Lumberjack Day

The day begins at seven in the morning with pancakes at the Veterans’ Memorial Hall on Highway 26, across from the Red Church. For the 2026 festival the breakfast was put on by the American Legion of Glencoe. By the time the plates are cleared, straw bales are stacked at the foot of Main Street and the town is filling up. In 2023 the Calaveras Enterprise counted several thousand people in a place that resident Vicky Roberts put at 470. “It’s our little town and our little parade,” she said. “We like to have company, as long as they don’t move here.”

Lumberjack Day runs until five o’clock, rain or shine, under the West Point Boosters Club. Cars park in lots on Highway 26 across from Ace and behind Dollar General, where the $5 fee goes to the Calaveras High School FFA. A Calaveras Unified School District bus carries visitors down to Main and Pine all day. Dogs are allowed only in designated areas.

Pedal power and straw bales

The soap box derby comes first, at about half past eight. Youths between 7 and 15 build their own cars, according to a 2023 Localish report, and the course starts at the Post Office and runs down Main Street. Leslie Costa, a 23-year resident of Rail Road Flat, described it to the Enterprise that year: “They start from up on that hill and come down. Yeah, so it’s just pedal power.” Brandy Gonzales of Valley Springs came only for the races. “The best part for me was when the kids were getting down to the bottom (of the hill) and running straight into the straw bales, not using their brakes, just going right into the straw bales.” Kevin Downun, who founded the derby, calls it “Our mini NASCAR.” Shelly Timm organizes it.

At nine the rest of the morning opens. The car and motorcycle show lines Main Street. In 2023 Joe Brough of Pioneer took it over and had 30 car entries and about 10 bikes. Frank Von Gunten, also of Pioneer, brought a 1956 Ford F-100 he built from the ground up, along with the 1955 Ford Mainline four-door that his wife, Nancy, drives every day. The two first met at her Uncle Bob’s car show in Oakland. “He was 18 and I was 8,” Nancy said. They began dating about 15 years later.

The flower show opens at the Community Garden by the VFW. Booths open too, among them the Covenant Church Ladies Missionary Pie Booth. In 2023 one food booth served grilled frog legs. For 2026 the schedule placed gold panning on Main Street and the beer and margarita booths on Spink Road, while horses were judged at West Point Elementary. At 9:30 the Lumberjack Day King and Queen, winners of a scholarship contest and also called Mr. and Miss Lumberjack, are announced ahead of the parade.

The parade at eleven

The parade is sanctioned by the California State Horsemen’s Association. It steps off at eleven from the top of Main Street at Highway 26, runs down Main, and turns left on Pine back to the highway. In 2026 it opened with the National Anthem and a color guard, and the co-grand marshals were Rose Queen Alaway and Karen Klith. Entries compete in 51 categories, among them Future Horseman, Ladies’ Side Saddle, Arabian Costume, Logging Industry, Antique Fire Engine, Pet (Animal) Entry, and Novelty or Comic. The Al Duarte Memorial Award goes to the best auto entry.

John Hesketh, owner of Hesketh Automotive in West Point, judges the parade cars before they move. “When they’re lining up, I’m checking them out, getting the trophy in their car before they come down the street,” he told the Enterprise in 2023. “It’s a little hectic. Some people aren’t in the right spot, but we get it done.”

The Localish report lists high school marching bands, local horse clubs, the Witches of West Point, and the Blue Mountain Players Lawn Chair Brigade among the units. In 2025 the Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band marched. “It’s very diverse and you never know what to expect,” said Danielle Bianchi, a local. “It’s always different every year.” Dorrie Klith rides in it. “My favorite part of the day is coming down the hill in the parade and seeing the crowd,” she told the Ledger Dispatch. “It’s absolutely priceless!”

Chainsaws after one o’clock

The children’s area opens at about noon, once the parade has passed, with a bounce house, slide, rock climbing wall, and face painters. Admission was waived for the 50th anniversary in 2025. In 2026 the festival’s Facebook page and website listed $5 wristbands, while the event map called the area free. The West Point 4-H runs a petting zoo and dunk tank as a fundraiser. In 2023 the zoo held Maverick, a miniature horse; two goats named Smalls and Littles; two sheep, Disco and Rocky Road; Leo the rabbit; and two guinea pigs. The fire house serves a tri-tip barbecue. Bands play the Community Garden stage: the Blowbacks in 2025, Triple Threat in 2026.

The logging show begins at one o’clock and is managed by the Klith family. Competitors sign up in the morning at the logging area and bring their own goggles and gloves. Prizes total more than $5,000 across 16 categories. Some events are judged on accuracy: the axe throw, the women’s axe throw, and the business men’s axe throw. Others are judged on time: choker setting, stock and modified saws, the hot rod saw, speed axe, limber pole, double hand bucking, and Jack and Jill bucking. The Calaveras Visitors Bureau says competitors come from across the United States.

Aaron Rasmussen of Tuolumne explained two of the events to the Enterprise in 2023. “We have a long pole everybody has got to climb out on, cut the end off. A lot of balance has to do with that. Then you have your choker setting, (in which) they jump over the logs. They will throw a cable under the log, hook it and then run back for time.” Julia Marsili of the Lumberjack Day Committee waits for this part of the day. “The Klith Family and their volunteers pour their hearts into giving us a fun, high-octane event. When the chainsaws start ripping, I feel like the day has really begun.”

At the same hour, the VFW hosts a horseshoe tournament open to all on the west side of the fire house, toward Cemetery Lane. The Visitors Bureau gives its start as 12:30. Parade awards are also handed out at one, at the BMCYF Community Garden Stage.

Raffle winners are named at three, from the logging show and the Lions Club, and that includes the chainsaw and axe prizes. The day after the 2025 festival, the organizers posted on Facebook asking for whoever had won the chainsaw, because Dorrie Klith still had his warranty and tool kit. Diana Inslee, who has worked on the festival for some 30 years, waits for the late afternoon and her Lions Club Cadillac Margarita. “By then, you know it’s another successful year in the books.” The festival closes officially at five, though the logging show may still be finishing a few competitions.

Frontier Days and a saw shop jubilee

According to the state landmark text on the festival’s heritage page, West Point was named by the scout Kit Carson while he was searching for a pass over the Sierra. The town was a thriving trading post before the gold discovery, and the author Bret Harte lived there for a time. Timber came later. “We thrived on the logging industry for many, many years,” Shelly Timm told Localish.

Lorene Landreth, one of the festival’s founders, told the Ledger Dispatch that before 1974 the West Point merchants held an annual Frontier Days and the local saw shop sponsored a Lumberjack Jubilee. She and a group of West Point School parents created Lumberjack Day the following year, with a small parade, food vendors, and a logging competition. Localish gives the founding year as 1975.

Landreth and Joyce Ballard later formed a nonprofit corporation to run the event. In 2007, at the 33rd Lumberjack Day, the Enterprise reported that the two were parade co-chairs and had been involved since the first one. Inslee spent years building floats with her daughter and friends and saw the festival move onto a website. The 50th was held in 2025. The 51st, on October 3, 2026, took the theme “Celebrating 250 Years of America.” The Visitors Bureau calls it the “Biggest Little Celebration in the Mother Lode.”

“Many years of work, planning, and love of the community have gone into the Lumberjack Day Celebration,” Landreth said in 2025. She told Localish what the parade leaves behind: “A lot of kids won’t remember their times tables, but they will never forget being in the parade.”