Durham Parade and Picnic

At ten on a Saturday morning in May, the parade steps off in Durham, a town of about 6,000 six miles south of Chico in Butte County, and roads along the route close for the hour. The 109th edition, on May 9, 2026, began with a community breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and coffee at the Red Rooster Cafe. The theme was “A Creek Runs Through It,” though one of the committee’s own announcements gave it as “A Creek Flows Through It.”

Floats, tractors, and the tanker truck

The procession winds through the historic downtown. It carries floats, vintage cars, horses and riders, tractors, school bands, and youth groups: Little League teams of every age, Cub Scouts, Junior Trojans football players and cheerleaders, and the Durham High School FFA, chartered in 1932. The town’s economy rests on agriculture, and many entries carry farm themes.

In 2023 a Butte County Sheriff’s Office helicopter opened the parade by flying over the route. It drew “ooohs and aaahs,” the Chico Enterprise-Record reported, and raised enough dust to knock hats off the crowd. Along the way, members of the Devil Mountain Brigade stopped to fire shotguns into the air. Dax Kimmelshue, a Durham farmer, drove a 1936 John Deere Model B Industrial tractor, and restored cars sounded their “ooga” horns. Durham High School’s classes of 1963 and 1973 took part for their 60th and 50th reunions. The Durham Elementary kindergarten class came with its teacher, Kasey Hardesty, who was a few weeks from retiring after 36 years.

The Durham Volunteer Fire Department and Butte County Fire bring up the rear with their trucks. In 2023 the temperature was in the 80s by 11 a.m., and firefighter Andy Bidia of Company 45 sprayed dozens of children with jets of water from the tanker. After the 2025 parade, whose theme was “Small Town, Big Dreams,” children talked to an Action News Now reporter. “I rode stick horses with my class and I was really brave -- and for the rest I just watched the big kids,” said one. Another had parades in Germany to compare it to and said riding on the vehicles made this one more fun, “and we got to throw candy!”

Cake walk under the valley oaks

After the parade the crowd moves a mile east of town on the Durham-Dayton Highway to Durham Community Park. It is the town’s oldest park: twenty-four acres shaded by valley oaks, with picnic tables, a playground, basketball courts, a riding arena, two baseball fields, and the Scout Hut. The 2026 picnic ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Local nonprofits sold pizza meal deals, hot dogs, bake-sale treats, and sodas. There was a bounce house, a limbo contest, a petting zoo, corn hole, face painting and temporary tattoos, hit-n-miss engines and tractors, military vehicles, and a Butte County Search and Rescue display. The Durham Community Women’s Club ran a vendor fair. The GFWC Durham Woman’s Club judged its cake decorating contest in four categories: Best Decorated, Most Creative, Best Mother’s Day Cake, and best cake on the parade theme. Winners were announced at the picnic, and the cakes then went into the cake walk.

The park fills again toward evening. The 2026 Home Run Derby of the Durham Recreation & Park District began at 5 p.m. at the youth baseball field. The freshman class sold Otter Pops, the Durham Dolphins handed out glow-in-the-dark goodies to children, and We Cook For You Sweetly sold sweets. Fireworks close the day at dusk. In 2025 the community foundation’s listing put the derby and fireworks at 7 p.m.

Earlier picnics had a different program. In 2010 there were hamburgers, French fries, and strawberry shortcake, along with barnyard bingo, foot races for all ages, karaoke, a horseshoe tournament, a display of Durham’s history, and free swimming at the Durham pool. The California Army Band played a patriotic concert at noon, and the Radical Riders Trick Team performed in the horse arena. In 2007 a silent auction and “burro bingo” paid for two $500 scholarships, awarded to Durham High students Sarah Brianna Ellis and Mary Grzanich.

Marshals in borrowed cars

The parade is led by residents whom the Durham Parade and Picnic Committee names each spring, usually a marshal and a Woman of the Year, chosen by blind vote. They ride in other people’s cars.

In 2023 marshal Steve Plume, an Army veteran who had owned the local auto parts store, rode in Gary Crane’s 1961 Pontiac Catalina. Woman of the Year Sandy Atteberry, a resident since 1972 who led a cleanup of the Midway, Durham’s main north-south road, rode in a 1966 Mustang driven by her son, Tom. Honorary marshal Ken Hodge, who owns Hodge’s Nursery with his wife, Shelly, rode in Dave Oyler’s 1956 Bel-Air convertible.

The rolls go back further. Clinton Goss, grand marshal in 2007, was a fifth-generation resident whose ancestors ran Durham’s first flour mill and the Goss Hotel; Barbara Berger was Woman of the Year that year. In 2010 Vearl Early and Kathryn Hislop led the parade, which was dedicated to the memory of Clarabel Amator as honorary grand marshal. Butte County Supervisor Steve Lambert and Rep. Wally Herger served as judges. The 2025 honorees were Mike Tozier and Brenda McLaughlin. For 2026 the committee named Lyn Tozier Woman of the Year. She has been part of the Durham community for more than 60 years, helped her family build Tozier’s Hardware, and has kept up the parade buttons and flag displays.

Home for Mother’s Day

The parade dates from 1917. June Blasingame helped put on the picnic for many years. In 2011 she told a reporter that it began as a way for children who had moved away from Durham to come home and visit their mothers on Mother’s Day weekend. “It’s always on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, regardless of the date,” she said. That year’s event, the 94th, opened with a pancake breakfast put on by the Grange at Durham Memorial Hall, and about 400 people came to the picnic, by her count. Ruby Camarena, 19, said her favorite part was seeing friends who had moved away and come back for the day. Her friend Lizet Gonzalez liked the antique cars, history set out on the lawn. Lizet’s sister Isabel, 14, played clarinet with the Durham High band in the parade.

Four years earlier, two days before the 90th parade, organizer Karen Read had only two entries signed up and was not concerned. “It’s totally bananas!” she said. “Everybody comes to Durham on parade day and signs up at the school. It’s totally crazy on Saturday morning. I never know what’s going to show up.” By 2026 every entry was registered in advance, with no sign-ups taken on the morning.

On May 20, 2026, the committee thanked the town and posted a letter from its chair, Leigh Langerwerf, on the year’s event, years of service, and the future of the parade, and asked for new volunteers and fresh ideas. “As one chapter closes, another begins,” it read.