The Time Capsule | Roy Marshall
The article carried in our paper in mid-February of 1939 dashed the hopes of a good many readers. Nine Iowa cities had been finalists in a bid to become the site of what the story referred to as “the big show.” Our chamber of commerce was joined by local businesses, farmers and civic groups in urging Wallace’s Farmer magazine to choose Red Oak to host the 1940 National Corn Husking Contest. Excitement increased when the list was narrowed to Red Oak and Davenport.
Disappointment when the nod went to Davenport was justified – the 1940 event drew 140,000 people (a Davenport newspaper estimated 160,000; about the same as the Indy 500). All those spectators, plus Bob Feller, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Goodyear blimp, and scores of newspaper and magazine journalists would have been in Montgomery County rather than Davenport, but it was not to be.
That year marked the last time southwest Iowa – or, for that matter, Iowa – had this opportunity. The contest went the rounds of 11 major corn-producing states. It was not scheduled to return to ours until 1951. Pearl Harbor, a World War, and the mechanical corn picker got here first.
I couldn’t name another sport that rose so fast and fell so quickly and completely as corn husking. Anyone could try it, and there wasn’t a Midwest farm boy who didn’t know how. Coaches, athletic directors and special playing fields were not needed. Between 1924 and 1941, Iowa held approximately 5,000 county championship contests. At an average of ten entrants in each, that’s 50,000 competitive corn pickers in our state alone. County winners went to district, district to state, and state winners competed in the national.
The best of them had the strength, coordination and stamina of top-notch athletes. There were no time outs or standing around. The gun sounded and competitors were continuously and strenuously engaged for 80 minutes.
National contests were broadcast live from coast-to-coast, announcers doing play-by-play with the sound of corn thumping bang boards in the background. Keen-eyed judges followed each husker, making deductions for any ear left unpicked or errantly thrown.
Taken in their entirety, these events were much more than entertainment. Corn shows and machinery demos became a part of picking contests, as did controlled plots that compared yields. They were educational and cultural and brought farmers from across the Midwest together to discuss and plan ways to do things better. Husking events gave momentum to a progressive era in agriculture.
“Battle of the Bang Boards,” an out-of-print book by Leonard Jacobs, includes all state and national husking records. One of them is a record set in 1935 by 27-year-old Elmer Carlson from Audubon County. At that national championship, held in Indiana, Carlson, after penalties, picked 41 ½ bushels, which was 3,744 ears – give or take one or two – and weighed 2,995 pounds.
Think about that and put a pencil to it. Carlson shucked and picked and hit the board 3,744 times in 4,800 seconds, an ear of corn every 1.3 seconds, and maintained that rate for an hour and 20 minutes. He threw more times in three minutes than a baseball pitcher does in three hours.
Carlson’s record made him seem unbeatable, but he was out-picked in a 1938 contest by a Montgomery County farmer. Come back next week and we’ll tell you who earned those bragging rights.
Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.