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172
SUN CONSTRUCTION
C ali forn ia’s Olde st Ne w spaper
nd
Volume 172 • Issue 70 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
– E s t. 18 51
Mountain Democrat photos by Odin Rasco
Mountain Democrat photos by Isaac Streeter
Melanie Hellam with Latrobe Outlanders 4-H sold her Supreme Champion Pen of 3 Rabbits for $700 during the Junior Livestock Auction at the El Dorado County Fair Saturday.
Hudson Eymann crashes his wheelbarrow in the 79th running of the John M. Studebaker Wheelbarrow Races Saturday night at the El Dorado County Fair. Eymann had an early lead before the crash but fell behind and was disqualified after losing too much ore.
Junior Livestock Auction sees
Crashes and dashes community generosity Odin Rasco Staff writer
H
opeful buyers sat in a packed pavilion, poised to purchase pounds of pork, poultry and more as the 2023 Junior Livestock Auction at the El Dorado County Fair kicked off 10 a.m. Saturday. The exhibitors — members of 4-H clubs, Granges, Future Farmers of America and occasionally independent programs, took the stage one by one with the animals they spent close to a year raising and finally saw the reward for their hard work as bidding battles commenced. Turkeys, hogs, steers, chickens, goats, lambs and rabbits all made appearances at the auction, sometimes setting off flurries of bids that surged past the market price by
orders of magnitude. For many sellers the money was a welcome reward for a job well done (and, likely, reimbursement for themselves and their parents for everything that went into raising the livestock for the better part of a year); for others, the sales went deeper than just spending money. As the auction kicked into full swing, Jace Gordon was recovering from injuries sustained in a car crash the week prior that had reportedly seen the Camino Go-Getters 4-H club member life-flighted for treatment. After the auctioneer shared Jace’s story with the crowd buyers dug deep and bid their way into a three-way split of the hog at a whopping $50 per n See JR. Livestock, page A7
— try to keep your shoes on for the wheelbarrow races
Isaac Streeter Staff writer
N
early 90 participants pushed, pulled and even carried wheelbarrows full of sand or “ore” around an obstacle course created on the Placerville Speedway quarter-mile with a pool of $4,200 up for grabs across eight divisions. Saturday night saw the 79th annual John M. Studebaker Wheelbarrow Races test strength, agility and speed — an El Dorado County Fair tradition. The evening got off to a hot start with the youngest attendees racing for bags of candy before the youngest official racers took to the track. The crowd’s energy carried through all the
way to the main events. After narrowly missing out on first place in 2022’s event, Ruth Thornton was on a warpath in the Women’s Championship. She handily won the race, taking home the $1,000 prize while seemingly never breaking a sweat. The Women’s Championship also produced the event’s Most Inspirational award winner — Hannah Alexander. Alexander gutted out the course to a chorus of cheers from the crowd despite losing her shoes to Deep Creek, a mud pit just before the finish line. The final division of the evening, n See wheelbarrow races, page A6
Women’s Championship Race winners Josie Rothman, Ruth Thornton and Rashell Veerkamp-Hawkinson, from left, celebrate after weighing in with their load of ore. Rothman placed second, Thornton handily took first place and VeerkampHawkinson took third.
Shane Heywood, a Union Mine FFA member, took the purple ribbon at the 2023 El Dorado County Fair for his cow that was named Supreme Champion Market Steer. The cow weighed in at 1,300 pounds.
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