UPDATE!

As my good friend said many years ago, just when you think you understand the situation, what you don't understand is that the situation just changed. Mother Nature has stepped in with strong winds from the Southeast, changing later to Northwest. There will be gusts over 30 knots with waves from 4 to 7 feet. This has prevented the combatant boats from leaving their harbors.

However, we are undaunted! We will now have a land battle! It will occur at Eames Farm, which is private property, so we can go back to the original plan of using real eggs. The two teams will face each other, and upon the signal, we will have our egg storm after all. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the large order of eggs because of the Department of Natural Resources decision, but I have secured 500 eggs which will still be quite a show.

Two rival boatloads of usually sane citizens of Egg Harbor, Wisconsin (US) will pelt each other with thousands of fresh eggs on October 2, re-enacting the great Egg War of 1825, which gave their small town (present population 256) its name.

Mrs Elizabeth Baird, a young passsenger in one of the boats involved in the 1825 fracas, wrote in her journal that the battle began when men in a six-boat trading flotilla began throwing hardtack at each other while approaching a spot of land, until they ran out of ammunition.

A little later, she saw eggs flying in the air, some of which struck her head. The leader tried to stop the battle, but the fun was "too fierce to be readily given up." When they camped on that spot of land, she wrote that a storm was brewing - another egg storm! The great egg battle ended only for want of ammunition, and the men "laughed until exhausted."

Next morning, the shore was strewn with eggshells. Speeches were delivered, and the spot was formally christened Egg Harbor.

Fast forward to 2004. A few months ago, a great idea came to George Bisbee, of Eames Farm, an Egg Harbor residential community offering single family condominium residences, featuring four orchards and a nature preserve.

"One morning I woke up and said, ŒWell, we had this egg fight here, let's celebrate our heritage,'˛ he told Paul Brinkmann, a reporter from the local newspaper, the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

"The idea has already energized local merchants and plans are pretty solid," Brinkmann reported. "He hopes the re-enactment will become a regular thing, putting Egg Harbor on the map.

"Bisbee said he wants to use 3,000 eggs to honor that history, but the state Department of Natural Resources might have a different idea, according to warden Mike Neal.

"Neal already gave his blessing to an egg battle, as long as Bisbee promised to clean up. But Neal said Friday he didnšt realize Bisbee is now advertising 3,000 eggs will be used. 'Wešll have to talk about the number of eggs,' Neal said. Either way, Bisbee said the event should be fun to watch."

After reading Brinkmann's story on the Press-Gazette's website, we emailed George Bisbee, seeking more details. "The eggs for the re-enactment and the Long Egg Throw are being furnished by the Wisconsin Egg Producers Association," he replied. "The president of the Association operates a chicken farm that has two million hens laying eggs on a daily basis."

For media interviews and site visits, please contact Kathy Mand Beck at (920) 868-3987 or email kathy@dovetailgallery.com.

LINKS
Egg Harbor (facts and map)
Dovetail Gallery & Studio