A festival that was started to highlight conservation later became mired in controversy and allegations of animal cruelty. The annual Turkey Trot Festival in Yellville began in November 1946 when the local American Legion post held a National Turkey Calling Contest and Turkey Trot to highlight the dwindling population of wild turkeys in the Ozarks.
Live turkeys would be dropped from the Marion County Courthouse roof and festival goers who could catch them could keep them for Thanksgiving Dinner. Two years later a local pilot dropped turkeys from an airplane, a practice that continued until an article in the National Enquirer, calling the practice “sick” and “bizarre,” led to national outrage. Backlash led to several years without the airplane drops, but the practice began again in 2015.
Three years later the local chamber of commerce announced it could no longer sponsor the festival; a Rotary Club took over, provided no turkeys were dropped from planes. The festival continues today.
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You can read the entire Encyclopedia entry at Turkey Trot Festival - Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
