Forks Old Fashioned 4th of July Celebration

On the Friday evening before the Fourth, Forks Avenue closes to traffic between Calawah Way and Bogachiel Way. At six o’clock the street party called Moonlight Madness opens with a reading of the Declaration of Independence. In 2026 that Friday was July 3. After the reading the Richwine Road Band played from the street in front of the Rainforest Arts Center, where the band seating stood. The beer garden held the intersection at Division Street, and a car smash held the intersection at A Street. Vendors filled the pavement between them, and there was a mustache competition. Entry was free, and the street stayed open to the crowd until ten.

Moonlight Madness is the second evening of what the organizers’ own page calls “the big blast that kicks off the summer in the West End.” The 2026 celebration ran July 2 through 5. It began Thursday at five with the Miss Patriotic Pageant at Tillicum Park. The annual Frog Jump followed there at six, and at the same hour a cribbage tournament sat down at Forks Congregational Church on Spartan Avenue. Friday’s daytime events marked America’s 250th with a morning community scavenger hunt and an exhibit titled “Moments That Made Us,” and the Forks Library held a free chess tournament that afternoon. Through the weekend the Rainforest Arts Center, at 35 N. Forks Avenue, hung a free Arts, Crafts and Photography Show, and Forks-area nonprofits sold from booths in Tillicum Park.

Log trucks on Forks Avenue

Saturday, July 4, begins with the Elks’ annual breakfast, served from seven to ten at the Elks Lodge on Merchant Road. At eight the mayor and crew from U.S. Coast Guard Station Quillayute River raise the garrison flag at Tillicum Park. The West End Kruzers make a pre-parade cruise at 11:30. At 11:45 the Kiddies Parade, sponsored by Forks Emblem Club #488, sets out from the Peninsula College parking lot, and the Grand Parade follows at noon from the Forks Outfitters lot.

The entry form for the Grand Parade lists what comes down the avenue: commercial, noncommercial and festival floats; musical and marching units; comedy; single riders and groups on horseback; cars and trucks sorted by age, from 1939 and before to 1980 and after; municipal vehicles; and log trucks and wood-products trucks. For the trucks the judges keep three marks: best load, biggest load, and best-looking truck. Entrants supply the names and years of their vehicles, their color schemes, and the time spent building, and the announcer reads it out as each entry passes. Horse units bring a cleanup crew at the tail. Candy may not be thrown. Walkers carry it along the route and hand it to people on the sidelines. The committee that runs the parade is chaired in 2026 by Christi Baron.

Salmon, wrecks and fireworks at Tillicum Park

From one to four on Saturday the Forks Lions Club serves its salmon bake in the Ben Dome at Tillicum Park. Plates were $20 in 2026, $10 for children 12 and under, cash or check. The gates to the demolition derby open at one, and the cars meet in the Tillicum Park arena at three. Tickets were $10, cash only and not refundable, with children two and under free. A stroller needs its own ticket, and wagons, animals, pop-up canopies and coolers stay outside. In the days before the Fourth, derby tickets, printed schedules and Fourth of July buttons were sold at the West End Youth League fireworks stand on South Forks Avenue. Fireworks go up over the park at dusk. The town’s museums and the visitor center close for the day.

Sunday is for games. Horseshoe pitchers sign up at 8:30 and start at nine. A Fourth of July fun run sets out on Rayonier Road, and at ten the 6th annual “Paddle Battle in Forks” pickleball tourney begins, sponsored by West End Thunder. The Lions Club runs a Kiddies Play Day from noon to two, and a sacks tournament closes the program at four.

Home brew at first base

In June 2018 someone asked Baron, then editor of the Forks Forum, “Why is it called the Forks Old Fashioned 4th of July?” She answered in a column built from the paper’s archives and a few Facebook messages.

Before the turn of the century, she wrote, the few people living on the Forks prairie held a dance for Independence Day. Settlers came “out of the woods—literally” from all around the prairie and from as far as Port Crescent. “There was always music, food and a flag. It was old-fashioned because it was the olden days, but the celebration had no official name.” In the early 1900s the Forks Fourth took in the communities of Mora and La Push, with canoe races and a parade on the river, horse races, and a picnic at Forks. Baseball games came later.

At one of those games, in 1928, a batch of home brew was strategically placed at first base. “Since this was smack dab in the middle of prohibition one must assume it was used for medicinal purposes such as sore muscles,” Baron wrote. “After a lot of medication the outfield could no longer catch the ball and the batters, if they did make a hit, had a hard time making it to first base.”

In 1939 some business people and the American Legion put together the first organized celebration. It was a one-day event with baseball, a parade, motorcycle climbs at Fern Hill, children’s games, boxing and a dance. During the war years it shrank to children’s races and a dance. Townspeople were told that fireworks sales were banned, and the events took patriotic names such as the “War Bond Athletic Carnaval” and the “War Bond Independence Day Dance.”

After the war the celebration grew again. “Bob Rosmond, who was from Oakville, was instrumental in bringing the modern day 4th after the war,” Bruce Thomas told Baron. “I am not sure how many years the 4th was celebrated in Oakville.” Thomas also described how hard his father, Russ Thomas, worked on it. The 1950s added a logging show and a horse competition, along with a queen contest, a barrel float, a beard-growing contest and a “catch ‘em and keep ‘em” greased pig contest, and the parade and fireworks were enlarged. In 1965 the Fourth stretched to three days. A demolition derby and a tourist of the day were added, the barrel float came back, and a ticket could win a new Ford pickup.

A banner across Highway 101

The name came in 1968. That year’s chairman was Gordon Otos, a newcomer to town who owned the radio station. A large banner was hung across Highway 101: “Welcome to Forks Old Fashioned 4th of July.” Baron concluded that 1968 was the first year the term was “officially” used and that Otos was a likely person to have coined it.

Some of the old program is gone: the greased pig, the beard contest, the logging show, and the Hangar Dance at the Quillayute Airbase. Of that dance Baron wrote, “The statute of limitations has probably expired on things that happened there.” She also recalled the Bicentennial street riot and the year law enforcement chose the tourist of the day and found that person had an outstanding warrant for their arrest. The Associated Press reported the riot on July 5, 1976. A clash between local loggers and a motorcycle club grew into a brawl of about 200 people, and firefighters turned hoses on “the angry group.” Four people were arrested, two more were sought, and the town canceled the annual Fourth of July dance.

Horseshoes, cribbage and Moonlight Madness came later. In 2010 Moonlight Madness was a shopping promotion downtown that ran from seven to eleven. That year’s president, Mark Soderlind, told the Peninsula Daily News, “Nearly everywhere we’ve taken [the Old Fashioned Fourth] float, we’ve won first place.” He added, “It is still a lot of work, but now there are things that are sweet along with the sour.” In place of town royalty, the 2010 float carried Chuck Archer, a World War II veteran who raised his family in Forks. “He was a ball-turret gunner,” Soderlind said. “That is one nasty job.”

Older residents may remember when the parade ran the opposite direction and ended at the school grounds. Baron noted that the weather also has its part in the Forks Fourth: “Everyone knows summer starts July 5.”