Started in 1990, this year’s “Montana Bale Trail” attracted over 6,000 people to the rural communities of Hobson, Utica, and Windham on Sunday. The friendly but often highly competitive contest offered up a feast for passerby’s eyes with 54 hay sculptures in total lining the highway. The official judging is done, but the online judging has just begun! Cast your vote today at MontanaBaleTrail.com.
If you don’t think the online experience will be enough, Liesl Holtz said yesterday that you’ve still got time to do a drive-by.Liesl is part of Friends of the Hobson Library and Museum, the group that helps to organize the event.
Growing since its humble beginnings as a spoof between two neighboring ranchers, the Montana Bale Trail was named Montana’s Tourist Event of the Year in 2003. The Travelocity Gnome has made an appearance as did crews with RFD-TV this year. They’ll be using footage for a December feature on a newly-launched program “Small Town, Big Deal.”
And the winner? With the Northern Ag Network’s own Haylie Shipp as one of the judges, this year’s grand prize went to Clint Carr for his creepy rendition of “Medus-HAY.” The second place winner was “Alien HAY-bduction” by Nate Carr. Third place in the overall voting went to “Torn-HAY-do” by Mike Woods.
© Northern Ag Network 2012
Haylie Shipp
