STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Richard Fife thought he would interject a little bit of Wood River Valley history that’s not often commemorated into Wednesday’s Days of the Old West Fourth of July Parade.
So he donned the mining outfit that he wore when he worked at the Silver Star Queen Mine and Phi Kappa Mine, right up to the helmet. Then he pulled along a tiny ore wagon full of treats for the kids with a pickaxe.
“My grandfather worked at the Red Elephant Mine out Croy Canyon in the 1940s and my dad is the last of the miners at the Triumph Mine, having worked there from 1946 to 1957. I prepared fuses and hauled timbers for the miners before I joined the Navy, and I made $3 an hour, which was great pay in the 1970s,” he said. “I had all the toys so I decided why not? But I only made it a quarter of the way through the parade before I ran out of loot.”
Thousands of people lined Hailey’s Main Street to watch a parade that featured quite a few surprises, from a Sons o& Daughters of Liberty 1776 fife and drum band to a slew of 1973, 1976 and 1977 vintage VW vans commandeered by Ron Fairfax, Mark Cole and Tere Johnson.
Mark Mary and Greg Clark were among a handful of Power Engineers who constructed a float showcasing the power installations they construct all over the world, including Kathmandu where they’re currently working on a project.
Kea Tanagomboon and Jack Hongan paraded down the street carrying a Thai guitar and a three-foot-long wooden Thai flute.
And Manon Gaudreau cycled along the parade route offering heirloom seeds from the Wood River Seed Trust’s library.
A forest green-colored International Harvester stretch limo dubbed The Mint Mobile advertised the new restaurant and bar set to open in October at the site of Bruce Willis’ The Mint. The establishment will have its first concert on July 15, featuring Eric Lindell, an Americana artist from New Orleans. And it will shuttle partygoers from time to time.
Members of 4-H pedaled bicycles featuring cardboard heads of a cow, unicorn, horse and other animals, alongside a live chicken being pulled through the streets.
“They don’t have to clean up after us!” shouted one rider.