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Hope Watermelon
Festival - Continued.....
When the melons
first appear he chooses the most promising and culls all the
others. At this point solicitude begins in earnest. “Castor
beans and other plants are set around the pampered melon for
shade; the soil is enriched with nitrogen-charged water from
the manure trough or with commercial fertilizers; the melon
is force-fed from shallow pans of water through lengths of wool
yarn driven into the stem.”
It may be that
those techniques have been further refined since the current
local record stands as a 260-pounder grown by Ivan and Lloyd
Bright in 1986. Hope held its first Watermelon Festival in 1926.
It was a one-day event featuring a Watermelon Queen pageant,
a parade and, to make sure the word wa s spread, the serving
of melon to riders on the many passenger trains that then ran
though Hope. Because of drought and the Depression, the event
was discontinued in the early 1930s, but reappeared off and
on in the 1940s and ‘50s. Since being revived in 1977, the festival
has been held annually, this year making 23 in a row.
Festival admission
is free although there is a $2 fee for parking on the festival
grounds. A free brochure including a schedule of events and
map of the site can be obtained during the festival in the lobby
of the park’s Coliseum.
A complete festival
schedule is on the Internet at the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber
of Commerce website at www.hopemelonfest.com. For additional
festival information, contact the chamber by phone at (870)
777-3640, by mail at P.O. Box 250, Hope AR 71802 or by e-mail
at hopeark@arkansas.net.
Hope, which
is also the birthplace of current Arkansas Gove rnor Mike Huckabee,
is located on Interstate 30 about 112 miles southwest of Little
Rock and 34 miles northeast of Texarkana. To reach Fair Park,
take Exit 30 off the Interstate and travel south to U.S. 67.
Go right on U.S. 67 and proceed to Arkansas 174, then turn left
and follow the signs to the park.
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