Fort Gibson’s Corn Festival was a lot of fun and a good start toward what should become an annual community tradition, the event chairwoman said.

The festival was the idea of Town Trustee Myra Cookson, who is passionate about seeing the town develop a sports complex.

Proceeds from the Corn Festival will benefit that project.

The festival kicked off last Friday night with a parade led by grand marshal Dick Sheffield, who donated 100 bushels of fresh sweet corn to the event. Sheffield and his son are the largest sweet corn growers in the area, with about 30 acres planted in all.

Cookson came up with the idea of the Corn Festival last year because it is one of the area’s best-known crops and has provided summer jobs for many of the area's youth year after year.

A committee began planning the event last fall, holding a pageant and getting things set up for Friday and Saturday. It was the first time most of them had been involved in such a large-scale event, and none of them planned on 100-degree-plus temperatures for Saturday.

Still, people came, corn was sold and there was a lot of fun, Cookson said.

Among those enjoying the fun Saturday was 8-year-old Nicole Roe, daughter of David and Theresa Roe. She wore a plastic fireman's helmet given to her by Popcorn the Clown after she could give him the “magic number, the number you call when you need help,” Nicole said. She recited it: “9-1-1.”

Several members of the Territorial Marshals provided entertainment throughout the event, while the young sons of one of them watched from a distance, dressed in marshal costumes of their own.

Despite the heat, Taylor Pitman, 10, and Tanner, 8, were dressed in leather chaps and vests, long-sleeved plaid western shirts, blue jeans pulled over their cowboy boots and with handkerchiefs knotted around their necks. They each also wore two toy six-shooters.

They didn't complain of the heat. In fact, Taylor was strictly a yes and no man — he only shook his head to answer most questions.

Both were oblivious to the many vendors who had set up booths up and down the streets to sell wares ranging from silver and turquoise jewelry to a chance to win a piece of bubble gum by tossing bean bags.

But when Fort Gibson High School Principal Gary Sparks climbed atop a seat on the dunk tank, youngsters came from seemingly everywhere for an opportunity to toss a baseball and hopefully knock him in the water.

There was free music throughout the day, provided by musicians whose only pay was the opportunity to appear on the stage, Cookson said.

That added a great deal to the event's bottom line, she said.