Morgan County License Commissioner Sharon Maxwell served as the Grand Marshall for the Eva Frontier Days Parade.
| Clif Knight

Clif Knight

Hartselle Enquirer

The Town of Eva put its best foot forward as host for the fun-filled 26th Annual Frontier Days festival on Saturday.

A rain shower early in the day did little to dampen the celebratory spirit of the 3,000 to 4,000 people in attendance.  While cloudy skies prevailed throughout, they didn‘t take away from the popularity of a street parade that stretched for more than three miles and lasted 35 minutes.

“What you see today is icing on the cake,” said Mayor Gary Livingston. “Frontier Days stretches out over a whole week with a different event each day. “We had 1,300 people go on a hayride last Tuesday. That’s amazing.”

“The festival is a good, old-fashioned family day that has something fun to do for everyone. They can watch a big parade, check out the antique tractors and cars, shop with the merchandise vendors, enjoy good food and be entertained.

“It’s also an opportunity for us to show off our community, spotlight our businesses,” he added. “People will come from out-of-town and see what we have to offer, and some of them will come back and spend some of their money here.”

The paraded featured a float competition, which had about a dozen entries.  The top three winners received cash prizes of $75, $50 and $25. It also had a variety of other categories, including antique tractors and cars, Frontier Days beauty pageant winners, over 100 Brewer JROTC cadets, two wagons pulled by mules and about 30 riders on horses. Most of the parade units brought candy for kids.

The tractor and car show had over 300 entries combined.

Paul Chambers entered a homemade station wagon he called “The Hardwood.” It was the only one of its kind in the show.

“I got up early this morning and worked on it for two hours to get it ready to show, the Eva resident pointed out. “I’ve been working on it for three years.”