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Fish and Festivals . . .

by Bob "Doggie" Henderson

   Some of you have asked how the Mermaid Festival in North Webster, IN, got its name. After doing some research, here is the story.

Fish and Festivals

Conservation and Contests

June 19, 1968

   These contrasting themes have blended since 1946 to create that spectacle of tradition called the Mermaid Festival. In order to get the lake business started as soon as the legal open fishing season began, Haakon Larsen and a group around North Webster decided to try to have a Mermaid Festival.

   Ordinary village citizens will soon become ringmasters for a carnival week of activities which will be climaxed by a monster festival parade Saturday afternoon, June 29. This week-long party has long since outgrown the skill, ability and just plain man and woman power of the North Webster community. Help shows up from the most unexpected sources. Everybody likes to watch a parade, and there are a few rare ones who are willing to "RUN" one. It is not easy to corral thousands of high spirited people into prearranged staging areas, and almost whip them with their cars, floats, instruments and animals into the line of the parade at the proper moment. The feathers that are ruffled during the preparation and start are usually smoothed by the cheers and applause of thousands of friendly, sympathetic, happy fans filled with carnival spirit. It’s fun for many local residents to look back at those first crude, stumbling efforts to make the festival a fun place.

   The handful of Queen Contestants stood on a flatbed farm wagon, borrowed from Bob Strombeck, and parked on a corner of the school yard. Amateur shows soon followed and a company offered to bring rides and shows for a percentage. Farm tractor pull contests kept the town awake late at night. Many brought shovels to dig for buried treasure in a plot on the school grounds. Lots of township taxpayers and parents were not so happy about having the school yard used thus. The crowds grew so big on parade day that merchants complained that they could not do normal business at the very time the most people were in town. Townspeople were wary of the "carnies" and there was always a little talk about gypsies. Indiana did not like road 13 being closed. Church groups had large food tents and when it rained the food handlers were barefoot. There were power lines and extension cords everywhere. It was really about like RESURRECTION CITY only more fun. An early attraction was a tug of war across a channel.

   As the parades and crowds grew it became a problem to get the kids peeled out of their thick wool band uniforms after many had fainted from heat and excitement. The first aid station was busiest on hot days. Some veteran Lion workers even got weary of lifting beautiful girls in long formals out of convertibles. It was becoming clear that more automation would be required. Every four years it is easy to get candidates for governor, except when a senatorial hopeful supersedes him, to crown the queen and ride in the parade.

June 12, 1970

   In 1946, the first Mermaid Festival was held and every year since that time serious workers have considered whether it was time to stop all this foolishness that so disrupts the tempo of the small resort village of North Webster. After recovering from the hectic and busy week the community decides that it would be logical to conduct "just one more" festival. So the people from Webster and the surrounding Lakeland area still volunteer to do the hard work, and the crowds still assume that "there will always be a festival."

This article was found in a book written by Kip Sullivan (a local resident, now deceased) and published in January 1977. The title of the book is "North Webster, From Boydston’s Mill To Camelot Square."

Submitted by Bob "Doggie" Henderson '53

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