Lumberjack shows 'Channel the Flannel'

IRONWOOD - Wood chips and sawdust were flying Friday outside Jacquart Fabric Products' Stormy Kromer facility as lumberjacks competed in various races as part of a "Channel the Flannel" Summer Bash.

Lumberjacks Logan Alden and Charlie Fenton, with the Hayward-based Timberworks Lumberjack Show, competed in a series of challenges - including ax throwing, a springboard chop, speed climbing and log rolling.

Emcee Dave Weatherhead divided the audience into "camps," giving them a lumberjack to root for in each of the three shows held Friday, and providing a running commentary throughout the competitions.

Weatherhead said he enjoyed putting on shows in Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula and other places which have logging traditions.

"They get it up here," he told the Daily Globe after the show, joking it wasn't quite the same performing in places like the California-Arizona border, where the tallest trees were maybe waist-high.

Weatherhead said he purchased the traveling portion of the Scheer's Lumberjack Shows based in Hayward and Woodruff eight years ago, forming the Timberworks Lumberjack traveling show.

He said they have 15 performers and can send out three separate shows at a time, and regularly travel across the lower 48 states. Things slow down in the winter months, but they do perform at indoor sport shows.

Along with Friday's lumberjack show, the Summer Bash also featured a chainsaw carver, food and games.

The event built off the success of the company's grand opening last year, Stormy Kromer President Gina Jacquart Thorsen said.

"Last year, we had a grand opening event because we remodeled the store and expanded it," Thorsen said. "Tons of people came out, so we kind of thought, 'We need to have something every summer.' So we had the idea to kind of tie-in flannel, and lumberjacks and Stormy Kromer; that's how it came about."

She said she was pleased with how the event was going.

"It's been great. People started showing up nice and early this morning, around 9 a.m.," Thorsen said. "We were standing room only for the first lumberjack show, and it's been steady ever since."

She said while the theme may change, the summer bashes will likely become an annual event for the company.

"It will probably be different every year, but (there'll be) some kind of summer celebration," Thorsen said.