The Camp Verde Town Council proclaimed October to be Fort Verde State Historic Park Month during its Wednesday, Sept. 20, meeting.
Camp Verde will celebrate the 67th annual Fort Verde Days from Oct. 13 to 15. The celebration was launched the first year that the Fort Verde Museum was opened to the public through the efforts of the community. The homes on Officer’s Row were occupied by private residents at that time and the administration building housed the museum. Previous years’ festivities featured more pioneer-themed events, such as beard-growing contests, with locals dressing in period attire for the entire week.
While Fort Verde Days has been celebrated for decades, the proclamations by the Town Council began more recently to commemorate the park expanding its hours of operation from five to seven days a week. Fort Verde also became a state park in October 1970.
The state park will feature living historians with whom attendees can interact in order to learn about the fort’s history. The park will also be staging artillery demonstrations, flag raising and lowering ceremonies, historical presentations, an 1800s fashion show, military camp displays, military drills and dutch oven cooking demonstrations.
Presenters will include local author T.C. Noble, who will discuss the first 50 years of Camp Verde’s history, and American Indian dancing by Percy Warcloud Edwards.
The winner of the Colonel’s Daughter competition will be announced after the parade. This Fort Verde Days tradition dates back to the 1960s, when Wanda Jo Fuller Dickens was named Camp Verde’s first Colonel’s Daughter. The title is awarded to a teenage girl who demonstrates both equestrian skills and poise.
The inspiration for the competition came from an 1882 novel titled “The Colonel’s Daughter” by Capt. Charles E. King, who arrived at Camp Verde in 1874 to join the 5th Cavalry Regiment. The book was believed to be inspired by Carrie Wilkins, the daughter of Lt. Col. John D. Wilkins of the 8th Cavalry Regiment.
The Little Britches and Petticoat Contest is held in conjunction with the Colonel’s Daughter contest, allowing children to dress up in period costumes and participate in the parade.
This year’s parade theme is “Verde Gras: Fun in the Verde Valley” and the parade grand marshal will be Steve Ayers.
Ayers has lived in Camp Verde for 30 years and is about to start his third term as president of the Kiwanis Club of Camp Verde. He is also a founding board member of the Verde Valley Archaeology Center, a former board member and president of the Camp Verde Historical Society and a former journalist and economic development director for the town of Camp Verde.
The parade will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, behind Bashas on Finnie Flat Road.
The town will be hosting a chili cook-off, live music in the ramada and a craft show in the gymnasium. The Camp Verde Arena Association will host the annual Fort Verde Days Rodeo on Oct. 12 and 13.
“I think it’s important for anybody to know the history of the area that they live in,” said Sheila Stubler, the park manager for Fort Verde State Historic Park. “Things do evolve. We know a lot more now than we did back then and it’s important to keep teaching the history so that we don’t make the same mistakes that we made back then.”
Stubler, who has been the park manager for the past 20 years, said that her most memorable Fort Verde Days celebration was the 2017 event, when she was selected as the grand marshal, and was able to celebrate the occasion with her dad, John Stubler, who got to ride a mule named Jenny in the parade.
“Whenever we do these events, everybody pitches in,” Stubler said. “It’s all connected.” She added that without staff, volunteers and the community, the event wouldn’t be possible.
