The Glenwood Post, Oct. 9, 1909:
Carbondale is … announcing that her people will hold a mammoth “Potato Show”… on Saturday, October 23. She promises great times for all … and says she will have a grand barbecue … potato races, a [lady’s] nail-driving contest, pony races and dancing … Since Carbondale leads the world in raising spuds, it is safe to say that all who go will be treated to a sight they will never forget.
What has become an annual celebration of Carbondale’s agricultural history, started out as an exhibition of goods by farmers, gardeners and homemakers. Blue ribbons were given for first place and red ribbons for second place, in categories ranging from vegetable and grain harvesting to livestock, to preserves, cakes and needlework.
In the ensuing years, more contests were added. The 1913 Potato Day program announced the first prize for the “Married Women’s Footrace” was a pair of silk stockings. First prizes for the “Fat Man’s Race” and the “Slim Man’s Race” were the same: a box of cigars.
Gender stereotypes held firm with “The Baby Show,” where the prize for the “Most Perfect Baby Boy” was “$5 deposited in the First National Bank of Carbondale, to draw interest until 21 years of age.” “The Most Perfect Baby Girl,” not needing financial independence, of course, received a gold locket. In the “Fattest Baby” category, the winner received a new pair of shoes from Dinkel’s Mercantile “to be selected by the mother.”
Carbondale’s potato industry began in the 1880s with the first homesteaders in the Crystal Valley: Alex Thompson, Sam Bowles, Oscar Holland and William Dinkel. As the popularity of spuds grew nationwide around 1900, everyone got into the potato business.
Irish immigrant Thomas McClure crossed two types of potato and developed the Red McClure. The variety had all but disappeared until 2009, when it was found growing in the San Luis Valley and brought back to Carbondale by Slow Food Roaring Fork to be distributed among local gardeners. This rare heirloom potato can still be found growing in fields and gardens around the Valley.
Eugene Grubb, owner of Mt. Sopris Farm, became an expert in all things spud-related, traveling the world as a “Potato Ambassador.”
An excerpt from Grubb’s book, “The Potato,” published in 1912, reads:
The Roaring Fork and Crystal River Valley section of Colorado is as nearly perfect in soil conditions as can be found, and the potatoes grown there are not excelled anywhere in the world.
Grubb may have been biased, but, by all accounts, the potatoes that were grown in this area were once prized by passengers of the nation’s railroads, which served them in their dining cars, patrons of New York City’s posh restaurants and World War I soldiers.
The beginning of the end of Carbondale’s once booming enterprise was described by Pat Noel in The Valley Journal on Oct. 7, 1993:
The demise of the potato industry began in the 1940s … when the price of spuds plummeted to 10 cents a hundred … Farmers let the crop rot in the field rather than sell it for so little … Valley farms gradually switched to hay, grain and grazing operations.
While the commercial potato industry moved to other states, Carbondale continued to celebrate Potato Day, with a brief pause during the two World Wars. In 1947, the Chamber of Commerce took on the task of producing the Town’s oldest festival. Farming families, like the Gianinettis, Nieslaniks and Cerises, kept growing potatoes, and their family members served on the chamber’s volunteer Potato Day committee.
In the beginning, community members provided the ingredients and prepared the free barbeque lunch, with local homemakers baking the potatoes in their own ovens. By 1971, the cost of feeding several thousand people became too much, and a 50-cent fee was charged.
In 1999, the Potato Day planning torch was passed to the Xi Gamma Tau and Zeta Epsilon sororities, which carried on a tradition of choosing an annual theme, such as “Wide World of Spuds” and “Potato Sack is the New Black,” providing for entertaining parade entries. This year’s theme is “The Grate Spudsby” — a nod to the novel’s 100 year anniversary.
After 17 years, the sorority sisters were relieved by a committee of local nonprofit organizations, led by Carbondale’s Parks and Rec Department, which continues in that role today. This year Parks and Rec hired Kat Hardy, who also facilitates Dandelion Day, to head the expansive organizing efforts along with Kade Gianinetti — keeping it in the family, so to speak.
As the 116th annual Potato Day approaches, I’ll leave you with some encouragement from the past.
The Aspen Democrat Times, Oct. 20, 1911:
Yes-Sir-ree! It’s Potato Day … tomorrow at Carbondale and it is time for you to stick your face in a great big, meaty, spud with butter on it — on the potato, not your face, we mean, but both may have butter on them for all the jolly farmers of Carbondale care.
The town will be wide open for visitors and the police have positive instructions to leave the Aspen bunch alone no matter what is done.
Going down, yes, away down to Carbondale.
Potato Day still relies on community volunteers. To find out how you can help during the Oct. 4 celebration, visit www.tinyurl.com/PotatoDayVolunteer or email potatodays@carbondalehistory.org For a list of events, see the back page of this week’s Sopris Sun.