The children's corner of the festival provided fun for all ages with a petting zoo and bouncy houses.
Christina Belasco / OPB
Loggers, musicians, and families all came together under the sweltering hot sun and towering pine trees to celebrate the Estacada Timber Festival this past 4th of July weekend.
It was sweaty, dusty, and down to earth - with the smell of grass and sawdust in your nose, looking out on the crowd you’d see people clad with cut off shirts, ripped jeans, and work boots. The festival was rich with a youthful, country summer vibe.
There was a full schedule of events, which included axe throwing, log rolling, concerts, horse pulls and more. The goal of the festival, according to president Steve Stone of the Estacada Area Community Events (EACE), is to celebrate the town’s history of logging and bring the community together.
“It’s an amateur logging show. These are real, everyday loggers out there, not like the competing pros…it’s been a tradition here,” said Stone.
In fact, for many of the participants their trade runs in the family. It was that way for Jerry Lee, who had two horses running in the horse pull contest. It was one of his horses’ first year at the competition. “The sled weighs about 2,000 pounds…it takes lots of conditioning, just like an athlete. We run the horses about 2-3 miles per night,” said Lee on training for the event.
The festival began sometime in the 60s but started out as a 'water festival' at the Estacada sawmill. Then in the 70s, it was moved to the timber park where the festival thrived until the mid 90s and was shut down due to mismanagement. That's when the EACE group saw opportunity to bring back the festival and do it justice.
The timber festival is held annually in Estacada’s timber park, just outside of town. Next year, the EACE hopes the turn out will be even bigger if the weather isn’t quite so hot.