Old Settlers' Picnic

The Saturday of Eckley Old Settlers Weekend begins at 6:30 a.m. with a chuck wagon breakfast at the community center. Registration for the Shine and Show vehicle show opens at nine, and the parade steps off at ten. The 2026 theme was “Stars, Stripes and Summer Nights,” with cash prizes of $100, $75 and $50. Street races follow the parade, run in front of the Eckley Fire Hall, and at noon the firemen serve a free barbecue.

The Eckley Volunteer Fire Department runs the weekend with the town each Labor Day weekend. The 2026 celebration was the 137th. The Wray Museum, announcing it, gave the date as September 5.

Mowers, mud and cow pies

The afternoon of the 2026 program belonged to machines and mud. The Lawn Mower Gymkhana returned at 1 p.m., with mowers running barrel racing, flag race, key hole, turn-n-burn and pole bending. Classes ran from children up to 13 through adults, modified machines and off-road mowers. The John Owens Memorial Horseshoe Pitch started the same hour.

The Yuma Pioneer counted mud volleyball and Giant Can Pong among the fire department’s new additions that year. In mid-August the department posted that it was “getting water in the mud volleyball courts.” The tournament began at 2 p.m. Teams were co-ed with at least three women, there was room for sixteen of them, and first place paid $700. Giant Can Pong was played by two-person teams on the community center basketball courts. Players aged 14 to 20 competed for a trophy and adults for cash.

Water slides opened at 2 p.m. under adult supervision, and Cow Pie Bingo came at four. The day closed with fireworks at dusk, weather permitting. On Sunday morning riders met at the fire hall for the 26th annual John & Allison Turvey Memorial Poker Run, which was open to any bike or vehicle.

Neighbors donated items for a silent auction, and visitors dropped money in a boot. Both supported the fire department. After the 2026 weekend the department thanked the volunteers who “put in countless hours to bring Eckley Old settlers back to what we love and remember,” and signed off, “Cheers 🍻 to the 137th Eckley Old Settlers Weekend.”

For years the voice over the parade, the children’s games and the department’s fundraisers belonged to Tim Stulp, a Yuma auctioneer, who died in 2023.

The turtle races end

One event was missing in 2026: the Orton Weaver Memorial Turtle Race. In March 2026 Colorado Parks and Wildlife adopted regulations, effective May 1, that bar anyone from collecting and keeping wild ornate box turtles, a native species, without passing an online course and buying a license, and then only for private use. In July the fire department announced that the long-standing races would no longer be held. “We understand this is a huge disappointment for many folks,” the department wrote, “and we share in your frustration.”

A pavilion at John Eckman’s

The oldest account on file is a letter signed “L. M. R.” Yuma County’s genealogy page lists it under 1893 and credits it to the Holyoke State Herald of August 1895. It describes the fifth anniversary of the old settlers’ picnic, held “just over the line in Yuma county, some twenty miles southwest of Holyoke,” at the home of John Eckman.

People began arriving by nine o’clock. By noon, the writer estimated, between three and four hundred had come from Phillips and Yuma counties. Families spread the contents of their boxes and baskets on two rows of tables running the length of a 14-by-75-foot pavilion, and “the luckless, basketless stranger within the gates was invited to share.” The hosts dealt out great boilers of hot coffee and gallons of ice cream, and a baseball game kept the young people busy nearby.

There was talk of hard times, but the writer saw no sign of it in the well-dressed crowd. After dinner came speeches by Prof. Timberlake, Quitman Brown, P. B. Reynolds, Henry Holder and Mrs. Timberlake. All of them, the letter says, encouraged listeners “to stay by the county and hope for brighter days to come.” A local choir sang between the speeches, and a solo by Mrs. Meloy was singled out.

Ball games under the cottonwoods

On September 3, 1898, the Wray Rattler reported that a large crowd had come to Eckley from Yuma, Wray and Robb and the country around them. Dinner was spread on the lawn by the section house, where large cottonwoods gave shade from the August sun. The seats were built from lumber furnished by D. A. Clark.

In the afternoon John Spiers, president of the Old Settlers’ Association, chaired the election of officers. J.P. Speirs was chosen president. Vice presidents were named for each precinct:

• Laird: B.D. Prentice
• Wray: J.A. Kimber
• Eckley: N.B. Meek
• Yuma: G.W. Dabney
• Magee: Mrs. McNichols

J.W. Cloyd was elected treasurer and J.A. Conley secretary. Speeches followed from Speirs, G.W. Dobler, E.L. Sechrist, M.W. Haver and Kimber.

The Rattler counted baseball among the chief attractions of the day. Yuma beat Wray about 16 to 1 in the morning game, and Eckley and Yuma played to a tie in the afternoon. The county page adds that the Yuma Pioneer had a different score.

Notices from later years show the same kind of day. An 1899 notice offered good meals for 25 cents at the Eckley section house on September 1. Another promised “Free gum at the Old Settlers’ picnic, August 26, furnished by George Haver,” for the girls.

A report filed under 1918 on the county page guessed that year’s picnic “must have been the 28th or 30th.” It noted that many who had attended the first picnic were at the latest one, and that, “as usual with Eckley, universal open-house was kept and everyone made welcome.”