STILWELL — At 3 p.m. Saturday, Lee Ann Loudermilk and her daughter Callie found themselves in the one of the best spots in Adair County.

In past years, they had to wait in line with hundreds of others for free strawberries and ice cream at the Stilwell Strawberry Festival. At Stilwell’s 60th annual Strawberry Festival Saturday, the Loudermilks managed to be second in line.

“I just happened to walking by at the right time when it started,” Loudermilk said.

Good thing, too. Festival officials estimated more than 30,000 people filled downtown Stilwell to celebrate the annual harvest of the tangy-sweet, freckle-faced fruit. The three-day festival ended Saturday with a parade, prizes, auction, gospel and country music, as well as the big strawberry feed.

The Stilwell Kiwanis Club began the Strawberry Festival in May 1948 to promote the strawberries being grown in the area, said Stilwell Kiwanis President Larry Adair.

“Farmers had been growing strawberries here since the 1930s and ‘40s,” Adair said. “The area gets lots of rainfall and lots of sunshine.”

However, those who grow strawberries say they know Stilwell’s secret.

“Its the flint ridges in the earth,” said Harold Brannon, whose family has grown fruit in this area since before the festival started. He wears his pride on the strawberry prints that dot his shirt and his festival cap.

Brannon said the flint and gravel allows the soil to drain.

The Brannon name has popped up often among past festival winners. Harold Brannon recalled winning the junior division in 1957, the same year his father, Carlo Brannon, won the senior division.

“One year, I was the only one to enter a crate of strawberries,” he said. “I just happened to have mine ready to harvest in time that year.”

Strawberries aren’t the only thing that keeps people coming to the Stilwell festival. For many, it’s a homecoming.

Festival volunteer DaLana Hudgins said the festival has gotten a lot bigger and busier than when she was crowned Festival Queen in 1976.

“We have a carnival out here, arts and crafts, an all-school reunion, a five-kilometer run, a lot more activities now,” she said.

However, she said, the festival is a good way to show small-town pride.