There was a time in Iola when Mother’s Day was more than a nice meal and making sure to visit with mom.
An event meant for just plain fun unwound for the first time on Mother’s Day 1969 — the Iola-to-Humboldt Inner Tube Raft Race.
The race was the brainchild of a few young people looking for something different to do. They found it on the Neosho River, and probably didn’t anticipate it would become as big as it did in the few years it lasted.
The only rule was that rafts had to be supported by innertubes, those flexible rubber innards that used to be in every car and truck tire. I know some still are around, but I haven’t seen one in years, other than for bicycles. (An aside, my buddies and I used to slice up inner tubes as ammunition for wooden rubber guns and also used them on slingshots.)
The Sunday afternoon races began below the dam west of Iola, the start signaled by a shotgun blast. The objective for some was to get to Humboldt as quickly as possible — a distance of 12 to 15 miles, depending on the estimator — but most participants were more attuned to playing around and making sure they stayed adequately hydrated. A few racers never got beyond the first bend before their haphazardly constructed rafts fell apart.
In the beginning years, the rafts were as simple as a large inner tube with a couple of paddlers sitting across from each other, or several lashed together. Some had flags — one a girl’s undergarment — fluttering in the breeze.
In succeeding races, raft construction became more sophisticated. John Zahm and Lanny Lind’s resembled a rowboat — tubes tied in tandem. It even had oarlocks. Most crews depended on an enabling current, but the Zahm-Lind raft shot down the river.
The raft race ended about as abruptly as it started when what today is Department of Wildlife and Parks got involved. Participants were ordered to wear life vests and under-aged drinking promised an arrest. The city also declared it a liability.
As with too many things, when government got involved the raft race went to hell in a handbasket.
SUNDAY is Mother’s Day and with the river running high, the Neosho would be more of a challenge than those of yesteryear when for most the goal was to get as much as possible out of a lazy day.
Bringing back the tradition always sounds good for those wanting to relive the past.
Maybe in 2019 we can think about a 50-year reunion.
