaving, bow-making, campfire-cooking and more.

They will start setting up Nov. 3, Baker said.

Competitions will include sack races, a hula-hoop contest, a hot-dog-eating contest, a chili cook-off, a Dutch-oven cook-off, an archery competition, a blind wheelbarrow team race and a stick-horse rodeo.

The Pig Eye 5K will begin at 8 a.m. The entry fee is $15. Ramsey said the first-place finisher will receive $50; the second-place finisher, $25.

“I’m funding all of it out of my pocket; I allotted a budget,” he said.

Music will be a big part of the day, too. Greg Ward will perform songs that won him Nashville’s 2017 Outlaw Country Music Award. Van Buren County singer/musician Heath Sanders will open for Ward.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their instruments and pick and sing.

Also, a raffle will take place for several items, including a Scotland school quilt, a Bulldog throw, a 10-foot Pelican Trailblazer kayak and paddles, a Maverick 88 pump 12-gauge shotgun and a bucket of

.22-caliber bullets.

Tickets are $5 each or five for $20.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, soda and water will be available to purchase all day.

A Pig Eye Daze farmers market will be part of the festival, too, and growers may bring a table and sell fresh vegetables and edible products. No crafts or art can be sold in the farmers market, organizers said. The cost is $10 per table.

Mackey said one of the vendors will have “little pigs in a pen, and the kids chase them, which I think is neat because of the little boy and the hogs.”

She said the unusual festival is drawing a lot of interest on the Pig Eye Daze Facebook page.

“So far, on the pages they’ve put up, they’ve had over 3,000 interested and over 500 say they’re coming,” she said.

And the population of Scotland is just 83, she said with a laugh.

Ramsey said that after the inaugural event, committee members plan to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whether called Pig Eye Daze or something else, to continue to raise money for “the preservation of our community and the old buildings that are dilapidated.”

“Pig Eye Daze has got a wonderful team, and we have a wonderful town that is in need of some love for its people and the historical holdings that make each of us the person we are,” Ramsey said.

For more information about vendor space, contact organizers through the Pig Eye Daze Event Facebook page, or the Scotland, Arkansas, community page, or call Baker at (501) 253-5927, Penny Dunham at (501) 592-2076, Cathy Felton at (501) 592-3971 or Mackey at (901) 488-8367.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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